Question:Dr. Ettinger

I am a 43 year old woman…weighed 122 pounds in February and starting gaining weight unexplainably…all in my stomach.  I have now gained 27 pounds.  I am a runner and typically watch what I eat so this is unusual.  I have also had gas….daily.  My stomach is bloated/distended to the point I look like a pregnant woman by the end of the day.  My Doctor has ran a series of tests including referring me to a gastro-Dr…..had a colonoscopy.  Not sure what is going on.  I was in Mexico in January…..possibly a parasite or something.  The weight gain is extremely unusual.  I have been under a lot of stress….my daughter was killed in an accident in Oct. 2006.  Any thoughts on what may be going on and any natural remedies I can try.??

Thanks

Sarah

Answer: Sara,

First, please read all the disclaimers below. (Only found at the bottom of my out-going e-mails)

As you mentioned, it could be a parasite, stress or any number of other things. It would take a thorough consultation, initial exam with labs to get a confirmation of what’s going on. If you can get to Orange, California, that would help us both out. If not, I would find a holistic practitioner in your area. The medical profession is great with diagnostics but lousy with treatment.  

Let me know your thoughts on this.

Sincerely,

Marcus Ettinger DC, BSc

Gut Bacteria Tied to Weight Gain, Study Finds
By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 20, 2006; 4:08 PM

The guts of obese people are teeming with a distinctive mix of bacteria that seems to make them prone to gaining weight, a startling discovery that could lead to new ways to fight the obesity epidemic, researchers reported today.

Obese people have more gut microbes that are especially efficient at extracting calories from food, the researchers said, and the proportion of these super-digesting organisms ebbs as they lose weight. Moreover, when the scientists transplanted gut bugs from obese mice into lean mice, the thin animals start getting fat, providing more support for the provocative theory that the bacteria that populate the gut play an important role in regulating weight.

“There appears to be a link between obesity and the type of bugs in your gut,” said Jeffrey I. Gordon of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, who led the series of experiments being published in tomorrow’s issue of the journal Nature. “The difference in the structure of microbial ecology of our gut may set us up for susceptibility to obesity.”

Gordon and his colleagues stressed that more work is needed to explore the findings. And they cautioned against trying to manipulate “gut flora” with antibiotics or microbe-containing “probiotic” pills sold in health food stores. But if the findings are confirmed and better understood, they could lead to profound new insights into one of the world’s biggest health problems, they said.

[Comment: If the findings are proven correct, and I believe them to be, than "probiotics" like our Probiotic Flora-Health will be one the answers to make it easier for individuals to lose weight and keep the weight off - Dr. E]

“In the future, we could potentially manipulate the structure and function of these microbial societies [with probiotics] as a new approach toward preventing and treating obesity,” Gordon said.

The findings produced enthusiasm and caution from other researchers. Some praised the work for possibly offering a long-sought alternative explanation for the obesity epidemic. Perhaps some change, such as a food additive or antibiotic use, has caused a fundamental shift in gut flora, making it easier for many people to gain weight. [Antibiotics and bad food choices are the reason a person needs a daily probiotic like, Probiotic Flora-Health. Dr. E]

“This is very exciting,” said Barbara Corkey, an obesity researcher at Boston University. “We don’t know why the obesity epidemic is happening. People say it’s because of gluttony and sloth. I think there must be something else. It’s exciting to see some work being done on alternative explanations.”

Others suspect that if gut microbes do play a role, it’s probably relatively minor.

“This is extremely interesting,” said Hans-Rudolf Berthoud of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La. “But lifestyle and the environment are still the major factors in the obesity epidemic.”

On a broader level, the findings highlight the symbiotic relationship humans maintain with the trillions of microorganisms that populate our bodies, Gordon and others said.

“This strengthens the notion that the indigenous organisms in the human body are probably intimately involved in our health,” said David A. Relman of Stanford University. “The ways they are involved remain unclear, but this underscores the idea that it behooves us to figure it out.”

Scientists have long known that the human body is crawling with germs, primarily bacteria, which cover the skin and inhabit every orifice. By some estimates only one out of every 10 cells in the human body is actually human. These organisms perform a host of functions, especially in the gut, where they help digest food.

“There’s growing interest in the idea that humans are more than just human cells,” said Martin J. Blaser of New York University. “These cells are not just passengers. They are part of the human metabolism.”

