INTESTINAL PARASITES, BACTERIAL DYSBIOSIS, AND LEAKY GUT

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INTESTINAL PARASITES, BACTERIAL DYSBIOSIS, AND LEAKY GUT

EXCERPTS FROM POWER HEALING (RANDOM HOUSE, 1998)

BY LEO GALLAND, M.D.

 

The human intestine maintains within its inner cavity a complex,

crowded environment of food remnants and microbial organisms

(called " the intestinal flora " ) from which the body derives

nourishment and against which the body must be protected. The

relationship between the human host and her army of microbes is

described by the Greek word, symbiosis, which means " living

together " . When symbiosis benefits both parties, it is called

mutualism. When symbiosis becomes harmful, it is called dysbiosis.

The first line of protection against dysbiosis and intestinal

toxicity is strict control of intestinal permeability, the ability

of

the gut to allow some substances to pass through its walls while

denying access to others. The healthy gut selectively absorbs

nutrients and seals out those components of the normal internal

milieu which are most likely to cause harm, except for a small

sampling which it uses to educate and strengthen its mechanisms of

immunity and detoxification.

 

Bacteria form the largest segment of the intestinal flora. The

number

of bacteria in the large bowel (about a hundred trillion) exceeds

the

number of cells in the human body. Intestinal bacteria perform some

useful functions, so that our relationship with them is normally one

of mutual benefit. They synthesize half a dozen vitamins,

supplementing those which are obtained from food. They convert

dietary fibre--that part of food which humans cannot digest--into

small fatty acids which nourish the cells of the large intestine.

They degrade dietary toxins like methyl mercury making them less

harmful to the body. They crowd out pathogenic bacteria like

Salmonella, decreasing the risk of food poisoning. They stimulate

the

development of a vigorous immune response. Four-fifths of the body's

immune system is located in the lining of the small intestine.

 

Bacteria are dangerous tenants, however, so that dysbiosis is a

common problem. As powerful chemical factories, bacteria not only

make vitamins and destroy toxins, but also destroy vitamins and make

toxins. Bacterial enzymes can inactivate human digestive enzymes and

convert human bile or components of food into chemicals which

promote

the development of cancer. Some by-products of bacterial enzyme

activity, like ammonia, hinder normal brain function. When absorbed

into the body, they must be removed by the liver. People whose

livers

fail this task, because of conditions like cirrhosis, develop

progressive neurologic dysfunction resulting in coma and death. For

them, the administration of antibiotics which slow the production of

nerve toxins by intestinal bacteria can be life saving.

 

The immune reactions provoked by normal intestinal bacteria may be

harmful rather than helpful. Inflammatory diseases of the bowel,

including ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease (ileitis), and

several types of arthritis have been linked to aberrant immune

responses provoked by intestinal bacteria. Two types of aberrancy

have been described. First, intestinal bacteria contain proteins

which look to the immune system very much like human proteins; they

confuse the immune system and may fool the body into attacking

itself. Second, fragments of dead bacteria may leak into the wall of

the intestine or into the blood stream due to a breakdown in the

mechanisms which regulate intestinal permeability. Circulating

through the body, bacterial debris is deposited in tissues such as

joints, provoking an attack on those tissues by an immune system

trying to remove the foreign material.

 

Bacterial colonies in the human intestine co-exist with colonies of

yeasts, which are no less dangerous, just far fewer in number.

Bacterial colonization prevents yeasts from expanding their niche.

Frequent or prolonged use of antibiotics decimates bacterial

colonies, removing the natural brake on yeast growth. The most

obvious effects of yeast overgrowth are local infections, like

vaginitis, produced when yeast invade and disrupt cells which line

the body's surface. Intestinal yeast infections can cause chronic

diarrhea, although most gastroenterologists fail to recognize this.

Yeast can also provoke allergic reactions, precipitating asthma,

hives, psoriasis or abdominal pain. The occurrence of allergic

symptoms or the aggravation of a pre-existing allergy which follows

the use of antibiotics should always prompt an investigation into

yeast overgrowth as a potential trigger. Neglect of this factor by

allergists has left countless patients trapped in a spiral of

increasing allergic reactivity, augmented each time antibiotics are

prescribed.

 

In addition to bacteria and yeast, most of the world's four billion

people are also colonized by intestinal parasites. Contrary to

popular belief, parasitic infection is not unusual in the U.S.

population. It is a common ocurrence, even among those who have

never

left the country.

 

Unlike bacteria, parasites appear to serve no useful function. The

part of the immune system which they stimulate does not strengthen

the organism to resist serious infection; instead it contributes to

allergic reactions, so that parasitic infection increases allergic

tendencies. There are two general groups of parasites. The first

consists of worms--tapeworms and roundworms--which attach themselves

to the lining of the small intestine, causing internal bleeding and

loss of nutrients. People infested with worms may have no symptoms

or

may slowly become anemic. The second category is the protozoa, one-

celled organisms like the amoeba which caused John Gerard's colitis.

The first protozoa were discovered over three hundred years ago by

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, the most famous of the early microscopists.

When the inquisitive Dutchman set about to examine everything in the

world that would fit under the lens of a microscope, he found

organisms in his own stool that closely match the description later

given to Giardia lamblia.

 

Giardia is the major cause of day-care diarrhea. Twenty to thirty

per

cent of workers in day care centers harbor Giardia. Most have no

symptoms; they are merely carriers. A study at Johns Hopkins medical

school a few years ago demonstrated antibodies against Giardia in

twenty per cent of randomly chosen blood samples from patients in

the

hospital. This means that at least twenty per cent of these patients

had been infected with Giardia at some time in their lives and had

mounted an immune response against the parasite.

