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    Tending Your Internal Garden: Bugs, Your Health, And How Little We Know.
    Tending Your Internal Garden: Bugs, Your Health, And How Little We Know.
    Tending Your Internal Garden: Bugs, Your Health, And How Little We Know.
    Ebook92 pages1 hour

    Tending Your Internal Garden: Bugs, Your Health, And How Little We Know.

    By Christopher Maloney

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    About this ebook

    Research on the inner world of human bacteria has exploded in the last decade. Instead of a few, domesticated bacteria, we've found a vast uncharted rainforest complete with species that existed when dinosaurs roamed the earth. Epic battles are being fought below your necktie or blouse, silently determining your health, weight, and maybe even your mood.

    Your body is outnumbered ten-to-one by the bacteria that grow in you. Who are these strange creatures? Are they friend or foe? And how can you call a truce? Explore with Dr. Christopher Maloney, N.D. as he uncovers the strange splendor within and gives tips for how to keep the peace.

    In a mouse study, a sterile mouse was fed a fat mouse's bacteria. Within two weeks, the sterile mouse gained 55% more body weight even though it continued to eat the same amount of food! Your inner bacterial world can be a determining factor in how your body absorbs calories and medications. Learn more about this strange new world.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChristopher Maloney
    Release dateFeb 29, 2016
    ISBN9781311725233
    Tending Your Internal Garden: Bugs, Your Health, And How Little We Know.
    Author

    Christopher Maloney

    Dr. Christopher Maloney has spent his life trying to become the doctor he was unable to find when he was ill himself. His practice can be summed up by: when you get hit by a bus go see your M.D. When you just feel like you were, it is time to see me.

    Read more from Christopher Maloney

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      Book preview

      Tending Your Internal Garden - Christopher Maloney

      I want to acknowledge the extraordinary commitment of the human genome project, which spawned the human microbiome project. I also want to thank the American Gut project, Jeff Leach, and all the tireless medical, biological, and microbiome researchers who are bringing the world of the human microbiome to light.

      I also want to thank all those who have seen me as patients, who have taught me so much about what is possible. You are the heroes of your lives and health journeys. Thank you for letting me join you on your journey to health.

      What Is Your Internal Garden?

      1: Do You Have What It Takes To Garden?

      In modern times, one person may love gardening while another would rather eat fried worms than play with them in the dirt. But unlike soil gardens, few of us have any choice in having an internal garden. We all have one, and whether it is an unruly, terrifying mass of disgusting weeds or an ordered, perfectly manicured set of plants worthy of the palace of Versailles, we need to roll up our sleeves and take charge at some point.

      For those without gardening skill, tending to an internal garden can be intimidating. But do not be afraid. All of us have been tending our gardens since we were born. From the first time you projectile vomited onto a hapless parent or blew out your diaper with a massive flow, your garden was actively being cultivated. You were rotating your internal crops rapidly and efficiently despite your parents’ hapless screams and protests.

      That said, this internal garden is a bit flummoxing for even the most educated PhD in agriculture. We did not even have a true sense of the internal garden, or any means to truly measure it, until about ten years ago. And, unlike a soil garden, the internal garden’s growth patterns can shift dramatically within a day. Imagine planting tomatoes and waking the next day under the shade of Baobab trees where your tomatoes used to be. Anyone who has suffered food poisoning knows that the situation down below can change at a moment’s notice.

      Since the internal garden, dubbed the microbiome, has been hot news on the health front we will see a range of books dictating which species will be better for you and yours. For the most part try to ignore this overly-generalized advice, just as you would someone telling you how to grow Florida orange trees in Maine. The way to build a successful garden has everything to do with your personal soil and conditions. When we generalize too broadly that one-size-fits-all, we make one-size-fits-no-one.

      For those of you with gardening experience, some of this book may be the application of tried-and-true common sense gardening. For those of you without gardening knowledge, we will be learning the basics as well. Try to retain the equivalent of: find a sunny spot. Put a seed in the ground. Water well. Beyond that things get more complicated quickly.

      The art of gardening is the art of trial-and-error. With your internal garden, the same rules apply. Nothing in this book takes the place of your own experimentation, and your garden will flourish under your watchful eye if you learn to tweak what should work to but this works as fast as you learn it. So, let’s begin!

      2: Of Cows And Men

      What does it mean when we say something is a microbiome? The first part of the word means microscopic, too small to be seen by the naked eye. And a biome is a very large geographic area where plants and animals are similar based on temperatures and weather, like the plains of Africa. So the originators of the word meant to imply something huge when they started using that word. They were talking about something that would change the way we viewed ourselves. The microbiome refers to the immense number of genes contained in our bodies and the microbiota are the creatures who live in us. But for the sake of simplicity, let us call it all the microbiome or, even more simply, our internal garden.

      The idea of a microbiome isn’t new, but even the idea that bacteria existed and could be the cause of disease hasn’t been an easy sell. Back in Greek times, Hippocrates noted that all disease begins in the gut, describing many infectious diseases even though he never saw the bacteria that caused them. In the 1600s, Anthony Leeuwenhoek is credited with the first extensive viewing of what he called animalcules swimming in pond water (and in the plaque buildup from his unbrushed teeth). But he didn’t make the connection between what was swimming in his plaque and the fact that the plaque itself was the coral-reef-like buildup of their remains. The first well-publicized bacteria-disease connection came in 1847 when Ignaz Simmelweiss tried to stop transmitting bacteria using hand washing. His effort was resisted by prominent doctors of the day. They ridiculed Simmelweiss and eventually had him sent to an insane asylum. It took Louis Pasteur’s determination to convince doctors that bacteria did not simply show up spontaneously in patients. Even so, medical handwashing just became standardized worldwide in 1975.

      For those of you lathering up with your favorite alcohol antiseptic in response to that history, nothing beats good old soap and water which floods your hands and flushes away much of your load. It would take 97% pure alcohol to sterilize most of the bacteria off your hands (now, that’s a recipe for dry, cracked palms). Want to get rid of all the bacteria? It’s not possible from any form of washing. They can’t even get rid of all the bacteria in NASA clean rooms where

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