Gut health: Could this help??

Gut health is a huge topic right now. I feel it’s all I hear about. Maybe it’s just me though, because, admittedly, I’m fairly obsessed with the subject. We have a dog now (succumbed, eventually) and I like to listen to health/lifestyle podcasts during my dog walk where gut health is talked about a lot. The podcasts I particularly like are Dr Chatterjee and Deliciously Ella.

Ella, as in, deliciously, was apparently so seriously ill with a rare disease at university that she became wheelchair bound. She decided to take action and consider what she was eating; she drastically changed her diet and in turn, over time, made herself well again. Totes inspirational. There’s more about this in her book “Deliciously Ella” by Ella Woodward.

For now, Stella seems to be doing really well with her Crohn’s. She’s gaining weight and growing; she’s happy and has an abundance of energy. She does numerous sporting activities in the week: aerial yoga (I had no clue either, turns out it’s excellent for core strength and general well-being), netball, swimming, and football at lunchtimes at school. And she has an actual six-pack. Crohn’s doesn’t appear to be holding her back.

But… I do worry about what the future holds for her. I don’t Google Crohn’s Disease as such, that much, it frankly scares me; I find it really negative, so I just avoid it. What I am very keen to research and find far more positive, however, is gut health; and the latest findings re the impact improving our gut health can have on our overall health. Unfortunately, what I now think is that the v annoying lady off the tely from years ago who was obsessed with poos and what we ate? She was probably right all along, damn her.

Again, no health professional has mentioned gut health to me in relation to Crohn’s. I think there’s a lot of research going on in the background into Crohn’s and gut health, but nothing has been revealed to us as yet. What we’re doing with Stella regarding her gut health is again down to our own research. The more I read about it the more it makes sense why she may have this disease, and that maybe, just maybe, her gut health can be improved so much that her Crohn’s doesn’t ever become too much of an issue? That’s my MASSIVO goal, anyway.

“All disease begins in the gut”

Hippocrates of Kos, the father of modern medicine

I’ve quoted this from my favourite gut health book: The Clever Guts Diet by Dr Michael Mosley.

This book has been a bit of a saving grace for me. As I said before, my husband bought some trying- to- cure Crohn’s book, it wasn’t for me; it was too complicated and overwhelming.

Michael Mosley seems to be equally obsessed with the gut microbiome and its role in health. His research is fascinating so if you are eager to learn more about it, please read his work.

The gut microbiome: my attempt at an explanation.

My basic understanding is this: for years we’ve been led to believe that bacteria is the enemy. We thought all bacteria was bad, didn’t we? We were/are lured into buying antibacterial wipes, antibacterial soaps, sprays, hand gels. We popped antibiotics at the drop of a hat at the first sign of a UTI because we still needed go to work (or maybe that was just me?)

I was also certainly the person relieved when an antibiotic was prescribed to my child who had a bug that didn’t appear to be shifting after a day or two — for fear it would turn into something worse.

Antibiotics are HUGELY necessary a lot of the time and clearly save lives. Thank goodness for them. I’m also not suggesting for one second that you shouldn’t give your child an antibiotic if they’re unwell, or if you have a urinary tract infection; I still do, on both accounts. But, I understand much more now about the seemingly lasting effects that these antibiotics can potentially have on your gut health, after they’ve done their necessary job in killing off the bad bacteria.  

I reckon I was head of the team of the Bacteria Hating Massive. I now wonder what impact this has had on Stella’s gut health and therefore maybe her Crohn’s? Eek. BIG confession. And I might be way off the mark. I really don’t know this, but the more I understand about gut health, the more dots I’m joining. (There’s nothing quite like blaming yourself, is there?) I don’t actually blame myself though. I maybe blame my anxiety, and total ignorance.

From the moment I became pregnant with Stella, I was hooked; I was dead set on keeping this little growing thing well and doing what I thought was the right thing (as most parents do). I worked in a neonatal unit where things had to be sterile; I also nursed very sick babies. To say I was anxious during my pregnancy with Stella, is an understatement. When she was a baby, I kept things as sterile and as clean as they could be with my wipes, sprays, hand gels; for absolute fear that she would contract a nasty bug and become unwell (ironic, eh?).

Stella did also have a UTI when she was about 9 months, so she received (necessary) antibiotics. The first lot didn’t work, so she was given a second lot, a broad spectrum. Stella was born by caesarean section. There’s growing evidence showing the difference the method of delivery can have on a baby’s gut microbiome, with not having the same colonization of Mum’s bacteria. Thankfully, I gave her a ton of skin to skin contact and breastfed her. By the way, I’m not suggesting that all babies born via c section are going to have similar problems. My other daughter was also born by c section, and doesn’t have any gut issues, I don’t think, anyway! You can find much more information about this in Dr Michael Mosley’s book “The Clever Guts Diet” referred to earlier.

The other thing worth mentioning is that I had quite a few courses of antibiotics during my pregnancy with Stella; with my 2nd child, not as many antibiotics, but actually I took probiotics. Could this have made a difference? I’m not sure.

What I didn’t understand was that actually we have TRILLIONS of bacteria living within us. Some good, some bad. Each one playing a role in helping our bodies function. This is my simple understanding of the gut microbiome: the host to the bacteria living inside us. The healthier and more diverse the microbiome, the healthier the person.