To explore the role of the organisms in weight regulation, Gordon’s team first compared the gut flora of 12 obese people to lean subjects. The obese tended to have significantly greater proportion of one of the two main types of bacteria found in the gut, known as Firmicutes, than the other, known as Bacteroidetes.

Next, the researchers spent a year meticulously measuring the gut flora of the obese volunteers as they tried to lose weight by eating low-calorie diets that restricted either their fat or carbohydrates. As they lost weight, the proportion of Firmicutes fell and the proportion of Bacteroidetes rose, the researchers found.

When the researchers conducted detailed molecular analyses of the two types of bacteria in the laboratory, they discovered the Firmicutes were much better at extracting calories from food.

Moreover, when the researchers examined the gut flora of obese laboratory mice they found a similar pattern in their balance of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes. And when they transferred gut flora from obese mice to sterile mice devoid of gut flora, the recipient animals tended to gain weight, confirming that pattern was associated with weight gain.

“This attribute of being able to harvest and store more energy appeared to be transmissible,” Gordon said. “For the first time, we see that there is a correlation between the microbial gut ecology and the obese state.”

Among other things, the findings could help explain why it becomes harder and harder to lose weight as people get fat, Gordon said.

“That’s part of the pathology of obesity. When you shift the amount of fat tissue, the amount of energy you can harvest becomes somewhat greater, and that’s going to fuel the obese state,” he said.

The researchers acknowledged that the difference in the number of calories extracted by the microbes is relatively small. But over time even a small differential could be significant, they said.

Many questions remain, however. It’s unclear what determines the make-up of a person’s gut flora — it might be the microbes they pick up from their mothers; it might be their exposure to antibiotics. It’s also unclear how fat tissue and gut flora might communicate, and whether the change in gut bacteria causes or is a result of the weight loss.

Despite those and other questions, scientists said the finding are sure to inspire more investigation.

“They open up a completely new hypothesis,” said Randy Seeley, an obesity researcher at the University of Cincinnati who wrote a commentary accompanying the research. “There are a lot of hurdles here that we have to deal with in terms of our basic understanding. But it’s fascinating.”

Dr. Marcus Ettinger’s Golden Rules for Everyday Eating

Marcus Stewart Ettinger DC, BSc.
Chief Science Officer (CSO)
California Academy of Health

Copyright © June 22, 2006, By Dr. Marcus Ettinger and California Academy of Health, Inc.

1. Eat six small meals per day.*

2. Have protein with each meal.

3. Only eat Low Glycemic Index** carbohydrates with protein. Examples of good meals: Meat with salad and/or vegetables and/or avocado, Meat with wild rice and/or vegetables and/or salad.

4. Only eat fruit one hour before a meal or four hours after. (read Fit for Life by Harvey Diamond and Marilyn Diamond)

5. Calories should come from a ratio of: 50% protein / 40% carbohydrates / 10% fat.*** Use avocado, almonds, flax seed oil and extra virgin olive oil for your fats.

6. No carbohydrates after lunch except vegetables.

7. Try to avoid boxed and packaged foods because they are usually loaded with preservatives, sugars and fats.

8. Drink 64 ounces of distilled water each day, more if you exercise.

* Include one or two whey protein shakes (low carbohydrate/sugar) per day as a meal replacement.

** Low Glycemic Index examples (ok to eat 1/2 cup cooked per day): wild rice, brown rice, barley, sweet potato, most vegetables and most fruits (1/2 cup per day) except those listed below. High glycemic Index examples (don’t eat): Bread, corn, pasta, rice, potato, banana, mango, watermelon, pineapple and papaya.

** Recently, researchers reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association that patients who lost weight with a low-glycemic diet kept the weight off longer than patients who lost the same amount of weight with a standard low-fat diet.

*** General rule for this is 1 gram of protein for each pound of lean body weight. Example: I am 165 pounds with 10% body fat, that’s 148.5 pounds of lean muscle. I would consume around 150 grams of protein per day, that’s 600 calories coming from protein. 100 grams of Low Glycemic Index carbohydrates equal 400 calories. 22 grams of fats (listed above) equals 200 calories per day. Total daily intake of calories is 1200 calories.

For an ultra quick 5 pound weight loss jump-start, this always works for me: Eliminate all carbohydrates for three to four days, eat twice your normal amount of protein (general rule for this is 2 grams of protein per pound of lean body weight), 1 tablespoon twice a day of flax seed oil, and drink at least a gallon of water.