Sometimes you have to think outside the box if you want to come up with new effective medical therapies. For instance, for years doctors said that multiple sclerosis an autoimmune disease must be triggered by an infection that triggered an antibody effect. They sited as proof the fact that MS was rare in the (warm) South and more common in the (cold) north, where people were more likely to get respiratory infections. However in recent years MS began to strike those who grew up in the South, too. Were southerners becoming more like northerners? What did kids in the old South used to do that their northern neighbors did not? Answer: run around barefoot half the year picking up parasitic infections such as hookworm. Nowadays, kids everywhere wear shoes when they play outdoors. It is more hygienic. But what if our inbred immune system that is designed to protect us from common diseases that plagued our ancestors like hookworm, trichinosis and strep do not like all this good hygiene? What if those natural immune factors that have nothing to fight start looking around for other things to fight—-like our own body tissue? This is an example of thinking outside the usual medical box. The study of controlled infections used to fight certain autoimmune disorders has shown promise.
I would like to propose another kind of thinking outside the usual medical box. For years, those who have warned about the health effects of Agent Orange, the defoliant used in Vietnam as well as at home have focused on the direct toxic effects of the plant killing chemicals which include two herbicides as well as trace amounts of dioxin, a necessary contaminant to the manufacture of one of the compounds. A direct toxin that builds up in your body tissue and poisons you for the rest of your life? Scary. Almost as scary as the thought of catching a cold and getting MS. What can you do for that kind of disease except suffer the associated illnesses—-like diabetes, neuropathy, genital-urinary cancers —and file a claim to up your disability rating when one of these diseases occurs?
Before you accept your fate as an Agent Orange or dioxin victim, consider the possibility that these chemicals might have an effect on the all important bowel flora—-all those healthy gut bacteria that we now know protect us against asthma, allergies,eczema,obesity,diabetes, colitis and a host of other illnesses. And bowel flora can be replaced. True, if your body has stored up a chemical that is toxic to certain desirable bowel flora, you might have to replace the good bacteria continuously. But given the safety of probiotics and the misery of Agent Orange associated illness, it is worth a try.
Here are some links.
www.sciencedirect.com/… how dioxin disrupts gut flora
www.mdpi.com/… a review article on the impact of changes in gut flora on human health
www.healio.com/… an article about how patients with diabetic foot ulcers experienced more rapid wound healing as well as better glucose and lipid control
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/… a gastroenterologists guide to probiotics.
Also check out studies about how changes in the ratio of certain bowel bacteria are associated with diabetes and obesity. Does the diabetes cause the change or does the way that altered bowel environment affects the way we absorb nutrients cause the diabetes?
I am not saying that this a certain cure. But I think it should be tested. Especially given the ease and safety of doing probiotic studies for a condition that has no known treatment.