Folks complement B nutritional vitamins for quite a lot of causes: to forestall vitamin B12 deficiency, forestall start defects (B9 or folate), encourage hair progress (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, as an 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 progress for some individuals.
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 embrace B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, and B12. Akkermansia and plenty of species of Bacteroidetes, as an example, are vigorous producers of a number of B nutritional vitamins. Yogurts fermented with Streptococcus thermophilus produce substantial portions of folate (although much more could be produced if extended fermentation was used, not the meager 4 hour fermentation utilized by business 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? Obese and overweight individuals, as an 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 adequate B nutritional vitamins that makes supplementation pointless?
Whereas the proof stays preliminary, I do consider that we’re heading in that route. 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 now have disrupted attributable to antibiotics, glyphosate, herbicides and pesticides in meals, weight problems, abdomen acid-suppressing medicine and the myriad different components that disrupt the microbes residing in our GI tracts.
It signifies that many well being questions must be reconsidered in mild of the contribution of the intestinal microbiome. You possibly can 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) might 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 better 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 circumstances, and supplementing B nutritional vitamins has no influence on the incidence of illness.
What if greater homocysteine ranges are as an alternative considered because the failure of the intestinal microbiome to supply B nutritional vitamins? Supplementing B nutritional vitamins would then, after all, haven’t any impact on illness incidence as a result of a disrupted intestinal microbiome and its accompanying endotoxemia could be the reason for elevated cardiovascular danger, melancholy, dementia, and most cancers. Trillions of microbes, residing 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 deal with 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 frequent power illnesses that afflict fashionable individuals? “Deal with” melancholy with SSRI antidepressant medicine whereas ignoring the dysbiosis/SIBO and endotoxemia and you’ve got solely managed to Band-Assist a few of the emotional turmoil of melancholy however leaves you vulnerable to growing fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, sort 2 diabetes, weight problems, hypertension, atrial fibrillation, diverticular illness, and so forth. “Treating” psoriatic arthritis with a biologic, prednisone, and naproxen that block inflammatory pathways whereas ignoring dysbiosis/SIBO and endotoxemia likewise leaves you vulnerable to an extended record of power illnesses.
It signifies that each physician ought to be an skilled within the microbiome and how you can assess it, allow you to handle and reconstruct it, simply as they need to all be specialists in vitamin and well being. However you already know that’s not the case, since speak of vitamin 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 guide, Tremendous Intestine: A 4-Week Plan to Reprogram Your Microbiome, Restore Well being and Lose Weight that gives readers with a step-by-step path to not simply “deal with” well being circumstances, however handle the precise trigger.
