If you have leaky gut or suspect you do, watch this 2-hour webinar (free for the next 48 hours)

[TheBrain]

Microbiome Series Special Event: LPS Endotoxemia. “The Root Cause of Root Causes”

This webinar is all about the gut microbiome and what happens when the gut isn't healthy and leaky gut is present: Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) pass through the gut lining and get into our system, wrecking all kinds of havoc. LPS endotoxemia (also referred to as metabolic endotoxemia) is essentially a blood infection that causes chronic low-grade inflammation.

Last night, I watched this webinar. It was put together by the Rebel Health Tribe. It's excellent. It gets a bit technical, referencing many medical articles about lipopolysaccharides (LPS), but there's a lot of actionable advice here. Microbiologist Kiran Krishnan has been studying LPS for 10 years.

I'm a member of the Rebel Health Tribe's Inner Circle (which cost $37), but the webinar is free for the next 48 hours.

[NewRon]

Interesting, very interesting!

Is it true? He makes some claims about it being the cause of various diseases...

[TheBrain]

I've just started poking around PubMed, and it makes me think, yes. Do a search on LPS, lipopolysaccharide, and lipopolysaccharide induced, and see the thousands of articles in the search results. I haven't yet spent much time looking at them, but I found some specific to Alzheimer's. For example, check this one out:

"Secretory Products of the Human GI Tract Microbiome and Their Potential Impact on Alzheimer's Disease (AD): Detection of Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in AD Hippocampus"

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28744452

Abstract
Although the potential contribution of the human gastrointestinal (GI) tract microbiome to human health, aging, and disease is becoming increasingly acknowledged, the molecular mechanics and signaling pathways of just how this is accomplished is not well-understood. Major bacterial species of the GI tract, such as the abundant Gram-negative bacilli Bacteroides fragilis (B. fragilis) and Escherichia coli (E. coli), secrete a remarkably complex array of pro-inflammatory neurotoxins which, when released from the confines of the healthy GI tract, are pathogenic and highly detrimental to the homeostatic function of neurons in the central nervous system (CNS). For the first time here we report the presence of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in brain lysates from the hippocampus and superior temporal lobe neocortex of Alzheimer's disease (AD) brains. Mean LPS levels varied from two-fold increases in the neocortex to three-fold increases in the hippocampus, AD over age-matched controls, however some samples from advanced AD hippocampal cases exhibited up to a 26-fold increase in LPS over age-matched controls. This "Perspectives" paper will further highlight some very recent research on GI tract microbiome signaling to the human CNS, and will update current findings that implicate GI tract microbiome-derived LPS as an important internal contributor to inflammatory degeneration in the CNS.

FULL TEXT: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10 ... 00318/full

[yellow1969]

I see a ton of leaky gut in my medical practice and there are tests that can detect anti LPS antibodies. One lab I use from Vibrant America is called Wheat Zoomer. Although it's an advanced gluten sensitivity test, it measures both zonulin and anti LPS antibodies. Its also reasonable in price at 199$. Basically if you have anti LPS, you have leaky gut and likely dysbiosis. Its a big factor in autoimmune disease as well.
Heather

[TheBrain]

Heather, thanks for reporting your experience with leaky gut in your medical practice, as well as the test you use. That price is reasonable.

I haven't had my zonulin tested but would like that checked. However, I did have my anti LPS antibodies tested through a Cyrex Labs Array 2 test.

Array 2 - Intestinal Antigenic Permeability Screen.png

I suspect that leaky gut/LPS is the root cause of several health issues I have going on.

Let me add that my Cyrex Labs results claim I don't have a leaky gut because I didn't have antibodies to zonulin or actomyosin. However, I've since heard from two credible sources that this Cyrex test doesn't capture all cases of leaky gut. The two sources are microbiologist Kiran Krishman (who is featured in the webinar I linked to in my first post) and gastroenterologist and celiac disease researcher Alessio Fasano.

For example, Dr. Fasano says that people with celiac disease have high levels of zonulin, which causes the tight junctions in their intestinal lining to remain open. But this wouldn't necessarily create antibodies to zonulin. Hopefully, after people who have celiac disease go gluten free, their zonulin level normalizes. But that doesn't always happen.

I have two copies of the celiac gene (HLA DQ2/DQ2), but I went gluten free before being tested for celiac disease. (I didn't know about better, nor did the two doctors I was seeing at the time.) So I've wondered if this is the case with me.

[NewRon]

Saturated fat seems to be a very bad actor in the creation of the LPS.

[TheBrain]

Yes, I was disapppointed to learn that saturated fat is a bad actor for LPS, with coconut oil being the worst of all forms. But heal the leaky gut, and then this issue goes away. Of course, APoE4s should limit saturated fat anyway, but I haven't been doing that very strictly, especially with the coconut oil. At least not until now.

I'm heard from several sources that one sign of a healed leaky gut is that at least some food sensitivities go away. None of mine have ever gone away (and I have a lot of them). I'd like to see that happen!

[Julie G]

Only an hour and a half left on this free opportunity... My schedule hasn't allowed me to watch . I'd appreciate any notes from those who did.

NewRon, good observation about SFA. We're gathering evidence from multiple sources (Gundry, etc.) that it may not be optimal for E4 carriers, but I strongly suspect that quality and context matter- a lot. The vast majority of papers examining the effect of SFA do so with poor quality SFA in the context of MetS which makes it hard to truly tease out effects.

Here's a thoughtful blog post that explores the effect of SFA on LPS. The author makes some interesting points.

[Tincup]

Gundry (in Plant Paradox) talks about how SFA require chylomicrons to be transported across the gut wall. Also LPS have an affinity for chylomicrons. In his Phase 1 and early part of his Phase 2 diet (for all, not just ApoE4's), he recommends using fats with very little sat fat for this reason. Here is one paper on the LPS/chylomicron topic.

One of the biggest benefits I've seen from my 5 day fasts every 14 days (have done 11 cycles so far) is in my gut. It has been screwed up royally for many many years. Prebiotics, probiotics (even rectal administration of VSL#3), a 50+g/day fiber diet made marginal improvement. However, my gut has improved with every fasting cycle, including the 7 day fast we did last Dec. It is not yet perfect, but is much closer to "normal" than I can remember. The improvements are incremental, not dramatic with one cycle.

[TheBrain]

Julie, thanks for the link to that post. Definitely some interesting points there. My understanding from Kiran on the webinar is that LPS from saturated fat is only an issue for people with leaky gut and hence LPS endotoxemia. Even for healthy people, LPS is released after each meal, peaking at five hours post-eating. But the amount of LPS released into the bloodstream is relatively low, even if saturated fat is consumed. It's intriguing to consider the possibility that LPS is released after eating to alert the immune system to possible pathogens in food.

As an Inner Circle member, I'll be getting a transcript of the webinar in a week or so. I wish I could post that here, but that would be a no-no. I can commit to sharing my notes, but I'll want to check the transcript for accuracy. But give me some time. It was a ton of information, and I'm taking a writing course and soon will be starting a course on reclaiming body wisdom.

I've had multiple stool tests that show I have 0% of Bifidobacteria (even after adding more resistant starch to my diet and taking probiotics that contain Bifidobacteria) and that wasn't always the case. Per the post you linked to and per Kiran, high-fat diets lower Bifidobaceria. I'm working to increase my Bifidobacteria, but I don't want to get out of ketosis. But doing so is one of Kiran's recommendations, but just during the phase of healing leaky gut.