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Microbial Burden: A Major Cause Of Aging And Age-Related Disease
More than 100 years ago, the major causes of death were infectious-related. However, over the past 100+ years, deaths related to infectious disease have been dramatically reduced. So can we say that the war against infectious disease is over? Definitely not! Humans are completely outnumbered by microbes, including bacteria and viruses, by at least 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 to 1! Our existence is under constant microbial attack, and eventually, our immune system can't properly handle this challenge. Infectious microbes enter and live inside us, where they cause insulin resistance, inflammation, telomere shortening, and oxidative stress, four major theories about why we age. In addition, microbial burden is involved with the major causes of death in 2016, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, and diabetes. We haven’t eliminated infectious disease, we have merely delayed it! This book will present evidence that supports the hypothesis that microbial burden is a major cause of ageing and age-related disease. Also, how can we fight back? Microbes can enter us through the gut, skin, and mouth. Evidence about how to optimally fortify these barriers is presented.
- GenresHealthNonfictionScience
196 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 23, 2016
38 people are currently reading
59 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 6, 2019
This minibook has highly variable quality.
Lustgarten demonstrates clear associations between microbes and aging. That's hardly newsworthy.
He's much less clear when he switches to talking about causality. He says microbes are the root cause of aging, and occasionally provides weak evidence to support that.
I still have plenty of reason to suspect that much of those associations are due to frailty and declining immune systems, which let microbes take over more. Lustgarten doesn't make the kind of argument that would convince me that the microbe --> senility causal path is more important than the senility --> microbe causal path.
He has a decent amount of practical advice that is likely to be quite healthy even if he's wrong about the root cause of aging, including: eat lots of leaves, green peppers, mushrooms, and use low pH soap.
One confusing recommendation is to limit our protein intake to moderate levels.
He provides a nice graph of mortality as a function of BUN (see here for more evidence about BUN), which hints that we should reduce BUN by reducing protein intake.
He also notes that methionine restriction has significant evidence behind it, and methionine restriction requires restricting protein, especially animal proteins.
Yet I see some suggestions that protein (methionine) restriction is likely only helpful in people with kidney disease.
My impression is that high BUN mostly indicates poor health when it's caused by kidney problems, and doesn't provide much reason for reducing protein consumption, and least in people with healthy kidneys.
Lustgarten has since blogged about evidence (see the 7/11/2018 update) that higher protein intake helps reduce his homocysteine.
I have also noticed a (noisy) negative correlation between my protein consumption and my homocysteine levels. But that might be due to riboflavin - when I reduce my protein intake, I also reduce my riboflavin intake, since crickets are an important source of riboflavin for me. So I want to do more research into dietary protein before deciding to reduce it.
The book is too quick to dive into technical references, with limited descriptions of why they're relevant. In many cases, I decided they provided only marginal support to his important points.
Read his blog before deciding whether to read the minibook. The blog focuses more on quantified-self-style reporting, and less on promoting a grand theory.
Lustgarten demonstrates clear associations between microbes and aging. That's hardly newsworthy.
He's much less clear when he switches to talking about causality. He says microbes are the root cause of aging, and occasionally provides weak evidence to support that.
I still have plenty of reason to suspect that much of those associations are due to frailty and declining immune systems, which let microbes take over more. Lustgarten doesn't make the kind of argument that would convince me that the microbe --> senility causal path is more important than the senility --> microbe causal path.
He has a decent amount of practical advice that is likely to be quite healthy even if he's wrong about the root cause of aging, including: eat lots of leaves, green peppers, mushrooms, and use low pH soap.
One confusing recommendation is to limit our protein intake to moderate levels.
He provides a nice graph of mortality as a function of BUN (see here for more evidence about BUN), which hints that we should reduce BUN by reducing protein intake.
He also notes that methionine restriction has significant evidence behind it, and methionine restriction requires restricting protein, especially animal proteins.
Yet I see some suggestions that protein (methionine) restriction is likely only helpful in people with kidney disease.
My impression is that high BUN mostly indicates poor health when it's caused by kidney problems, and doesn't provide much reason for reducing protein consumption, and least in people with healthy kidneys.
Lustgarten has since blogged about evidence (see the 7/11/2018 update) that higher protein intake helps reduce his homocysteine.
I have also noticed a (noisy) negative correlation between my protein consumption and my homocysteine levels. But that might be due to riboflavin - when I reduce my protein intake, I also reduce my riboflavin intake, since crickets are an important source of riboflavin for me. So I want to do more research into dietary protein before deciding to reduce it.
The book is too quick to dive into technical references, with limited descriptions of why they're relevant. In many cases, I decided they provided only marginal support to his important points.
