Your Gut Microbes Can Affect Your Health in Numerous Ways

Your Gut Microbes Can Affect Your Health in Numerous Ways

In recent years, it’s become increasingly clear that the microbes in your gut play a much more vital role in your health than previously thought possible. In fact, probiotics, along with a host of other gut microorganisms, are so crucial to your health that researchers have compared them to "a newly recognized organ." Besides research implicating gut bacteria in mental health and behavior, other research has shown that your microbiota also has an impact on:

1. Immune system function: Biologist Sarkis Mazmanian5 believes bacteria can train your immune system to distinguish between "foreign" microbes and those originating in your body. His work is laying the groundwork for new therapies using probiotics to treat a variety of diseases, particularly autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's.
Mazmanian and colleagues were recently awarded the MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" for identifying an organism that originates in the human body (opposed to a fermented food) that has demonstrable health benefits in both animal and human cells. The organism has been namedBacteroides fragillis, and is found in 15-20 percent of humans. His group hopes to one day be able to test this body-originated bacteria in human clinical trials.
2. Gene expression: Researchers have discovered that the absence or presence of gut microorganisms during infancy permanently alters gene expression. Through gene profiling, they were able to discern that absence of gut bacteria altered genes and signaling pathways involved in learning, memory, and motor control. This suggests that gut bacteria are closely tied to early brain development and subsequent behavior. These behavioral changes could be reversed as long as the mice were exposed to normal microorganisms early in life. But once the germ-free mice had reached adulthood, colonizing them with bacteria did not influence their behavior.
In a similar way, probiotics have also been found to influence the activity of hundreds of your genes, helping them to express in a positive, disease-fighting manner.
3. Diabetes: Bacterial populations in the gut of diabetics6 differ from non-diabetics, according to a study from Denmark. In particular, diabetics had fewer Firmicutes and more plentiful amounts of Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria, compared to non-diabetics. The study also found a positive correlation for the ratios of Bacteroidetes to Firmicutes and reduced glucose tolerance. The researchers concluded:

"The results of this study indicate that type 2 diabetes in humans is associated with compositional changes in intestinal microbiota."

4. Obesity: The make-up of gut bacteria tends to differ in lean vs. obese people. This is one of the strongest areas of probiotic research to date, and you can read about a handful of such studies here. The bottom line is that restoring your gut flora should be an important consideration if you're struggling to lose weight.
5. Autism: Establishment of normal gut flora in the first 20 days or so of life plays a crucial role in appropriate maturation of your baby's immune system. Hence, babies who develop abnormal gut flora are left with compromised immune systems and are particularly at risk for developing such disorders as ADHD, learning disabilities and autism, particularly if they are vaccinated before restoring balance to their gut flora.
To get a solid understanding of just how this connection works, I highly recommend reviewing the information shared by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride in this previous interview.

Source: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/06/20/gut-brain-connection.aspx 

Success Story (Stress Management - Miss E)

A little stress is helpful for peak performance, but too much stress can cause much more than a bad mood. 

According to Mayo Clinic, The long-term activation of the stress-response system — and the subsequent overexposure to cortisol and other stress hormones — can disrupt almost all your body's processes. This puts you at increased risk of numerous health problems, including:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Digestive problems
• Heart disease
• Sleep problems
• Weight gain
• Memory and concentration impairment

That's why it's so important to learn healthy ways to cope with the stressors in your life.

My client: Miss E primarily came to see me for her stress issues.

After I analyze her unique brainwave patterns and her response to neuro-hypnotherapy, I create a customized self-hypnosis method for her and guide her on how to do it effectively while monitoring her brainwaves. For the first session, I spent 2 hours with her to reduce her stress and anxiety issues.

Following is the result obtained:

Hi-Beta brainwaves are associated with stress, anxiety and tension.

Alpha and theta brainwaves are associated with relaxed and subconscious mental activities.

After the first session, she told me that she felt a sense of relief and she complied to practice her customized self hypnosis technique for stress management once a day until her next visit.

10 days later, she came to see me again. Before I started the session, she told me that she feels a lot more positive and calm. Miss Eu found that her stress level decreased significantly. She faces no more harmful thought and is more optimistic after her first neuro-hypnotherapy session. 

For this round, her objective of the session is to improve her confident level so that she can achieve her goal and practice her self hypnosis technique in front of me.

As you can see from the graph above, her brainwaves patterns (Same location on her brain) is significantly changed! After 10 days of practicing her customized self hypnosis tool, now she is able to go into deep hypnotic trance state and relax herself by keep increasing her alpha brainwaves (Relaxed and calm) and decrease her own Hi-Beta brainwaves (Stress and anxiety).

After the session, she told me that she feels very confident to move toward her goals in life and feels very motivated to fight for her future. She felt empowered after the session and was very satisfied with the skill and the cutting edge technology that was used for her. She found that my unique neuro-hypnotherapy approach was very effective and amazing.

Now she realizes that stress doesn't have to control her!

Remark: Our client's information will be kept strictly confidential all the time. All reviews have been acknowledged and provided by past and current clients of (Clinical Hypnotherapist Koo). Client names in stories are changed to protect their identities.

Sources:

http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/stress-management/in-depth/stress/art-20046037

MH17 news: Use hypnotherapy to deal with grief

One of my friends from Association of Hypnotherapy Practitioners, Malaysia (AHPM) talks about how to use hypnotherapy to deal with grief. We have started our corporate social responsibility service with an aim to help MH17 and MH370 victim's family. Feel free to contact me if you know anyone of the victim's family.