Alzheimer’s and the Microbiome Part 4-Healing
The thought of healing an unhealthy microbiome (dysbiosis) and accompanying leaky gut and leaky blood-brain barrier to prevent Alzheimer’s disease and other health issues can be overwhelming. But it all really boils down to strengthening and maintaining the pillars of health. Many experts say these pillars are limited to three: sleep, exercise and diet. I, however, believe two more must be added.
Complete health makes the home
Managing stress and eliminating or avoiding as many toxins as possible are two more very important pillars. But I disagree with calling them pillars. Think of the five instead as a house and diet the foundation. Eliminating toxins, keeping stress in check and exercise make up the frame, windows/doors and walls, while sleep tops everything off as the roof. All of these play a necessary role in the house as a whole, but the frame, windows/doors, walls and roof would not be able to stand without the foundation.
The roof also would never stand without the full structure below it. You can align everything in your world for the perfect sleeping environment, but poor diet, stress and/or inadequate exercise will spoil a good night’s sleep every time. I will report more on sleep, stress management and avoiding toxins in the future.
I also won’t go into too much detail on exercise as I’ve already written extensively about it, and everyone knows how important it is to an overall healthy lifestyle. Did you know, however, it actually helps to nurture and fortify the microbiome? Leo Galland, MD, in Dr. David Perlmutter’s “Alzheimer’s: The Science of Prevention” docuseries says numerous studies have demonstrated the link between cardiorespiratory fitness and gut microbiomes.
“You take people who are controlled for all other variables, those with the highest level of cardiorespiratory fitness have the healthiest microbiomes,” he says. “And aerobic exercise has a positive impact on the gut microbiome and encourages the growth of bacteria that produce substances that not only enhance exercise performance, but also nourish the lining of the gut.”
Diet, diet, diet
A person’s diet really is the foundation of his or her health. Even if people optimize every other part of the house, if they live on high grain/refined sugar and neglect their vegetables and healthy fats and proteins, everything eventually will crumble. Therefore, my first step in dealing with my own dysbiosis is taking a closer look at what I eat every day.
Before digging deeper into my own issues, however, let me first say for anyone who has any diagnosed conditions possibly linked to dysbiosis, such as autoimmune diseases, diabetes, fatty liver disease and many others, (the vast majority of chronic diseases and common conditions can be linked back in someway to the gut) or anyone taking medications should only begin his or her gut-healing journey under the guidance of a health-care professional, if possible a functional medicine doctor.
Functional medicine doctors’ core practice usually centers on healing the gut first and going from there. They look at the big picture, which they call the matrix — the whole body and how everything interconnects. General practitioners and even specialists, with all due respect, sometimes tend to look at their patients with polite bemusement when their patients mention gut health, especially as a treatment of disease. Happily, however, the tides are beginning to shift and more and more general practitioners are learning about the importance of gut health and its role in preventing and treating disease.
For those of you who are like me, with only some consistent mild to moderate gas, bloating, water retention and other digestive upset, or if you have cognitive disturbances, such as depression and anxiety and you’re not medicated for them, you might just be able to nip things in the bud without professional help. Some lifestyle changes and supplementation may be all you need to turn things around. These things also may be nipped if you are medicated for them, just do so under a doctor’s watchful eye.
The foundation begins to crumble
Words cannot express how frustrating it can be when you turn your entire diet and life around, lose 65 pounds, feel amazing and believe you’re doing everything right and then boom! Digestive distress inexplicably sets in, and you suddenly find yourself spending the better part of the year with terrible bloating (we’re talking a belly that looks to be 4-5 months pregnant by the end of every day) gas, stomach upset, weight gain, water retention and ankle and finger swelling, loss of appetite and on and off mild constipation.
Yep, that sums up my 2019. And for the most part I have never experienced any of this before. Prior to last March, I basically had zero digestive issues, a very flat stomach and overall felt incredibly healthy. Then somehow it all went haywire. Clearly something was very wrong.
At first I thought my hormones had to be the culprit because its onset coincided with my experimenting with progesterone therapy. I definitely experienced a negative hormone roller-coaster ride and new I had to stop that train wreck. The mood swings and a bit of the weight disappeared when I stopped the hormones, but the digestive issues continued. Now what? How in the world was this happening when I follow such a strict diet?
Then everything kicked into high gear after my Thanksgiving splurge day, which involved way too much sugar and grain. Typically I feel a bit crappy after a splurge day but quickly bounce back once I get back into my routine. But this time the bloating worsened, and I became very sick to my stomach. I could hardly eat for the next several days to a week, and every time I did, I became nauseated and extremely bloated and swollen all over again. This is how I entered the Christmas season: wanting to enjoy another splurge day but afraid to eat anything because of the miserable consequences.
“Clean”
Fate, however, stayed by my side and introduced me to “Alzheimer’s the Science of Prevention” and Sarah Otto’s “The Gut Solution.” These docuseries in just a few weeks’ time taught me more about gut and microbiome health than I had learned in my entire life.