So, I reckon that Stella’s gut microbiome is perhaps, eh… not great.  

The caesarean section, the antibiotics, the compulsive Dettol spraying of her changing mat. The missed opportunities to roll around in the dirt and chew at her fingers full of soil (how I wish I could go back in time). Did this, in turn, kill off too much of the good bacteria, as well as the bad? Was it all just too clean? Is this what they mean by the term Dysbiosis: “An imbalance between the types of organism present in a person’s natural microflora, especially that of the gut, thought to contribute to a range of conditions of ill health.” I’ve quoted this dysbiosis meaning directly from Google dictionary.

I’ve obviously no proof that the underlying root cause of Stella’s issues is dysbiosis. This is just what I think. I’m certainly trying not to beat myself up for what happened to her in the early years.  

But, here I am now, on a bit of mission to try to change this dysbiosis for the better. Whether it makes any difference to her future, or absolutely none, at least I feel I’m trying- and I really don’t think it’ll do her any harm. It’s one thing cutting out gluten and dairy from Stella’s diet to hopefully keep inflammation low; the other thing that we’re trying to do is feed her lovely wee gut with PRObiotics, the good bacteria (almost like an antidote to antibiotics) and hopefully shift this dysbiosis = a healthier gut microbiome = a healthier Stella.

How we’re doing this?

Well, we’re:

Aiming to avoid unnecessary antibiotics; I also now steer clear of antibacterial hand gels, soaps, sprays. For kitchen surfaces, I just use a bit of washing up liquid and a cloth. We use a soap, obvs, just not one that’s mega antibacterial. It has zero appeal now! I’m definitely more into general dirt being key here. We live rurally, on an old farm, which is great; the girls get lots of time to play outdoors. I like to think of all this good bacteria from the trillions of organisms from the great outdoors will eventually help? Again, relating back to my husband’s upbringing on the farm: seemingly they frequently played outside, assisted with the animals, then ate sandwiches for lunch outside after simply wiping their hands on the clothes. Sl. gross, but didn’t seem to do them any harm; and might take into account why he and his siblings are rarely ill.  

We eat probiotic foods (my next post goes into more detail about how we do this); as well as taking probiotic supplements. Stella takes one called VSL#3, and another one called Acidophilus Plus, seemingly helpful for nut allergies. I read online somewhere that people with nut allergies are maybe lacking in bacteria called Lactobacillus rhamnosus? This particular probiotic seems to contain it. She’ll have this mixed into her coconut milk every morning. No idea whether it’s making any difference, but if it helps, it’s worth it.

We eat prebiotic rich food. My basic understanding of prebiotics is essentially food ingredients that your body can’t digest, therefore, when you eat these foods they sit in your lower intestine, allowing the probiotics (good bacteria) to feed off. This is apparently necessary for allowing all this good bacteria to thrive and multiply. I’m fairly fascinated by the whole thing. Seemingly, good prebiotic rich foods are: wholegrains, onions, garlics, bananas, leeks, asparagus, chicory root and jerusalem artichokes. (?? Was my initial reaction when I read jerusalem artichokes; they are a nice veggie, nice in soups.)

We aim to eat as big a variety of fruit/vegetables as we can. I’ll quote my other favourite celebrity doctor, Dr Chatterjee, who says this:

“Eating a diverse diet rich in fibre is one of the single best things we can to live a more stress – free life, a diverse diet means a diverse and resilient microbiome. If we increase the variety of vegetables, low glycaemic fruits (such as blueberries and cherries) and fibre – rich foods such as beans and legumes in our diet, we’re increasing the amount of fibre we’re eating. This will encourage the growth of different and happy bugs, sending signals to your brain that everything is good.”

I first heard about ‘eating the rainbow’ from Dr Chatterjee, this means aiming to eat as many colours of fruit and vegetables as you can. Each vegetable apparently has its own phytonutrient, each having its own benefit to our health.

Bone broth is another thing we make fairly regularly to boost gut health. Apparently, it’s been used for years, again, channelling Granny! It’s supposed to be full of collagen, gelatin, calcium and magnesium. We cook a chicken then use the carcass and the bones to make bone broth in our pressure cooker. I’ll then use it as a stock for soups and stews.

We try to have low sugar, ha! Virtually impossible when you have a pair of sugar addict children. It doesn’t do Stella’s gut any favours, therefore we try to save sweets for the weekend, doesn’t exactly always work though. I don’t really know about the evidence re sugar and the microbiome; I read an article online from Hyperbiotics which claim that “When we eat a high sugar diet, the undesirable bacteria thrive and start to grow out of control, while our beneficial bacteria dwindle in number.” Apparently this was backed up by a study on mice.

What I do know is that sugar is highly addictive and if Stella has too much in one sitting, hip pain and loose stools are a given. So, no thanks, sugar.

As I said, and will keep saying, who knows whether all this is making any difference, as a parent though, it’s nice to feel that you might be helping. Seemingly, some people with Crohn’s or IBD struggle to eat high fibre foods, as mentioned in my 4th blog post. I’m so glad that Stella seems to be able to, I think if anything is going to alter her microbiome for the better; a diverse diet, full of fibre, just might.

Please note, I’m not a speaking here as a health professional; I’m simply a parent trying to do what I can do to help our situation. Thank you.