Immortal Hair q/abt Intestinal Flora & Diabetes

Hello Immortal,

You stated that intestinal flora, in particular the management of can have profound effects on regulating blood sugar. I was wondering if you can expand upon this a little bit. I am currently dealing with a patient who had just had surgury for colon cancer and had a considerable portion of his intestines removed. In the process they also learned that he was mildly type II diabetic. I was going to do some nutritional consult for him in terms of GI health but figured I may be able to hit to birds with one stone. I was thinking a of some Bifidobacterium, R-Lipoic Acid before meals, Magnesium, Chromium, and Biotin. Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks for all of your contributions,
LabRat

LabRat - I love your name!

If the digestive system can get enough healthy bacteria, it can reduce overall inflammation (C-Reactive Protein),
synthesize more Vitamin K, which can really knock out blood sugar fluctuation, help convert more undigested starch and sugars into energy, and prevent a potential load of toxic metabolites back into the system.

Probably the most interesting is that recent research shows that pathogenic bacteria can greatly determine how many calories are absorbed from food.

The ratio of Bacteriotedes and Firmicutes (bad to good bacteria) in two individuals if different can totally alter an identical caloric intake from food in terms of how much weight they put on.

Personally I have found that if I take a good probiotic (in my case Jarrow EPS), my cravings for starch and sugar is way less than without them. I also find that I am satisfied with less food if I take it prior to eating.

Last but not least they really cut down on patient allergies.

Fantastic Immortal!!!

Thanks for the Help!