 

In 1990 I presented a paper before the American College of

Gastroenterology which demonstrated Giardia infection in about half

of a group of two hundred patients with chronic diarrhea,

constipation, abdominal pain and bloating. Most of these patients

had

been told they had irritable bowel syndrome, which is commonly

referred to as " nervous stomach " . I reached two conclusions from

this

study: (1) Parasitic infection is a common event among patients with

chronic gastrointestinal symptoms. (2) Many people are given a

diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome without a thorough evaluation.

My presentation was reported by numerous magazines and newspapers,

including the New York Times. My office was flooded with hundreds of

phone calls from people who were suffering with chronic

gastrointestinal complaints. Most of them had been given a diagnosis

of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) by their physicians. The standard

treatment for this syndrome had not helped them. All they had

received was a label. Many had been told there was no cure. In

evaluating these patients, I found that the majority had intestinal

parasites, food intolerance or a lack of healthy intestinal

bacteria.

These conditions were not mutually exclusive. Many patients had more

than one reason for chronic gastrointestinal problems. Treating

these

abnormalities as they occurred in various patients produced

remarkably good therapeutic results. A year later, researchers in

the

Department of Family Medicine at Baylor University in Houston

reported findings similar to mine.

 

Giardia contaminates streams and lakes throughout North America and

has caused epidemics of diarrheal disease in several small cities by

contaminating their drinking water. One epidemic, in Placerville,

California, was followed by an epidemic of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome,

which swept through the town's residents at the time of the Giardia

epidemic. Possibly, this epidemic was due to failure of some people

to eradicate the parasite. In 1991, my colleagues and I published a

study of 96 patients with chronic fatigue and demonstrated active

Giardia infection in 46 per cent.

 

Sometimes, the intestinal damage produced by giardiasis persists for

months after the parasite has been successfully treated. The

impairment of digestion and absorption which results from this

damage

may cause fatigue and other symptoms.

 

When I first began presenting the results of my clinical research on

parasitic infection, in the mid-1980's, my reports were met with

considerable skepticism. The present decade has witnessed an

increased awareness of parasitic infection as a common public health

problem in the United States, thanks largely to Cryptosporidium,

which recently achieved notoriety for contaminating Milwaukee's

water

supply, causing the largest epidemic of diarrhea in U.S. history,

infecting 400,000 people and causing over one hundred deaths. Most

municipal water supplies in the U.S. today are home to protozoa like

Giardia and Cryptosporidium and one in five Americans drinks water

that violates federal health standards. Every year, almost a million

North Americans become sick from water-borne diseases; about one per

cent die. Further epidemics are inevitable. A recent epidemic

occurred in Clark County, Nevada, despite state-of-the-art municipal

water treatment.

 

How protozoa make people sick is not clear. Some directly invade the

lining of the intestine, others provoke an allergic reaction that

causes the damage. It appears certain that humans coexist quite

readily with their parasites as long as the barrier formed by the

intestinal lining remains fully intact, so that the parasites cannot

attach to the wall of the bowel. Millions of people throughout the

world are carriers of E. histolytica; the organism can be found in

stool samples but it does not seem to make them ill. The variability

of pathogenic potential recalls Pasteur's challenge to the French

Academy: do the causes of disease lie within the microbe or do they

lie within the host? When the attachment of a parasite initiates a

series of injuries to the intestinal wall that increase its

permeability, it generates a cascade of reactions that can shatter a

person's health in many different ways. Excessive permeability

permits excess absorption of antigens and microbial fragments from

the gut, over-stimulating the immune response, fostering allergy and

auto-immunity.

 

Excess permeability also allows excessive absorption of toxins

derived from the chemical activity of intestinal bacteria, stressing

the liver. All materials absorbed from the intestine must pass

through the liver before entering the body's general circulation.

Here, in the cells of the liver, toxic chemicals are destroyed or

else prepared for excretion out of the body. The cost of

detoxification is high; free radicals are generated and the liver's

stores of anti-oxidants are depleted. The liver may be damaged by

the

products of its own attempts at detoxification. Damage may extend to

the pancreas. Free radicals are excreted into bile; this " toxic "

bile

flows into the small intestine and can ascend into the ducts which

carry pancreatic juices, damaging the pancreas, aggravating

malnutrition.

 

The symptoms produced by excessive intestinal permeability may be

limited to the abdomen or may involve the entire body. They may

include fatigue and malaise, joint and muscle pain, headache and

skin

eruptions. The clinical disorders associated with increased

intestinal permeability include any inflammation of the large or

small intestine (colitis and enteritis), chronic arthritis , skin

conditions like acne, eczema, hives or psoriasis, migraine

headaches,

chronic fatigue, deficient pancreatic function and AIDS . In most

cases, it is incorrect to think of excessive permeability as the

cause of these disorders. Instead, excess permeability occurs as

part

of the chain of events which causes disease and aggravates existing

symptoms or produces new ones.

 

 

 

This article is provided for general educational purposes only and

is

not intended to constitute (i) medical advice or counseling, (ii)

the

practice of medicine or the provision of health care diagnosis or

treatment, (iii) the creation of a physician--patient relationship,

or (iv) an endorsement, recommendation or sponsorship of any third

party product or service by the sender or the sender's affiliates,

agents, employees, or service providers. If you have or suspect that

you have a medical problem, contact your doctor promptly.

 

©2007 Renaissance Workshops Ltd.

 

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