I have had my website overhauled a really nice man in India took the awful website I designed and re designed it on WordPress , it looks fresher , It looks like I know what Im doing ( we know better though right? …….bit harsh..) Anyway he handed the site over to me yesterday and Ive got to admit , I haven’t a clue. Im on Youtube right now watching how to videos for Commodore 64 brained people like me.
last night I wrote a six hundred page blog , didn’t understand how to save it and like a gamblers money in Vagas …whoosh…. and all my work went , never to be seen again . Now you know if you have read anything of mine before that I take a while to get to a point , if I ever get there …but the point is coming and Im proud of this link …. (don’t have much else going on at the moment so my standards are admittedly very low)
The Point……..
I really prefer to know how things work , I feel better for ( random example coming ) for instance , understanding how this website works , how to post , Ive noticed a few mistakes in some past blogs , not least one is missing a paragraph and I want to know how to deal with it . If there is a problem I might have to seek help from someone who really knows their stuff like the helpful man I found in India, but for day to day running and so I know how to prevent problems occurring I like to know that myself.
Really Clever Link Coming!
This is also what this website is about , we are not an expert on our bodies ( see you know where I’m going now!) if we have a serious problem we will of course seek medical advice , its the only sensible thing to do , who wants to take advice from Youtube about a serious problem? But for the day to day stuff , the prevention stuff , we can perhaps help each other.
title things are here…..
In this particular post , although you might not have realised it yet , I want to discuss the microbiome . Some have been known to call it the garden of your gut , some your second brain , some also point to the important function is has in regulating your immune system . I won’t bore you with all the facts you already know , when I can bore you with other facts. If you collected all the microorganisms , viruses, protozoa and fungi that live in your lower intestine and mushed them together , apart from the appalling smell you could weigh it and it might weigh about the same as your brain. I have read that there are over a trillion little fellas in your gut ( Imagine starting a new job in a lab and being asked to count them all ), they are dynamic though , I love that word ,always reminds me of Batman ( Dynamic duo ?), so depending on the day month or year your gut flora might be different , In fact there may be up to 10 microbiota cells to every one humane cell in our bodies !.
You may be on some medicine that effects it , you might be on a Keto diet or perhaps on a month cruise to the Caribbean and want to eat your moneys worth in cakes, all of this will have an impact on your gut. I bet you have already heard about the gut brain axis ( ok , its a two way communication with your brain linking emotional and cognitive parts of your brain to the gastrointestinal tract, perhaps, but not confirmed, through the vagus nerve ).It has been suggested recently that this can play a part in depression, mental health, some psychiatric disorders and anxiety perhaps through our friend the HPA axis and some have even mentioned Autism , but this is subject to emerging research. I also bet you have heard lots of talk about the gut and your immune system , in fact David Weber MD , PhD a professor emeritus of medicine at UCLA is quoted as saying that “Seventy percent of the immune system is situated in the gut” and perhaps importantly for us ACE survivors he also said “Nutrition is a key modulator of the immune system”. What we know is that the lovely little things in your gut are for the most part good for you and you want to help keep them happy. A happy microbiome is a diverse microbiome!
OK WHAT IF YOU HAVE ACEs IN YOIUR HISTORY ?
(why was that all in caps ? I wasn’t shouting ?….strange , It wasn’t me ..)
This is where it gets a bit more difficult for us , I have read so much over the pass six months whilst getting information together for my book ( did I mention it , its called Trauma-Shadow , quick plug and its out next year). I have been ,……Im trying to think of a word to use here that means serious, but It won’t frighten the hell out of childhood trauma survivors, let’s use “troubled” . I have been troubled at the level of change to our bodies that childhood trauma inflicts , a lot of it very long term. My next post in on prisons and those incarcerated and you won’t believe the link with childhood trauma . Anyway ,I will try to keep to the point . Firstly there are some studies that are looking at pregnant women , if they are subjected to excess trauma or stress then they might create an environment for the unborn child and this can obviously be bad for both mother and child . The child may also carry this as a change to their microbiome as the mothers gut bacteria may pass this stress altered microbiome to the infant during a natural delivery. Early life is important for the microbiome , its particularly vulnerable at this point an ACE in childhood can cause real changes to the make up of the gut, at this point the gut microbiome is shaping our immune system for optimal functioning as well as the nervous system and metabolic systems. Individuals affected might have serious effects open their behaviour or immunology and these might be long lasting. Add to this all the problems associated with childhood trauma , possible poor choices in diets , risk of substance abuse , self harm and you have a cocktail of negative implications for the gut flora . In a strange way , it seems that for individuals that have suffered childhood trauma its not just the brain that remembers but the gut.
So what to do…..?
I expected to go on a bit about probiotics and prebiotics , but Im no Dr and there seems to be plenty of discussion about them , the argument ranges from they are useless to they are fantastic . The area in the middle seems to be filled with a pragmatic approach , perhaps good for some, for example irritable bowel sufferers but less required for healthy individuals , Im sure I don’t know either way. Perhaps the one thing we as non professionals can do is eat a diverse range of foods , ” eat the rainbow ” , if you are in the western world we probably need to do that anyway. We could eat more fibre , guts seem to love it , you know , beans, fruit that sort of thing. There has been talk about fermented food , Ive tried it , it’s not for me …except yogurt , I love that. Whole grains another good one , Im a vegetarian so I do eat a lot of this stuff , but I always say a vegetarian or vegan diet isn’t always healthier , depends what you eat , I eat a lot of cheese for example ( Im so bad). Whatever you do , you really cannot go wrong with a diverse diet of good stuff. I have a little treat now and then , who doesn’t ? Its just as ACE survivors, we need to look after our gut flora a bit more than the average person , so go on …take a bite out of that carrot study …..
Have a great day , see you next time.
Im so grateful you have spent time here , there is so much content out there , Im just a trauma survivor , Im looking for answers and seeking them in the latest research . I hope this finds you in a good place , keep well and be kind to yourselves ……..
