The mysterious Bilophila wadsworthia -A gut bug with monstrous potential to damage health of excessive meat eaters!

Many of us associate bacteria with negative things as most pathogens causing a host of diseases belong to this group of microorganisms. But it is not a correct perception because there are many species friendly to man doing many things to support our health. Human microbiome which involves bacteria that thrive in and on human beings have received focused attention only recently and whatever has been unfolded is both exciting and scary. Exciting because it opens up avenues for maneuvering them for greater benefits and disease amelioration in humans. Scary because inappropriate food consumption habits and reckless diet can ruin them inviting disaster in the long run. The early recognition about the importance of dietary fiber was due to the role these fibers play inside the gut in providing a great service in avoiding many diseases including CVD, diabetes and obesity. 

Dietary fiber which is considered a "glamorous" ingredient in human diet is undigested by the metabolic system in human intestine and therefore not considered a nutrient in the true sense. But their role in promoting the growth of microbiota in intestine is universally recognized because many bacteria residing in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract are beneficial for improved health in many ways. Imagine how crowded is our intestine when it is found that more than 500 species of bacteria have settled down there with a 100 trillion cell count, almost 10 times more than human cells! As it is a question of co-existence between man and his intestinal crowd, latter must also receive appropriate foods in sufficient quantities to nourish and prosper. Since all food ingredients except fiber is digested by the powerful digesting enzymes in the GI tract, gut microbes depend largely on fiber, semi digested and undigested food that slip into the large intestine. Hence the importance of dietary fiber in human system.  

According to one of the recent studies changes in the diet can change the gut profile of bacteria within a matter of 2-3 days causing some damage to the well being of a person while in the long term such changes can be significantly injurious to the health. The major difference in the diets of carnivores, omnivores and herbivores can be attributed to the fiber content in the food they eat. While carnivores depend mostly on animal foods containing practically no fiber, omnivores take a mixed diet containing animal and plant foods. It is the herbivores who consume mostly plant based foods and materials like whole food grains and fruits and vegetables are rich in fiber, both soluble as well as insoluble types which are now being eulogized for their health supporting role in human lives. Microbiota works on these fiber components when they reach the large intestine and act on them to generate a host of metabolites including acetates, propionates and butyrates, short chain fatty acids which are implicated in many beneficiary action supporting good health.  

We are presently on the threshold of a major discovery about the importance the foods we eat and how such decisions can bring about dramatic changes in the microbiota in the GI. It is becoming increasingly clear that these tiny creatures have lot to do in influencing our body weight, immunity and behavior. Interest on studying the links between diet and the human microbiome appears to be growing. In a more recent study scientists tested the effect of two extreme diets, one overwhelmingly based on meat and cheese while the other one based on plant based food and it became apparent that the bacteria in the gut showed contrasting changes within 2-3 days. Microbes that belonging to the Bilophila species started to dominate the guts of the carnivores and this species can influence the inflammation level dramatically in the intestine. Earlier another study last year had confirmed that blooms of Bilophila in the gut can cause cause inflammation and colitis in experiments with animals. However no data is available regarding the levels of inflammation caused in the above study. 

Bilophila wadsworthia, the most conspicuous from this species is an anaerobic, gram negative, rod shaped bacteria which is present to the extent of 0.01% in the gut microbiota of a normal person. This appears to have the ability to ferment under appropriate conditions substrates like bile, mostly from the meat and similar animal derived foods and produce hydrogen sulphide prolifically. They are slow to grow unless very favorable conditions are obtained and adhere to human cells waiting for an opportune time to bloom. Increased numbers of this microbe have been found in clinical samples of persons affected by diseases like sepsis, liver abscesses, cholecystitis, empyema, osteomyelitis, etc. Gut disorders like Intestinal Bowl Syndrome (IBS) and Crohn's disease are also suspected to be associated with this microorganism. With such abundance of insight into this unique bacteria further studies are bound to be undertaken for expanding our present knowledge about the role played by gut bacteria in human health.

This Blog does not wish to deprecate those consuming meat but only wants to caution them regarding excessive eating and probably suggesting that they need to balance their diet by including more and more and more fiber rich foods like whole food grains, fruits, and vegetables. Same applies to vegetarian consumers with tendency to gorge on cheese and paneer who have to exercise some moderation on these tasty foods. As further studies are bound to follow a clear picture will emerge only when there is a unanimity on the findings and conclusions presented in this Blog piece. 

V.H.POTTY

http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

  

FRIENDLY BACTERIA IN HUMAN BEINGS-THE KEY TO GOOD HEALTH

The role of microorganisms in maintaining health and preventing diseases in human beings is well known. Most diseases known to man are caused by microbes like mold, bacteria and virus and hundreds of medicines have been evolved over the last one century to deal with them. One often wonders how the ancestors of to day's population managed to keep the diseases at bay before the advent of supha drugs and antibiotics. Of course the mortality during olden days has been much more than what it is to day. Knowledge gained regarding the beneficial effects of some species of microorganisms gave rise to a whole new sector of industry that peddled pro biotics and pre biotics to amass a fortune during the last two decades, though how effective these commercially designed products are, still remains a matter of speculation. Rejection of many of the health claims by this industry in Europe by the regulatory agencies forcing them to withdraw most of the extravagant claims on the labels, shows the uncertainties associated with health foods based on microorganisms. This situation is compounded by incomplete and unproven scientific data relating to the association and interaction between microbes and human beings.

