Eating for the gut to build immunity / how the gut, heart and brain synchronize via the vagus nerve
Inflammation is the body's response to infection. But chronic inflammation and many autoimmune conditions are a sign that the immune system is fighting itself.
A healthy immune system uses inflammation as a way of prioritizing healing in the inflamed area.
An overtaxed immune system (with compromised resources) cannot respond adequately to chronic inflammation like an underfunded emergency response team, so the infection gets the upper hand.
The gut is Grand Central for a well-functioning immune system. It is coordinated with the heart, which is in communication with all organ systems, but particularly the brain or central nervous system The main communication stream that runs between the gut, the heart and the central nervous system is the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is a two-way river. But there are more communications (via chemical and electrical neural transmitters) from the heart to the brain than there are from the brain to the heart.
If the heart is diseased or compromised these communications are more like a telegraph, but in a healthy body, where the head is entrained to the heart and the heart is in direct communication with the gut the vagus nerve is more like the internet at its best.
If your heart isn't healthy, having a healthy gut is all the more important. A healthy gut is foundational.
The heart is the chief organ of perception. It is far more than a blood-pump. It is the only organ that is also a chakra which means that it is both physical and energetic in nature. A healthy heart aligns the poles of the body (brain and gut) via the vagus nerve. (Not to be confused with the spinal cord.)
(Aside: Spinal cord injury can affect many bodily functions and processes, including processes that are autonomic, or involuntary. This includes things such as breathing, blood pressure regulation, and digestion. The vagus nerve plays a valuable role in these processes by relaying information between the organs and the nervous system.
After spinal cord injury, these processes can be affected due to damage to the nervous system. However, stimulation of the vagus nerve may be an effective treatment during spinal cord injury recovery to help regulate these bodily functions. (Click Here ?)
(There are simple self-massages that can stimulate the vagus nerve.)
(Aside: Because the heart is energetic it can communicate with us on multiple levels via dreams and through mindful practices, emotions, feelings and hunches. It is naturally empathetic, not just in touch with the body, but it is expansive, in touch with the environment, the human environment and nature.. It is also intimately connected with the other chakras on an energetic level.The better we know our hearts, the better we can navigate our own health, center ourselves mindfully and stay in touch with our dreams, our environment and our energy body. That is why Buhner called it The organ of perception.
The body has more non-human DNA than human.This is due to the fact that our body supports a complex community of microbes, (bacteria and viruses) (friendly, neutral and pathogenic) that coexist in synergistic relationships for the good of the body, because the body is their universe.
If the gut is allowed to support these complex communities they are able to respond quickly and creatively to emergencies such as the intrusion of a dangerous pathogen. If the gut is dumbed down by poor diet and a sterile environment then our DNA lacks diversity and we are no longer host to complex helpful coexistent communities. Picture a person living in a high-rise high above the earth, breathing filtered air and chemically treated water and surrounded and clothed by inorganic materials. Their microbiome would be like a forest of all one kind of tree or an industrial farm with chemically laced inorganic soil. In both of these cases, the forest and the monocrop are prone to blights because they lack any kind of intelligent unified self-defense. (The person in the sterile highrise has a gut equivalent to their living space.The same would be true of a person living on a ground floor in the country, with pets, living off the land, drinking well water.. Their gut would be equivalent of their living environment.
The point is that a healthy body is extremely intelligent because its intelligence is the collective intelligence of multiple communities of microbes that are working together to keep the body-universe resilient and healthy.
Again, the immune system is the body's brain or mind.
A healthy small intestine is like a rainforest. It is not functioning on a Darwinian model of survival of the fittest, but as a healthy rainforest functions, with overlapping and integrated systems that are all essential for the well-being of the forest. I realized when I was in the rainforest that the rainforest was not a jungle where everything was territorial or hunting everything else but it was actually more like a paradise.
The American diet (of sugar, starch, processed food and fat) at the far extreme of what is least healthy for our gut, recreates a Darwinian world in our bodies where the (dumbed-down) head competes with the (dumbed-down) heart and the microbiome is reduced to a handful of aggressive bugs that are vying for dominance. The vagus nerve is sluggish and information-poor.