My troubles as far as I can tell boil down to a few possible causes: small intestine bacterial or fungal overgrowth (SIBO/SIFO), an intolerance to one or more food or a parasite infection (please, God, don’t let it be a parasite!) or a combination of the three. So now what? Do I spend a lot of money I don’t have on a functional medicine doctor to get all the appropriate testing or do I start eliminating foods to see if anything improves. Neither sounded appealing.
I vented my problems to my sister, Jo, a few weeks before Christmas, and she, as she has so many times before, presented me with a solution. She said I need to do a cleanse/elimination diet. I’ve heard her talk of this before and never remotely desired to give it a try. She assured me, however, it would be very doable since I already closely follow the diet as it is. I agreed, and she surprised me on Christmas day with the book “Clean” by Alejandro Junger, creator of the Clean Program, a 21-day diet that detoxifies the body and resets the gut to a healthy function. I highly recommend this book.
Starting the year off right
I decided I would begin the Clean Program this past Monday — Dec. 30 — and kick off the first day with a 24-hour fast. Regular fasting is an integral part of a healthy diet, and I have stuck to the daily intermittent fasting recommended by Dr. Dale Bredesen in “The End of Alzheimer’s.” Perlmutter in his book, “Brain Grain” recommends trying 24-, 48- and even 72-hour fasts up to four times a year, but the thought of that always sounded awful.
This time, however, my gut instinct was telling me to give it a try. I’ve said before that listening to your instincts and what your body tells you trumps anything you read in a book or what your doctor says. So now my instinct was urging me to give it a try. I just had this very strong feeling that I needed to do this as a sort of reboot for my gut.
My intent was to go all of Monday without food. (I decided to allow myself my usual morning glass of water with fresh-squeezed lemon and then herbal tea, but I did not sweeten the tea.) I planned to not break my fast until Tuesday Morning, if all went well. Things did not go that well. By later Monday afternoon/evening, I was really feeling terrible. I wasn’t feeling “hangry” in which lack of food makes a person irritable, nor was I really craving any specific foods. Instead, as the afternoon wore on, I became increasingly exhausted, muddled, weak and unable to concentrate. Working second shift, I really struggled to do my job. My body needed energy.
Then it dawned on me: My fast actually began at 8 p.m. Sunday night! If I could hang on another few hours, I could eat then and still complete a 24-hour fast! I debated back and forth as to whether I should try to stick it out until Tuesday, but then my coworker, right at 8 p.m. and thankfully not before, brought in some Kentucky Fried Chicken. The smell broke me. I had to eat.
I didn’t pack my dinner, so all I had to eat were toasted walnuts, which I keep in my desk as a snack, and some fresh vegetables from a tray a coworker had brought in to share. Those were the most delicious walnuts I’ve ever had. They and the small plate of veggies hit the spot and easily tied me over until morning. My fast was complete.
I won’t say I’ll never try an extended fast again. Until the hunger began to really sap my energy, I was feeling better than I had in a very long time. I went a full day without any bloating, swelling or gastric upset. I felt like myself again, and it was glorious. The next time I try a 24-hour fast, however, I will not do it on a work day, and I definitely won’t do it the day after an 11-mile hike. I think both of those played large roles in my struggle — especially the hike.
Settling into the Clean Program
Tuesday dawned with the start of the cleanse diet. Jo was right; I have very few sacrifices on my part since I already don’t eat gluten/grain, have almost no added sugar and limit dairy to occasional cheese and butter. All these things are 100 percent off limits on the diet. Also off limits and a bit more difficult for me to eliminate are red meat and eggs. The only meat Junger allows are organic chicken and turkey and wild-caught small fish, such as salmon and sardines.
Learning oranges, strawberries and nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, potatoes) also had to be nixed surprised me. But the realization my beloved dark chocolate would have to go due to its having added sugar really upset me. I allow myself a few squares every day as a treat, and I was not at all pleased with the notion of going 21 days without it. Still, I told myself I would survive and enjoy it all the more when I could have it again. To view a full list of the diet’s haves and have nots, you can visit Junger’s site at cleanprogram.com/pages/what-to-eat.
A small amount of bloating and stomach upset returned on Tuesday when I started eating again and this has continued all week, but nothing like what was happening before my fast. Also I had lost three and a half pounds when I stepped on the scale Tuesday morning and haven’t gained it back. I’m actually seven and a half pounds down total since Dec. 27! I’m only just under a week into the cleanse and so far so good! I am feeling better and my bloating/puffiness has gone down quite a bit.
My next posts will follow with my cleanse journey. I plan to take the diet beyond the 21 days and into my next menstrual cycle to see if it helps with the cramps and inflammation I get every month. I also will visit my doctor if this diet isn’t 100 percent successful to see what she says. I’m very excited for the coming month and look forward to sharing the journey with you! Here’s to a new year and a much healthier gut microbiome!