Read his blog before deciding whether to read the minibook. The blog focuses more on quantified-self-style reporting, and less on promoting a grand theory.
July 17, 2016
Short and sweet summary of key facts about specific microbes and their effect on health. Referencing the latest scientific research, the author helpfully and concisely explains how to minimize disease-causing infections by simple lifestyle changes such as eating more fiber (a handy list of specific foods that can *greatly* increase fiber), using better soap (specific brands and which are best), and better teeth brushing (use peppermint oil). Best: the author shows how he experiments on himself to prove that his system works.
June 15, 2016
Michael did a great job on pointing out some critical points when it comes to leading an optimal lifestyle and eating healthy as well as personal hygiene all leading to a potential life extension. I loved the fact that this book is packed with very useful facts and it takes one sitting to finish and make personal notes. I highly suggest this book to everyone who is interested in longevity.
August 22, 2021
A very short book with a clear and neatly-defended thesis: that infection and infectious burden are the main causes of ageing and age-related disease.
According to the author, this remains true even though deaths directly related to infectious disease, such as via pneumonia and influenza, were dramatically reduced over the course of the 20th century.
Infectious burden contributes to the 4 main theories and causes of ageing--listed here as insulin resistance, inflammation, telomere shortening, and oxidative stress--and contributes to cancer progression, risk of cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular diseases such as Alzheimer's, the leading cause of death in centenarians (pneumonia), and more.
Insulin resistance: lipopolysaccharides (LPS), part of the outer cell wall of bacteria, cause insulin resistance. Injecting people with LPS makes them score higher on measures of insulin resistance. High blood levels of LPS are thus a biomarker for diabetes risk. LPS concentration in the blood increases as people age. Bacterial load contributes to age-related insulin resistance.
Inflammation: LPS is a signalling molecule in the inflammatory response. Inflammatory cytokines are released into the blood when LPS bind with their receptors. The same happens when bacterial flagellin bind to their receptors, too. These specific inflammatory markers are high old versus young people, suggesting increased infectious burden is a hallmark of ageing.
Telomere shortening: risk of infection with cytomegalovirus (CMV) increases with age. 100% of adults over 70 years are infected. CMV shortens telomeres. Telomeres are like clocks which count down (shorten in length) until a critical number is reached, killing the cells they're attached to. The shorter your telomeres, the higher your risk of death from all causes. CMV shortens telomeres.
Oxidative stress: reactive oxygen species are released in the presence of LPS. The higher your microbial burden, the greater your oxidative stress.
We can minimize our exposure to pathogens by protecting our gut, skin, mouth, and lungs.
Gut: tight junctions in the intestines prevent microbes from entering the blood. These junctions weaken with age. The short chain fatty acid butyrate strengthens them. (The bacteria which produce butyrate in our gut decline with age, too!) We can increase butyrate levels by eating lots of fiber, which is fermented by gut bacteria and turned into butyrate. The author eats between 100g-150g fiber every day. Two food components, inulin and fructooligosaccharides (FOS), also make butyrate and feed good Bifidobacteria species which reduce LPS. You only need about 10 grams of inulin/FOS per day, which can be got from very small amounts of food: 24 grams chicory root, 56 grams Jerusalem artichoke, 74 grams dandelion greens. They're also present in garlic.
Skin: pathogens can enter through our skin. They don't like an acidic skin pH (~5.0), but skin pH becomes more acidic as we age. (Interestingly, I learned that pH is logarithmic: "A skin cleanser with a pH of 5 is ten, one hundred, one thousand, and ten thousand times more acidic than cleansers with pHs of 6, 7, 8, and 9, respectively!"). Alkaline conditions increase pathogen detachment 18-fold. Almost all commercially available skin cleansers and soaps are acidic. Choose wisely!
Mouth: microbial load causes gingivitis and periodontal disease, which can contribute to Alzheimer's, cardiovascular disease, and more. Essential oils may help strip pathogens from teeth. .2% peppermint oil (2 drops in 1 cup of water) kills P. gingivalis. Gargle this solution every time you brush. Flossing, brushing, and tongue brushing remove bacteria from the mouth, reducing all-cause mortality.
Lungs: high-fiber diets (remember butyrate?) reduce the severity of respiratory disease, and better oral health lessens your risk of death by pneumonia (remember the centenarians?). Inhaling essential oils is a useful adjunct to antibiotics when combating pneumonia. Nebulising rosemary oil, thyme oil, or a .04% concentration of cinnamon oil kills many influenza and pneumonia bacteria.
