Puzzle Piece #2, Thyroids & Intestinal Health

 "All disease begins in the gut." -Hippocrates

It's been so long since I last posted and there have been so many holidays in-between, that I'm not sure what I've posted last. Nonetheless, I will post as if I have never ever posted on this topic before, one because I honestly can't remember and two because some people might only read this little post.

So, the formal thesis (Ha! As if I really have such a thing...) of this post is that your health (and thyroid function) and the state of your intestinal tract are intertwined. I like to think all of our body's functions are intertwined, but most M.D.s don't seem to think so. I digress.

I recently started taking lots of pro-biotics, a pro-biotic yeast, and just eating really, really well because of this idea. It makes sense that after years of perhaps unnecessary antibiotics, a poor diet (I like sugar...and certain fast food), and then major abdominal surgery (with lots MORE antibiotics, yay!) my gut wouldn't be in the best shape.

The Chris Kessler dude has a good post on this that was worth reading. He says that "Poor gut health can suppress thyroid function and trigger Hashimoto’s disease, and low thyroid function can lead to an inflamed and leaky gut..." Something that was surprising to me is that a large part of our gut's function is as part of our immune system, not just to process food. "This portion of the immune system is collectively referred to as GALT, or gut-associated lymphoid tissue. The GALT comprises several types of lymphoid tissues that store immune cells, such as T & B lymphocytes, that carry out attacks and produce antibodies against antigens, molecules recognized by the immune system as potential threats."

He goes on to explain that gut bacteria plays a role in helping us convert thyroid hormone from T4 to T3. !

The Women to Women site also has info on this same topic. They write that bacteria in our gut "help us to digest food, aid nutrient absorption, produce certain key vitamins, prevent disease, and much, much more." And when we don't have healthy gut bacteria (when it's been depleted or when the bad bugs outweigh the good ones, for example) it can cause "gas, bloating, cramps, headaches, joint problems and more." This can happen "after a particularly stressful period in life, an illness, as a consequence of prescription meds, or even by way of a junk-food or drinking habit."

The rest of this page is about how to improve gut health (eat well, take some pro-biotics). I guess it's important because poor gut health can affect your whole body and lead to (or at least complicate) all sorts of problems. I think even autoimmune ones, which most docs will tell you are just confounding.

This link is an excerpt from a Scientific American interview with a guy who studies these types of things. "The more we looked into it, the more we realized that microbes were so intimately involved in animal metabolic processes that they might have contributions to disease development in ways that hadn't really been thought of before. We're really just starting to expand this now, thinking about how gut microbes influence all sorts of things. They have influences on liver diseases and gut pathology like Crohn's disease and irritable bowel syndrome; there's even evidence that autistic children have very, very different gut microflora [than other children]. Almost every sort of disease has a gut–bug connection somewhere. It's quite remarkable."

What?! Crohn's Disease? Irritable Bowel Syndrome? See, what you put in your face and the condition of your guts is totally important.

Here's the abstract from a study done in 2003: "The human gut is the natural habitat for a large and dynamic bacterial community...the relevance and effect of resident bacteria on a host's physiology and pathology has been well documented. Major functions of the gut microflora include metabolic activities that result in salvage of energy and absorbable nutrients, important trophic effects on intestinal epithelia and on immune structure and function, and protection of the colonised host against invasion by alien microbes. Gut flora might also be an essential factor in certain pathological disorders, including multisystem organ failure, colon cancer, and inflammatory bowel diseases. Nevertheless, bacteria are also useful in promotion of human health. Probiotics and prebiotics are known to have a role in prevention or treatment of some diseases." I added the emphasis.

Another interesting article called "Learning How Gut Bacteria Influence Health: Scientists Crack Sparse Genome of Microbe Linked to Autoimmunity" talks about how certain bacteria can protect your gut from bad bugs but also might start autoimmune processes in our body. Crazy, intricate stuff.

Something else I picked up from this excursion onto the Internet is that when we are born, our guts are sterile and no bacteria has been introduced yet. Do you know where we get our beneficial bacterial colonization? From the first taste of breast milk--that oily, thick stuff called Colostrum. One more reason to breast feed.

Also, now that I've written all this I think I may have touched on gut health before. TOO BAD, here's more information, perhaps some of the very same information. The lovely thing about being my own blogging editor is that I don't mind repeating myself. :)