By Michaël Friedman, ND

When I was a practicing physician, one of my first multiple sclerosis patients was an autistic woman who could not talk. The patient’s mouth would foam when she spoke—I was told to wear a rain jacket when I met her. As it turned out, that was good advice. As part of my diagnostic workup of this patient, I did a urine test, which revealed large amounts of yeast breakdown products and the presence of two heavy metals: cadmium and lead.

The patient’s caretaker told me that she had been institutionalized as a child and had often been strapped in a chair (in the days when that was still legal). During those times, she ate chips of blue paint from the walls—paint that contained those two toxic substances.

In an effort to help the patient, I prescribed dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA), which helps remove heavy metals from the body. I also gave her antifungals to reduce the overabundance of yeast and put her on an antifungal diet. By killing the yeast in the gut and removing the heavy metals, this treatment improved her condition considerably. She no longer foamed at the mouth, and she was able to sit next to people without hitting and spitting.

A change in her gut flora and a reduction in toxic metal had improved the neurological symptoms of autism and made her more personable. She improved so much that the Connecticut Department of Social Services wrote me a letter saying that due to her remarkable changes, they would pay the cost of anything I prescribed, even organically grown food.

The dramatic effects of treating this patient’s yeast imbalance in the gut, and her toxic load of cadmium and lead, clearly demonstrated to me that neurology is a fusion of complex interactions between gastroenterology and toxicology.

The Microbiome and Gut Health Link for Multiple Sclerosis

What is a microbiome? In a general sense, it is a mutually beneficial biological community comprising bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other specialized microorganisms that—together with their host—work to create and maintain a healthy environment. Almost every ecosystem, whether on land, sea, or air, has its own microbiome that has evolved over time to support that ecosystem’s life. Specific microbiomes in the forest, for example, collaborate to break down, digest, and recycle organic matter into essential nutrients that foster tree growth. Without this process, the forest could neither survive nor thrive.

Human beings also have a microbiome: what I like to imagine as a giant party in the gut. More than one hundred trillion “guests” (microorganisms) dance in tune with their respective hosts (us). Those microbes “sweat out” metabolites that ultimately regulate and support our every physiological process: our circulation, digestion, metabolism, neurological function, and immune system, among others.

These guests we truly love to have! In fact, according to a team of researchers out of Stanford University and the University of California, San Francisco, it is “clear that our microbiota [a term often used interchangeably with microbiome] is more like an organ than an accessory: these microbes are not just key contributors to human health but a fundamental component of human physiology” (emphasis mine). Like those trees in the forest, we literally depend upon our microbiome to survive and thrive.

The Microbiome Census

As many as 40,000 microbial species reside within the human gut—the proportional populations of which depend on nutrition, environmental sterility, antibiotic use, and the presence of disease. And more than 100 trillion individual bacteria, fungi, viruses, and archaea (single-celled organisms without a nucleus) live there too.

Our microbiome can influence immune system cells in various ways. In research published in the journal Gut Microbes, investigators demonstrate that the human microbiome plays a crucial role in the production of interleukin-17 (IL-17)—a key player in immune system function and an essential weapon against certain invasive bacteria and fungi. Research further suggests that imbalances in the gut can lead to imbalances in the immune system. And researchers have also discovered that “specific intestinal microbial species…are sufficient to promote disease in the CNS.”

The science behind this is rather complex, but it boils down to the fact that the microbiome regulates both anti-and pro-inflammatory responses in the gut and central nervous system. Further, the researchers note, “Alterations in the community composition of the microbiota, known as dysbiosis, may be a critical factor in numerous immune-mediated diseases.” This means that when the microbiome suffers imbalances, the T cells that help direct the immune response end up misidentifying healthy tissues as a threat. This knocks the immune system out of homeostasis and often triggers autoimmune disease.

