How to optimize your gut and brain bacteria

今日は腸内だけでなく脳内にも細菌がいるという記事を見ていきましょう。(English) Let's look at today's article that there are bacteria in the brain and the gut.

How to optimise your gut and brain bacteria

//Summary - Level B2//

Research on the gut microbiome has revealed the importance of diverse gut bacteria in promoting longevity and slowing ageing. The same bacteria found in the gut also populate the microbiome in the brain. Eating vegetables, taking fibre and prebiotics, and practising intermittent fasting can promote healthy heart and brain bacteria. Not eating can make a type of gut bacteria called Akkermansia muciniphila stronger and healthier, which may prevent obesity and improve metabolic health. This discovery could lead to new strategies for combating obesity and related diseases.

The importance of the microbiome has come to the fore in the last five years. Viome, a company that analysed the faeces of 100,000 people, discovered 10,000 new types of gut bacteria.

What's more, improved imaging technology has led scientists to discover that you don't just have one microbiome; you have two. The second is in your brain, populated by the same bacteria in your gut.

Simple habits can promote healthy gut and brain bacteria, which can help you live longer and age more slowly. For example, eat vegetables primarily, take fibre and prebiotics, and practice intermittent fasting, says Dave Asprey.

A)

1)

One of the things that have come out in the last five years is the importance of the microbiome.

And the functional medicine crowd has been discussing this for over 20 years, and we haven't had good data.

But today, one company has more than 100,000 people's poop.

And what they've done is they've gone through it and sequenced it.

2)

And I don't just mean high-level genetic stuff that's been around for a while.

They're using technology that a national laboratory invented to detect biological warfare.

That means they're looking at viruses, fungi, bacteria, parasites and the percentage of human DNA - how much intestinal shedding you have - in a straightforward test.

3)

And this company, Viome, has added 10,000 new species to our database of bacteria living in the gut that we didn't know about before.

So it's the golden age of discovering what's going on in the gut. And we have found some shocking things.

B)

4)

We also have better imaging than ever before. So people have started to look inside living cells, and we can see this level of detail you can't get with an electron microscope.

And they found something that completely defies understanding. There are bacteria in the brains of perfectly healthy people.

5)

There is a microbiome in your brain. How weird is that?

And we thought we knew all about the blood-brain barrier.

There's a lot of BS in the blood-brain barrier story. And it turns out that these are the same bacteria that live in the gut.

So these things are part of us. And that means that if you eat foods that disrupt your gut bacteria - you don't eat enough fibre, or you eat industrially raised meat with antibiotics in it - you're probably not going to live as long.

6)

People who age well and live very long have a much greater diversity of gut bacteria.

There are more species. And as we age, you can predict someone's age within a few years just by looking at their gut bacteria populations.

Older adults have a lousy poo. Can I say that? So how do we fix it? Well, it turns out that what you eat matters.

C)

7)

When I started writing Super Human, I did the Viome test and quantified that I have 48 bacteria in my gut.

And one of the problems is that I travel about 150 days a year, and it's hard to get enough vegetables when you're travelling.

8)

You can get vegetables at home. But you go to a restaurant and say I want a plate of vegetables, and they bring three spears of asparagus.

And then you say, I'll give you $1,000 for a plate of vegetables, and you get six spears of asparagus.

They don't understand what a plate of vegetables looks like.

9)

And the people who live a long time eat a plate of vegetables with a moderate to a small amount of grass-fed or wild-caught protein and lots of healthy, unadulterated fats.

That's the recipe. You can't buy it. So I put together a prebiotic. And a prebiotic is a set of things that good gut bacteria eat.

10)

It turns out that prebiotics influence what's going on in your gut more than probiotics.

And both can be useful. For example, while writing Super Human, I increased the number of species in my gut from 48 to 196.

And that is a very healthy, diverse population. And all I had to do was add a couple of scoops of probiotics to my Bulletproof coffee every morning.

D)

11)

It's not that hard to do. You can also eat a variety of spices and herbs, and vegetables. So there are all sorts of things.

I do that too.

But even when I did that, I wasn't hitting the numbers I wanted.

On the flip side, there is a type of bacteria responsible for keeping your gut lining intact called Akkermansia.

