{"id":1316935,"date":"2019-11-24T20:52:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-25T03:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/doctors-tip-how-lifestyle-affects-our-microbiome\/"},"modified":"2019-11-24T20:52:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-25T03:52:00","slug":"doctors-tip-how-lifestyle-affects-our-microbiome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/doctors-tip-how-lifestyle-affects-our-microbiome\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctor\u2019s Tip: How lifestyle affects our microbiome"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This is the fifth in a series of columns based on Dr. Dean Ornish\u2019s recent book \u201cUndo It.\u201d The book makes the case that our health is not determined so much by the genes we\u2019re born with but by whether these genes are turned on or off. And to a large extent, that process is determined by our lifestyle.<\/p>\n

Our microbiome \u2014 particularly our gut microbiome \u2014 is a key player in our health, and should be thought of as another organ system, similar to our brain, kidneys, liver, etc. Dr. Ornish is currently doing research with a leading microbiome scientist \u201cto understand how the four components of our lifestyle medicine program \u2014 eat well, move more, stress less, love more \u2014 interact with our microbiome in healing ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Humans have over 100 trillion organisms (bacteria, viruses and fungi) residing in our mouth, nose and gut; and on our skin (there is also a vaginal microbiome). The genes in all the organisms in our microbiome outnumber all the genes in our own cells by at least 100 to 1. Depending on our lifestyle, our microbiome can keep us healthy or make us sick. Here are some examples:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Obesity: Diets high in fat, sugar or refined carbohydrates adversely affect the type of microbes in our gut microbiome, as well as their diversity (a health-promoting microbiome has many different species). These foods cause \u201cthe growth of microbes that harvest energy more efficiently \u2014 in other words, you gain more weight eating the same amount of calories.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 More obesity: A high-fat diet causes gut microbes to modulate our genes that affect fat storage, making us more efficient at storing calories as fat \u2014 not good if you are overweight or don\u2019t want to be.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Inflammation: A diet based on animal products increases the number of microbes that cause chronic inflammation \u2014 and inflammation contributes to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Depression: Gut bacteria manufacture neurotransmitters like serotonin and norepinephrine, \u201cwhich can help keep you from feeling anxious, depressed and tired.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Dementia: There is evidence that inflammation plays a role in Alzheimer\u2019s disease. According to Dr. Ornish, Alzheimer\u2019s disease patients have a lower number of gut bacteria that have anti-inflammatory activity, and a higher number of bacteria that cause inflammation.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Cardiovascular disease: A healthy mouth microbiome helps prevent dental plaque buildup, cavities and gum disease \u2014 all of which cause chronic inflammation, leading to many diseases including heart attacks and strokes.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Cancer: A prevalence of certain species of gut bacteria increase risk of colon cancer.<\/p>\n

How can you develop a health-promoting gut microbiome?<\/p>\n

\u2022 Eat well: The bacteria in our gut microbiome feed on fiber, which is found in only in plants. Animal products encourage disease-causing gut bacteria. Fruit, vegetables and whole grains encourage health-promoting gut microbes.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Move more: Studies show that exercise increases microbes that produce short-chain fatty acids, which reduce disease-causing inflammation.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Stress less, love more: Dr. Ornish has shown that avoiding negative emotions such as stress and loneliness (even a pet helps) cuts down on the number of interleukin-producing gut bacteria \u2014 interleukins cause inflammation, harmful activation of your immune system, and depression.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Avoid antibiotics unless absolutely necessary. One weeklong course of antibiotics \u201ccan change your gut microbiome for up to a year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 For a healthy mouth microbiome, avoid antibacterial mouthwashes and toothpaste.<\/p>\n

In summary, be kind to you\u2019re the trillions of organisms that make up your microbiome \u2014 they can be your friends, or your enemies.<\/p>\n

Greg Feinsinger, M.D. is a retired family physician who has a nonprofit: Prevention and Treatment of Disease Through Nutrition. He gives a free presentation at 7 p.m. the first Monday of the month at the Third Street Center in Carbondale; is available by appointment for free consultations (379-5718); and conducts a shop-with-a-doc session at 10 a.m. the first Saturday of the month at Carbondale City Market.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the fifth in a series of columns based on Dr. Dean Ornish\u2019s recent book \u201cUndo It.\u201d The book makes the case that our health is not determined so much by the genes we\u2019re born with but by whether these genes are turned on or off. And to a large extent, that process is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1316935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 11:51:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1316935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316935\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1316935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1316935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1316935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}