Antibiotics wipe out the microbial community in our gut. Antibiotics eliminate the symptoms of an illness but they downgrade the intelligence of our immune response, for example to inflammation. Remember that antibiotics, though they are getting better at targeting certain pathogens, still cause a lot of collateral damage to the microbiome,our community of microbes whose sole purpose is to shape and train our immune systems by providing signals and antigens that help the immune system develop and respond appropriately to threats, essentially acting as a keystone components in maintaining our overall health. If we were to rely on antibiotics and steroids instead of our immune system we would be like California dealing with out-of-control wildfires by abandoning neighborhoods and dumping tons of pink fire retardant on the environment from airplanes.
Sometimes antibiotics may be deemed necessary. If so it is important to build up the microbiome as soon as the antibiotics are out of our system. When a course of antibiotics is long term it might make sense to work with a Naturopath or an MD with an NMD or ND. I assume it would be possible to support the microbiome while completing a course of antibiotics and are only targeting certain pathogens. Probably this would not be effective with a broad-spectrum antibiotic such as penicillin.
A healthy gut can be maintained by a healthy diet. "But eating for the gut" is just part of building a resilient immunity. Also important are exercise, hydration (with untreated water - Buhner's "wild water"), stress reduction and rest.
A chronically unhealthy gut needs to be rehabilitated using prebiotics and probiotics, best under the guidance of a Naturopath. . . .Building a healthy gut from scratch might require the help of an expert on the GI tract (such as a gastroenterologist), to get started growing a microbial community after a disaster. Few things are as personal as elimination issues, i.e.,serious constipation or diarrhea. But consider working with a team of healers, never just following the advice of one expert or specialist who may mean well , but doesn't see the whole picture. What we are learning about the relationship between the gut and immunity is fairly new and most medical doctors, even the best ones, are playing catch-up.
People with healthy guts seem to have iron stomachs because their guts are not phased by anomalous bugs, that might cause nausea or diarrhea after a seafood dinner in a person with an unhealthy gut.
The lining of the small intestine is only one cell thick of mucus. Even though it is very thin, if it is healthy the lining of the small intestine seals the wall of the intestine so food can be digested. In an unhealthy gut the mucus lining of the gut breaks down allowing large molecules of undigested food to get into the bloodstream. (This condition, which is pandemic in the US, is called leaky gut) These large molecules of undigested food that pass through the gut lining cannot be identified by the immune system and it goes after them, tying up our ability to respond to real emergencies, and resulting in food sensitivities that may become allergies to those foods that the immune system flagged as dangerous. Again, a leaking gut, the result of an unhealthy microbiome, allows undigested molecules of food-matter into the bloodstream. When our gut wall is leaky, the immune system is always on alert. It is like lots of little fires, so when the big fire breaks out (such as a Covid exposure or RSV) the overextended immune system is tired and can't adequately respond, so, we might head for our doctor who takes a white blood cell count and treats us with steroids or statins or antibiotics and thus begins the downward spiral.
Many health issues can be avoided through healthy living (diet, rest, exercise, hydration, stress reduction), but when a healthy person does get sick, their body is more likely to respond quickly, and creatively to the emergency because the immune system is working optimally.
In the old days, our ancient ancestors could eat almost anything and not get sick because they had iron stomachs. Just 150 years ago far more people lived in the country than in cities, so, even if they were poor, their immune systems were resilient.
(Industrialization, urbanization, poverty and war have all undermined the possibility of benefiting from a healthy relationship with the land. Eating a healthy diet for our gut (our private rainforest), taking control of what we consume and reducing our exposure to chemicals is a way of reversing all of that multi-generational dysfunction brought on by the industrial and post-industrial world.)
For the sake of discussion: You might point to the Tuberculosis or typhoid outbreaks or the Spanish Flu in 1918-1921 as evidence that our ancestors were sickly and prone to pandemics, but I would argue that this discussion is very complicated and nuanced and far from black and white. As I said, the science of the correlation between diet /life-style/ mindfulness / exercise and a healthy environment is cutting edge, and what I have covered above is only the very tip of the iceberg of the knowledge that awaits us, and revelations around what constitutes holistic health. The intelligence of a healthy body is mind-boggling. (I like to say, it is quantum.)
