In a surprising move, the Food and Drug Administration has reversed course eliminating the heavy regulatory burden imposed in April of this year on US medical facilities that wanted to conduct fecal transplants (commonly referred to as FMT for fecal microbiota transplantation) for people sick with colitis caused by Clostridium difficile (C diff) that does [...]
A parasite called Cyclospora cayetanensis was determined to be the cause of a recent outbreak (June through July 2013) of debilitating intestinal infections that cause watery, and sometimes explosive, diarrhea along with other symptoms including weight loss, cramping, nausea, fatigue, loss of appetite, bloating, and flatulence. Almost 300 people have be diagnosed with the infection [...]
Our latest book, Fast Tract Digestion IBS is now available. I am proud to let you know that the book features a foreword by Dr. Mike Eades. Protein power was the first book I read on the compelling effects of carbohydrates on our metabolism. Without reading this book, I would have never experimented with carbohydrate restriction, [...]
I recommend that people with digestive health issues reduce, NOT increase, hard to digest fermentable carbohydrates to control symptoms of IBS, acid reflux and other digestive health issues related to general imbalance of gut microbes (dysbiosis) and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). This approach is outlined in my two books, Fast Tract Digestion IBS and [...]
A friend sent me a great article called "Some of My Best Friends Are Germs" by Michael Pollan about the efforts by a team led by Rob Knight at the BioFrontiers Institute at the University of Colorado, Boulder working on something called the American Gut project. The team analyzes the hundreds of microbial species harbored by [...]
What is Resistant Starch? Resistant starch is a type of starch that resists digestion. Starch in general is a large complex carbohydrate used by plants such as oats, corn, potatoes, wheat, rice, nuts, legumes and some fruits such as bananas to store energy. Foods that contain starch make up a large part of many people's [...]
A recent large study to assess the associations of dietary fiber and liquid intake to constipation concluded: "The findings support clinical recommendations to treat constipation with increased liquid, but not fiber or exercise." To read the study, click here. This conclusion is no surprise based on the The Dark Side of Fiber blog series on [...]
Here is an interesting discovery. Scientists have found a way to transform fiber into resistant starch.The benefits mean more food grown in less prime croplands, but the starch produced is amylose, the resistant starch. Read more about resistant starch. If you have read either book in the Fast Tract Digestion book series, you know my thoughts [...]
Guts with Michael Mosley just aired on PBS April 17, 2013. Hopefully,it will air again, if you haven't seen it. In this fascinating documentary, Michael volunteers to undergo a number of invasive tests and also has his entire digestive tract viewed live all day in a museum setting with a capsule or submarine camera. They [...]
This is an interesting study about gut bacteria, intestinal gas and obesity - but I don't exactly agree with conclusions. The authors conclude that people become obese because they have higher amounts of hydrogen and methane (if we could only stop the hydrogen and methane!). But to me the opposite seems more likely. People struggling with [...]