We didn't know much about this; we just thought, this is the stuff that eats the mucus that lines your gut.

12)

And yes, you have mucus in your gut.

It doesn't sound beautiful, but it's way more attractive than having your food soak through your gut lining into your blood and cause inflammation everywhere, which happens when you don't have healthy Akkermansia.

This stuff's job is to eat the mucus and then refresh it.

It's a significant part of keeping your barriers intact so that you can extract the energy and nutrients from your food without taking a biological hit from what you ate.

That means you've got to eat the right stuff.

But how do you make this bacteria stronger and healthier?

13)

It's pretty amazing: You do it by not eating.

And the people who live a long time practice fasting.

When I weighed 300 pounds, I ate six meals a day.

I was sure that if I didn't eat all the time, my body would go into starvation mode, and I'd put on even more fat as if there was room for more fat in my skin.

And it turns out that's not how it works.

Today, there's something called intermittent fasting - that's been a core part of the Bulletproof lifestyle and the Bulletproof diet.

14)

You skip breakfast and eat what you'll eat for a whole day in a six- or eight-hour window.

So you have lunch and dinner.

And it's not particularly painful to do that, even though it sounds like, my goodness, am I eating enough fat?

It's perfect to go.

But that window where there's nothing in your stomach makes the excellent gut bacteria sort of wake up and say; I guess I should refresh the lining of the stomach.

It gives you a chance to run some repair systems.

But if you're always full of food - you have your midnight snack, you eat before bed, and you eat every little while - your gut doesn't get to go through the regular cycles a soul should go through.

15)

So more prebiotics, and don't eat sometimes.

Today, as you'll read about in the book, I often, once a week, once every couple of weeks, won't eat for 24 hours.

And instead of feeling, oh, this is like running a marathon, it's terrible, because I have metabolic flexibility, well, I get that because I eat enough fat and don't always have carbohydrates.

And that means 24 hours without food, no big deal.

I didn't have any food this morning.

I probably will eat lunch, but I might not have time and won't notice that I don't do lunch.

//Comments//

i)

I'm 70 years old. I started fasting 36 hours per week in March 2021. At about 20 hours in, I got an annoying headache. Since March 2022, I have fasted 18 hours daily, so I eat in 6 hours, although this can be as little as 4 hours. It took a couple of weeks to get into it, but I find it easy now. I used to have an ache in my lower back, which I put down to old age and sitting too much; it's gone. I had a pain in my side, which my doctor thought was bile duct blockage; it's gone without medical intervention. I feel so much better mentally and physically and find it so easy. I don't feel hungry. Try it. You won't want to live any other way when you feel this good.

ii)

I had many digestive problems, especially after eating/drinking dairy products. It also causes skin problems. So naturally, I thought I was lactose intolerant. My mom suggested fermenting milk on my own with kefir grains. So So, I started to create my kefir at home. I have been drinking it for a year now, and I also eat the grains sometimes (they multiply pretty fast anyway). My digestion has never been better, but what's even better is that now I can consume dairy products without any problems again! I believe that the kefir somehow repopulated my guts with the bacteria that can help me digest what I couldn't before. Fermented foods/drinks are suitable for your guts!

iii)

The most extended fast I've done was a little over three days. This is because I felt so clear-headed sharp, and light the first two days. I started to get a little tired on day 3. But the gut reset thing does have unique benefits. A person should fast one weekend a month, but finding the discipline to do so can be challenging.

iv)

Last year I thought that intermittent fasting was just another fade. Until I started doing it, I only ate one large meal daily for about six months. My weight isn't fluctuating anymore, no more bloating and constipation; I have tons of energy, sleep better, and no longer have food cravings. There are no downsides to my (somewhat) ketogenic diet and fasting. It's truly liberating.

v)

I always had some intuition that fasting was like a rest and repair mode for my body. I just noticed my inflation would come way down daily if I didn't eat till 1-2 PM in the day, and my gut felt way healthier, and it's great to know that my intuition was correct and this is a legitimate mechanism. Again, listening to the body is the key.

How to optimise your gut and brain bacteria | Dave Asprey | Big Think 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_6ZfxPVFYM