There are thousands of studies and publications highlighting the beneficial effects of many bacterial species, most studies being confined to in vitro and in animals. The Human Microbiome which is the sum of all the microbes that inhabit human body has been found to be an important factor in determining the relative health status of each individual. It was in 2007 that an earnest effort was made through the Human Microbiome Project under the aegis of the National Institute of Health at Bethesda, USA to study and map out the genetic make up of more than 10000 species of microorganisms present in different parts of human body and the knowledge already generated presents an amazing picture about the role played by these tiny creatures in maintaining optimum health in humans. More revealingly it was brought out that harmful bacteria of which people are too much concerned with, live in perfect harmony with their host and in co-existence with the beneficial organisms with no dangers posed to people who are healthy and have normal immune functions. Interestingly all the microbes that colonize human body, trillions in number, outnumber human cells 10 to 1 reflecting their inevitable role in shaping the health of mankind.  Microbiome makes up almost 1-3% of human body mass, highlighting their crucial importance.

So far more attention has been focused on gut microorganisms which play a crucial role in helping digestion of food, strengthening and fighting many dangerous pathogens every day. But the human microbiome is spread all over the body, being present in every nook and corner playing a positive role in protecting the humans from a variety of diseases. Interestingly different body sites are colonized by different communities of microbes, differing from each other substantially in terms of their biological activity. For example the microbial colony living in the forehead area carries a significantly different signature compared to the one that inhabit on the feet. Thus the microbiome that thrive on skin, nose, mouth, elbow, lower intestine etc vary enormously . Generally healthy people carry low levels of harmful bacteria and their population is controlled by friendly organisms present in overwhelming numbers. Also true is the fact that friendly organisms like L.reuteri secretes antibiotic like substances with devastating effect on many pathogens and there may be many such organisms which if present in substantial numbers can confer immunity against many pathogens. This qualitative information however does not answer the million dollar question as to how and why the small colonies of disease causing bacteria become destructive to the host. Probably the study using purified DNA samples from human beings and the microbiome and mapping out the sequences by DNA by the sequencing machines may eventually evolve reliable methodology to monitor genetic signals present only in bacteria to detect diseases instead of the time consuming culturing of suspected pathogens.

The study has already identified more than 10000 microbial species that inhabit human Eco-system and almost 81-99% of all genera of microbes are present in people of American continent. Considering that skin is the main barrier between the body and the out side world, maximum diversity was observed in the microbial make up on the skin surface. Similarly dramatic differences have been observed in the profile of gut microbes among American and people in other countries like Malawi, Venezuela etc while there were marked differences between microbes in adults and children. Development of human microbiome in different parts of the body from infancy to adulthood is determined by many factors like environment, food habits and community living. Interestingly it is a startling revelation that most of the genes that influence human metabolism are in microbiome and not in human genome. While human genome has only about 22000 genes for encoding proteins, human microbiome has about 8 million unique genes that encode different proteins.

According to the researchers, more than 200 in number working on the project, human beings will not be able to fully digest the food they eat or utilize vital food nutrients from these foods but for the bacterial colonies that inhabit the the gut region. It is already known that gut bacteria produce many vitamins and anti-inflammatory substances that prevent precipitation of many ailments. Generation of crucial medium chain fatty acids in the small intestine is suspected to be responsible for preventing many disorders in humans. It has been further observed that during illnesses lot of antibiotics are taken through the oral route and this results in considerable destruction of native beneficial organisms while killing the pathogens and once the equilibrium is disturbed, it takes quite some time for the population to grow back to the original density but the make up of the species changes markedly with its attended consequences. Sensitivity to antibiotics can vary enormously and some species are destroyed more extensively while others survive to varying extent. One of the reasons that antibiotics are not recommended often is this irreversible change in gut microorganism profile after recovering from the illness.  Post illness treatment with freeze dried and encapsulated lactic acid bacteria cannot restore completely the gut microbiome to its original state.

There are two critical questions that concern the dynamics of human microbiome. Extensive use of chemical sanitizing agents and personal hygienic products churned out by the industry  could have debilitating effect on the nature and type of microorganisms that thrive in those using them regularly and this may be one of the reasons why Americans are more vulnerable to infectious GI related disorders, having continuously depleted the colonies of friendly microbes. No wonder that unexplained fevers in kids below 3 years of age, now commonly encountered through out the world, were attributed to proliferation of more species of virus in the nasal region as well as in the blood. Similarly increased use of antibiotics by the people and consumption of antibiotic treated meat products invariably can lead to progressive emergence of virulent pathogens not amenable to known antibiotics. It is a fact that more than 80% of the antibiotics produced in the US is consumed by the meat industry and one can imagine the impact of such a skewed practice on human health there.

In a hilarious report an American commentator, despairing about the low immunity of his fellow citizens declared that American foods "can do with a little dirt" so that they are slowly immunized back to the desired extent. It is presumed that local
foods, farmers market foods, urban garden raised produce and others that do not involve extensive application of chemical inputs and not ferried from across the world are much more preferable than the current industrial foods undergoing severe cleaning and sanitizing by the handlers at different stages. Massive transport of fresh as well as frozen foods, both vulnerable to cross contamination during their long journey and subsequent storage for long periods are considered the root cause of the present day food poisoning episodes encountered so frequently. Emergence of Frankenstein bacteria with massive kill potential, not treatable by existing array of drugs is an indicator of the disaster waiting to confront human race in coming years, all avoidable if natural way of living is restored relying on natural resources without tampering.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com