Microbiome Variations

Animals depend on microbiomes for healthy functioning, too. Cattle, for example, depend on the bacteria and protozoans in their guts to digest cellulose—which makes up much of their diet—into short-chain fatty acids and other nutrients. And leafcutter ants require an external microbiome to feed themselves. After excising pieces out of leaves, the ants store the cut pieces in layers much like a compost pile, which encourages bacteria to grow and digest the leaves. As a byproduct of this process, fungi that serve as the ants’ primary food source flourish, while competing fungi are inhibited by antibiotic-producing microbes. The common thread within these complex ecosystems is the ability to maintain balance through self-regulation.

Although research into this fascinating evolutionary miracle has only recently exploded, our understanding of the gut and its influence on human health and well-being dates back thousands of years. In fact, almost every ancient healing tradition points to the idea that “death begins in the colon.”

The Ayurvedic sages of India, for example, speak of ama—an accumulation of toxic residue that disrupts the metabolic fire, or agni. In order to restore agni, practitioners prescribe one of a variety of cleansing protocols to draw these toxins out of the body’s tissues and into the digestive tract for elimination. Similarly, the Shuar healers of the Ecuadorian Amazon follow one of many indigenous healing traditions that ascribe poor health and immune system dysfunction to impure blood.

In order to purge these toxins, patients participate in a ceremony during which they consume a particular mixture of herbs and tea called natem, and nothing else, for three days. Traditionally speaking, “cleaning the gut” has always been the first critical step toward restoring optimal health. Cleaning the gut is also one way of removing impurities from the blood—what many healing traditions regard as a major cause of immune system dysfunction.

Today, modern science has built upon this ancient knowledge. Researchers can now explain some of the precise mechanisms by which a healthy microbiome promotes a healthy human organism—as well as how an unhealthy microbiome, called dysbiosis, contributes to a wealth of disorders, including multiple sclerosis. Such “cutting edge” research is truly “old edge” with a new interpretation.

We now know, for example, that the concept of impure blood is a sound one: research has proven that fully one-third of the molecules in our bloodstream comprise the breakdown products of our own gut microflora. When we suffer from dysbiosis, we literally become “full of garbage”: endotoxins (natural by-products secreted by specific types of bacteria) from our digestive system leak into our bloodstream, where they can trigger a systemic inflammatory response. And the results can be devastating—autoimmune disease, neurological conditions, diabetes and other metabolic disorders, heart disease, and even some cancers.

In fact, recent research published in ASN Neuro (the American Society for Neurochemistry’s journal) links the development of multiple sclerosis to poor dietary habits that increase inflammation. Consuming too many calories, sugar-sweetened drinks, fried foods, and not enough fiber—as well as not getting enough exercise—can exert negative effects on the microbiome.

The Microbiome and Health

It’s not surprising that the microbial balance in our gut, in both the numbers of species and the numbers of individual microbes of each species, can dramatically impact our health, given that the microbiome:

• Plays a crucial role in immune system development.
• Assists in metabolic functions such as salvaging dietary sugars, producing short-chain fatty acids, synthesizing vitamins, and metabolizing drugs.
• Produces neurotransmitters, including epinephrine and norepinephrine, both of which are associated with the fight-or-flight response, and dopamine, a mood regulator. (In fact, the microbiome manufactures fully 50 percent of the dopamine supply for the human body.) These same nutrients also feed the gut microbiota that produce the neurotransmitters serotonin and acetylcholine as well as other metabolites that are so important to our health.
• Produces ?-aminobutyric acid (GABA), the central nervous system’s chief inhibitory transmitter, known for its calming effects.
• Exerts significant influence on mood and emotions via its role in manufacturing neurotransmitters. The Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection at the Stanford University School of Medicine includes an academic department devoted to studying the microbiome and its impacts on chronic diseases, including autoimmune disease. —

Well Being Journal adapted this article from There’s No Pill for This: A Naturopathic Physician’s Personal Prescription for Managing Multiple Sclerosis copyright 2020 by Michaël Friedman, ND, used with permission from Chelsea Green Publishing, White River Junction, Vermont, 802-295-6300; www.chelseagreen.com. Referenced and indexed.

Michaël Friedman, ND, is the author of There’s No Pill for This, a naturopathic physician, and founder of the Association for the Advancement of Restorative Medicine and the Journal of Restorative Medicine.