For the next thirty years, I had intermittent attacks of what was, indeed, diverticulitis. The same physician who gave me a diagnostic label told me not to eat any lettuce or vegetables ever again. Luckily, I had just read about research on the digestive speed of food passing thorough the bodies of Africans and Britons. Where the Africans took about 1 day, some Britons took two weeks. The article said that modern diets of highly digestive foods with very low fiber content left the gut in a weakened condition. Healthy guts required fiber and the smart person would be sure to get enough regularly. I immediately asked a different doctor about the first one's advice to skip high fiber and he supported the idea in the research report.
A few years ago, I had the more battered and weakened lower section of my large intestine removed. No more attacks, no more pain. Then, I started to have a little trouble again. I knew more gut could not be removed. Also, as I age, I have more trouble with surgery and healing. So I talked to a gastroenterologist about what might be done. He told me that sometimes taking a capsule with many, many good gut bugs in it would help. He likened the idea to keeping a lawn so full of grass that weeds have no place to get started. He recommended Culturelle, fairly inexpensive over the counter. I took a capsule a day for 30 days, easy, quick, no-side effects.
Recently, I listened to and read Dr. Martha Herbert on the subject of controlling, counteracting and improving various types of autism and related problems, such as Asperger's syndrome. She has a section in The Autism Revolution called "Get Gut and Immune Systems on Your Side".
Yesterday, an article explained research that may lead in the direction of better cooperation between humans and the bacteria that live in our guts. It said that there are something like 9 times as many living organisms in a person's gut as there are individual cells in his body. Besides the everyday ingestion of bacteria, what I have heard of most often is yogurt. I note that the Culturelle product comes in a form that includes lactobacteria and a form that does not include them. I know that much of the world's adult population does not digest milk well. I know very little about my intestines, how they work and what lives to my benefit or my detriment in them. But over the years, I have developed a healthy respect for them and their inhabitants. Some books call our gut our "second brain". That makes sense to me since our energy to live, breathe and move comes from what we eat.
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
