Folks complement B nutritional vitamins for quite a lot of causes: to stop vitamin B12 deficiency, forestall delivery defects (B9 or folate), encourage hair development (B7 or biotin), scale back blood ranges of homocysteine (B6, B9, B12, typically B2), amongst different results. And there’s no query that addition of B nutritional vitamins can certainly obtain particular well being advantages. Supplementation of vitamin B9 (folate, folic acid) by pregnant females, for example, reduces the incidence of spina bifida in newborns, whereas supplementation of nicotinamide (a type of vitamin B3) reduces the incidence of basal and squamous cell pores and skin carcinomas, and supplementation of B7 or biotin restores hair development for some folks.
However it’s turning into clearer and clearer that microbes within the human intestinal microbiome have the potential for manufacturing of considerable portions of B nutritional vitamins that embody B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, and B12. Akkermansia and plenty of species of Bacteroidetes, for example, are vigorous producers of a number of B nutritional vitamins. Yogurts fermented with Streptococcus thermophilus produce substantial portions of folate (although much more can be produced if prolonged fermentation was used, not the meager 4 hour fermentation utilized by industrial yogurt producers), as can Bifidobacterium longum and a few strains of L. reuteri.
Right here’s my query: If intestinal microbes are capable of produce the complete panel of B nutritional vitamins, are the obvious advantages of B vitamin supplementation actually simply compensating for a disrupted microbiome that lacks B vitamin-producing species? Chubby and overweight folks, for example, lack Akkermansia and species of Bacteroidetes and have over-proliferation of Firmicutes, tipping the stability in the direction of much less B vitamin manufacturing. Does restoration of a wholesome intestinal microbiome present ample B nutritional vitamins that makes supplementation pointless?
Whereas the proof stays preliminary, I do imagine that we’re heading in that course. In different phrases, the human physique and microbiome have tailored to producing their very own vitamins and the obvious want for exogenous vitamins is a contemporary phenomenon, a product of the microbiome that we have now disrupted as a consequence of antibiotics, glyphosate, herbicides and pesticides in meals, weight problems, abdomen acid-suppressing medication and the myriad different components that disrupt the microbes dwelling in our GI tracts.
It implies that many well being questions should be reconsidered in gentle of the contribution of the intestinal microbiome. You’ll be able to start to understand, for instance, that considerations over excessive homocysteine ranges which have been blamed on lack of nutritional vitamins B6, folate, B12 and typically B2 (riboflavin) could have been misplaced, as these vitamins are all bacterial merchandise. In different phrases, whereas greater ranges of homocysteine, particularly ranges of 14 micromol/L or higher have been confidently related to elevated danger for cardiovascular dying, melancholy, dementia, and numerous cancers, eight randomized placebo-controlled medical trials have demonstrated that B vitamin supplementation that reduces blood ranges of homocysteine don’t scale back danger. In different phrases, there’s a disconnect between blood ranges of homocysteine and danger for these situations, and supplementing B nutritional vitamins has no affect on the incidence of illness.
What if greater homocysteine ranges are as a substitute considered because the failure of the intestinal microbiome to provide B nutritional vitamins? Supplementing B nutritional vitamins would then, in fact, don’t have any impact on illness incidence as a result of a disrupted intestinal microbiome and its accompanying endotoxemia can be the reason for elevated cardiovascular danger, melancholy, dementia, and most cancers. Trillions of microbes, dwelling and dying each hour of daily, launch their breakdown merchandise into the bloodstream (“endotoxemia”) that inflames arteries, causes atherosclerotic plaque rupture, raises blood strain, triggers melancholy, prompts irritation in numerous organs together with the mind, causes or worsens insulin resistance. The answer would subsequently not be supplementation of B nutritional vitamins, however to handle the disrupted intestinal microbiome that entails a shift away from species that produce B nutritional vitamins. Taking B nutritional vitamins with out addressing the disrupted microbiome answerable for lowered B vitamin ranges then achieves nothing. It additionally means that greater blood ranges of homocysteine can function markers for dysbiosis and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, SIBO, and doesn’t counsel a necessity for B vitamin supplementation.
Are you starting to understand that insights into the intestinal microbiome ought to trigger us to rethink ALL widespread continual ailments that afflict fashionable folks? “Deal with” melancholy with SSRI antidepressant medication whereas ignoring the dysbiosis/SIBO and endotoxemia and you’ve got solely managed to Band-Support among the emotional turmoil of melancholy however leaves you prone to creating fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, kind 2 diabetes, weight problems, hypertension, atrial fibrillation, diverticular illness, and so on. “Treating” psoriatic arthritis with a biologic, prednisone, and naproxen that block inflammatory pathways whereas ignoring dysbiosis/SIBO and endotoxemia likewise leaves you prone to a protracted checklist of continual ailments.
It implies that each physician must be an skilled within the microbiome and tips on how to assess it, allow you to handle and reconstruct it, simply as they need to all be consultants in diet and well being. However you understand that isn’t the case, since speak of diet and the microbiome doesn’t yield revenues like performing a colonoscopy, carotid endarterectomy. or injections for macular degeneration do. That’s why efforts to reconstruct a wholesome intestinal microbiome are as much as YOU. That is why I wrote my new e book, Super Gut: A 4-Week Plan to Reprogram Your Microbiome, Restore Health and Lose Weight that gives readers with a step-by-step path to not simply “deal with” well being situations, however handle the precise trigger.