Some thoughts on what constitutes a healthy diet
Always go for organic. Organic-local is best because you are eating the local microbiome.
Eliminate mainstream produce, and if possible, packaged produce. Plastic leaches into food and goes into the landfill.
A healthy diet includes lots of roughage. (If your system isn't used to lots of roughage, go slow, but build up your tolerance for roughage.)
Only consume organic fruits and veggies. (All mainstream produce and dairy in the United States contains glyphosate, which is an insecticide.)
Reduce or eliminate red meat. If you eat red meat, make sure the animal was treated humanely and the animal was not medicated or fed hormones.
Research fish before buying. Do not eat large fish like tuna and swordfish which contain mercury. (Alaskan fish are a good bet.) Ask your restaurant where their fish is sourced.
People I listen to say, "eat the rainbow". Variety is key to a healthy diet. Lots of fruits and veggies and root veggies, (carrots, potatoes (white or sweet), beets, turnips, rutabagas, horseradish, radishes) .
Raw is good. Or slightly cooked.
Eat lots of nuts, and seeds. (raw is better than roasted or salted) Avoid granola unless it is not overly roasted and not overly sweetened. Coconut (not technically a nut or seed) is excellent for roughage, healthy fats, protein and essential minerals. Good for energy boost, heart and bones. Excellent cooking oil, keeps unrefrigerated.
A word on roughage. Roughage (such as wheat germ, milled flax seed, chia seeds and bran) is not digested but goes into the large intestine and promotes healthy elimination. It is like a toothbrush for our digestive system.
Eat fermented food like kimchi, sauerkraut (the kind that needs to be refrigerated), organic yogurt, kefir (which is easy to make at home) , tempeh, miso, kombucha (low sugar). If bread, sourdough bread.
Eat plenty of garlic, onions and fresh parsley. These are super foods.
Avoid gluten. Grains that do not have gluten: Rice and corn, quinoa, millet, oats, sorghum.
Reduce or eliminate starch and sugar.
Most chocolate these days contains lead and cadmium because countries that produce chocolate are growing in soil that is contaminated with lead due to years of using machinery that burns lead-gas. There are some brands that are lead and cadmium-free. Google safe brands. Heavy metals, which damage our nervous system and liver, accumulate in our bodies over time.
Always, eat organic. Our environment is so saturated with Roundup that there is glyphosate even in organic food (in trace amounts).
European foods are generally safer. Olives from Greece do not have to be organic because regulations are tighter in Europe. The same goes for any European imported food. In general it is safer.
Pineapple and avocado apparently do not have to be organic because of their thick skins. Both are extremely nutrient rich. Just wash before cutting. Probably also pomegranates which have a tough skin..
A word on tinctures: I started making and buying tinctures to boost my immune system years ago. I take a dropper-full of an immune booster tonic every night, when I get up to pee. I premix the dropper of tonic in a small amount of water and take it at 2 or 3 AM when my stomach is empty. (A tonic = a combination of tinctured plants and herbs and mushrooms that have antibacterial and anti-viral properties. My immune tonic contains: reishi, and maitake mushrooms, astragalus, Eleuthero root, cat's claw bark, chaga, turkey tail mushroom and licorice root.)
When I feel a cold coming on am about to travel and expect to be in crowds, or I am attending a show or conference, I dose an echinacea tincture a few days before and for a week or so. It is effective in reducing cold symptoms and / or boosting immunity. ( After that I stop taking it on the advice of herbalists who say that taking it for extended periods of time it is possible to experience side effects, but most sources say it is alright to take it for 5-8 weeks.)
Mushrooms are a supar food. They are adaptogens. (Adaptogens are herbs / roots / mushrooms that help the body manage stress and restore balance. They can help with physical, emotional and hormonal stress.) In nature they have the power to transform dirt into living soil. (Remember, the mushroom is the fruiting body of the mycelia.) I see them doing the same for our private rainforest as they do for the understory of a healthy forest. A few of my favorites are chicken (or hen) of the woods, shiitake, maitake, chaga, chanterelle, reishi, lions mane,turkey tail.
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