Lessons in the gut microbiome

On Grey’s Anatomy, complex babies are often born to world-renowned doctors with a circle of world-renowned doctor friends. In the real world,  complex babies are born to teenagers and people like me with marketing degrees who have never had a health concern. 

My kids were born with everything stacked against them, and here I am at my computer at 4am with my marketing degree, a stack of books, and 45 google search pages open trying to learn how to advocate for them. There is some easily accessible research on preventing—and even reversing— disease in adults by fostering a healthy microbiome with vegetables, exercise, and sunshine. It’s not mainstream, though, and the research is void of the implications the microbiome has for the micro preemie population. 

The twins are a science experiment I’m ill-equipped to conduct.

I can dream that someday microbiome gods like Robynne Chutkans and Will Bulsiewiczs of the world might take notice of the way their work is shaping the life I’m trying to create for Vivienne and Margot, but until then, it’s just me, my kids, our vegetables, and a lot of reading. 

The Microbiome

I first learned about the implications of the human microbiome in this two hour interview with Dr. Will Bulsiewicz on the Rich Roll podcast. I knew we had a microbiome. I knew eating vegetables and taking probiotics were good and eating copious amounts of meat and milkshakes was not great, but I had no idea how much the microbiome informed every aspect of our health. I knew plant based diets have been known to revolutionize people’s health, but I didn’t make the microbiome connection.  

The human microbiome is the genetic material of all the bacteria, fungus, protozoa, and viruses that live on us and in us. We have more bacteria than we have human genes. The microbiome helps us digest our food, it regulates our immune system, and produces vitamins—it’s essential. If the microbiome is not healthy, we’re not healthy. 

In Predictable modulation of cancer treatment outcomes by the gut microbiota, scientists found  the microbiota can predict tumor growth and cancer treatment outcomes. 

Dr. Will Bulsiewicz,  lauded gasteroenterologist and gut health guru said, “Your brain’s best friend is your gut. You can’t separate the two. If you have an unhealthy gut, it’s going to affect your brain.”

Dr. Robynne Chutkan, integrative gateroenterologist and microbiome expert writes, “Most people don’t get sick because they come in contract with a bad bug. That happens all the time. Most of us get sick because we don’t have a healthy gut garden.”

Here’s the craziest thing I’ve learned in my research thus far: the medical community didn’t even acknowledge the microbiome as a a thing until the late 1990s.

Twenty-ish years is nothing when you’re talking about advancements in medicine. It took us nearly 100 years to figure out antibiotics are not the solution to everything (and can actually be detrimental). When you add the fact that the United States’ medical system doesn’t prioritize preventative medicine because it’s not profitable to this equation, it makes me doubt that microbiome health will be mainstream in my kids’ lifetime.

What I’m saying is if you’re waiting on your GP to tell you that your lifelong tummy issues  or chronic cold might be resolved with a vegan diet, it’s not going to happen. You’ve got to educate yourself and advocate for yourself.

We need to advocate for our kids. 

Starting out way behind

The girls were born way too early.  They didn’t get their chance to soak up the antibodies from the placenta While one baby was born vaginally, which coated her in good bacteria to jumpstart a health gut, the other baby was born a c-section, so she went without. 

The girls also had gut issues from the beginning. We had to hold feeds for weeks at a time due to bowel perforations and subsequent surgeries. Breast milk transfers bacteria that is essential for developing a baby’s gut microbiome, and my girls were late to get theirs. 

Then there were the antibiotics—life saving and necessary, but killed what little bacteria they had working for them. 

After months of antibiotics, I wonder if there was any microbiome at all. 

Catching up

I heard Will Bulsiewicz on the Rich Roll podcast just before our gastroenterologist recommended we start solids, so I was ready. Dr. Bulsiewicz shared a ton of valuable information in this podcast, but I was (and still am) sleep deprived, so what I remembered was: eat a lot of vegetables—like more than 30 a week. 

We made a list of vegetables and we started cooking them, pureeing them, and freezing them. Every couple of days, we’d introduce a new one. The twins responded well—no allergies, no digestive issues, so we started adding a new vegetable every day.  One day, I looked at the list, and we were up to 35. There are over 20,000 species of edible plants in the world, so we’ve still got some work to do, but it’s a start. 

A quick backstory: the girls’ surgeries for their perforations left them with some digestive issues, namely chronic diarreha, painful gas, and the question of how much of their nutrition were they really absorbing.

Since introducing a wide variety of plants and a high quality probiotic into their diet, the diarrhea and painful gas stopped, and their growth is sufficient proof of their absorption. The change happened in a matter of two weeks—way faster than I expected.

Remember, I have a marketing degree, so I can’t give you medical advice, but I did make this video on why we took the fiber-fueled approach and our system for making sure the girls get plenty of variety. 

Continuing education

I still have so much to learn. (Damn that marketing degree and my lack of world-renowned doctor friends.)

The microbiome is affected by what you put on the body—not just what you put in it. Up to now, we’ve been raising bubble babies. We don’t take them anywhere. They don’t see anyone. Their lungs are underdeveloped and damaged from months of mechanical ventilation. A virus that affects the respiratory system, as so many do, would most definitely land them in a hospital. 

And I’m not going back to the hospital, so I keep them in locked away in our stucco tower (read: at home), but after listening to Rich Roll’s Masterclass in Gut Health where he interviewed 5 different experts on the topic of gut health and the microbiome, I wonder if I’m doing them a disservice. 

Dr. Robynne Chutkan preaches the eat clean, live dirty philosophy. On the podcast she mentions how the hyper-sterilized-anti-bacterial-geled-and-lysoled western world actually increases our susceptibility to disease by superseding the natural development of the immune system.  

Don’t panic. I’m not considering taking them out into the COVID-infected public. 

We have a lot we still have to protect them from, but I’ve started to ask the question what should I be exposing them to?

Stay tuned for more.