As a gastroenterologist I spend a lot of time in people’s colons, and I’ve noticed over the years that there’s tremendous variation in not just what the colon looks like, but in what it smells like too. Inflammatory conditions like Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis cause redness and ulceration that’s easily identifiable, but they also […]
1. Brush your teeth to prevent bowel cancer. Mouth bacteria (including Fusobacteria, a bug rarely found in the guts of healthy individuals and known to worsen ulcerative colitis) can make pre-cancerous bowel growths turn cancerous and existing tumors increase in size. Daily Mail 2. Scientists believe that dysbiosis (imbalanced gut bacteria) is a main […]
1. Gut bacteria affect heart health and could explain why what we eat impacts our cardiovascular functioning. Imbalanced gut bacteria and their interactions with the foods we eat can encourage artery damage, inflammation, narrowing, and blockage. Supporting the link between gut bacteria, diet, and heart health, scientists also found that premature babies fed breast milk […]
1. You may have heard that diet, not exercise, is the key to weight loss. While studies support this hypothesis, does this mean exercise is worthless? Not exactly! A 2015 meta-analysis looked at a vast number of studies that assessed the effects of exercise on chronic disease outcomes and found that exercise, is in essence, […]
Some of the most common questions I get from my patients are, “Should I do a cleanse or detox? Will it help improve my symptoms? What about my gut health or my appearance?” Some people rave about the cleansed, glowing feeling they have after a colonic, while others feel dried out and dizzy. Colonic irrigation, […]
1. Pineapple enzymes (bromelain) prevent the growth of harmful bacteria in the gut and could act as a replacement for antibiotic therapy. The enzymes make it difficult for bacteria to adhere to gut cells, preventing the bacteria (and later infection) from taking root. Sydney Morning Herald 2. Fasting (17 hours daily) significantly increases gut bacteria […]