In short: eat a high-fiber diet containing, among other things, chicory root, Jerusalem artichoke, dandelion greens, and garlic. Stop using acidic soaps and body washes. Use alkaline soaps instead. Brush and floss every single day and gargle with diluted peppermint essential oil (he's written elsewhere about a mouthwash containing bicarb soda and xylitol). Nebulise cinnamon essential oil when at risk of pneumonia. Simple!
According to the author, this remains true even though deaths directly related to infectious disease, such as via pneumonia and influenza, were dramatically reduced over the course of the 20th century.
Infectious burden contributes to the 4 main theories and causes of ageing--listed here as insulin resistance, inflammation, telomere shortening, and oxidative stress--and contributes to cancer progression, risk of cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular diseases such as Alzheimer's, the leading cause of death in centenarians (pneumonia), and more.
Insulin resistance: lipopolysaccharides (LPS), part of the outer cell wall of bacteria, cause insulin resistance. Injecting people with LPS makes them score higher on measures of insulin resistance. High blood levels of LPS are thus a biomarker for diabetes risk. LPS concentration in the blood increases as people age. Bacterial load contributes to age-related insulin resistance.
Inflammation: LPS is a signalling molecule in the inflammatory response. Inflammatory cytokines are released into the blood when LPS bind with their receptors. The same happens when bacterial flagellin bind to their receptors, too. These specific inflammatory markers are high old versus young people, suggesting increased infectious burden is a hallmark of ageing.
Telomere shortening: risk of infection with cytomegalovirus (CMV) increases with age. 100% of adults over 70 years are infected. CMV shortens telomeres. Telomeres are like clocks which count down (shorten in length) until a critical number is reached, killing the cells they're attached to. The shorter your telomeres, the higher your risk of death from all causes. CMV shortens telomeres.
Oxidative stress: reactive oxygen species are released in the presence of LPS. The higher your microbial burden, the greater your oxidative stress.
We can minimize our exposure to pathogens by protecting our gut, skin, mouth, and lungs.
Gut: tight junctions in the intestines prevent microbes from entering the blood. These junctions weaken with age. The short chain fatty acid butyrate strengthens them. (The bacteria which produce butyrate in our gut decline with age, too!) We can increase butyrate levels by eating lots of fiber, which is fermented by gut bacteria and turned into butyrate. The author eats between 100g-150g fiber every day. Two food components, inulin and fructooligosaccharides (FOS), also make butyrate and feed good Bifidobacteria species which reduce LPS. You only need about 10 grams of inulin/FOS per day, which can be got from very small amounts of food: 24 grams chicory root, 56 grams Jerusalem artichoke, 74 grams dandelion greens. They're also present in garlic.
Skin: pathogens can enter through our skin. They don't like an acidic skin pH (~5.0), but skin pH becomes more acidic as we age. (Interestingly, I learned that pH is logarithmic: "A skin cleanser with a pH of 5 is ten, one hundred, one thousand, and ten thousand times more acidic than cleansers with pHs of 6, 7, 8, and 9, respectively!"). Alkaline conditions increase pathogen detachment 18-fold. Almost all commercially available skin cleansers and soaps are acidic. Choose wisely!
Mouth: microbial load causes gingivitis and periodontal disease, which can contribute to Alzheimer's, cardiovascular disease, and more. Essential oils may help strip pathogens from teeth. .2% peppermint oil (2 drops in 1 cup of water) kills P. gingivalis. Gargle this solution every time you brush. Flossing, brushing, and tongue brushing remove bacteria from the mouth, reducing all-cause mortality.
Lungs: high-fiber diets (remember butyrate?) reduce the severity of respiratory disease, and better oral health lessens your risk of death by pneumonia (remember the centenarians?). Inhaling essential oils is a useful adjunct to antibiotics when combating pneumonia. Nebulising rosemary oil, thyme oil, or a .04% concentration of cinnamon oil kills many influenza and pneumonia bacteria.
In short: eat a high-fiber diet containing, among other things, chicory root, Jerusalem artichoke, dandelion greens, and garlic. Stop using acidic soaps and body washes. Use alkaline soaps instead. Brush and floss every single day and gargle with diluted peppermint essential oil (he's written elsewhere about a mouthwash containing bicarb soda and xylitol). Nebulise cinnamon essential oil when at risk of pneumonia. Simple!
December 3, 2018
Very Informative and Intriguing!
Very true! I purchased and began to read this in July. Definitely informative and a wonderful non-fiction resource related to modern day biotechnology, how our bodies work, and longevity! 5 out of 5!
Very true! I purchased and began to read this in July. Definitely informative and a wonderful non-fiction resource related to modern day biotechnology, how our bodies work, and longevity! 5 out of 5!
February 18, 2019
Essay supporting the hypothesis of microbes causing chronic diseases and how to mitigate this adverse development
Well supported by scientific referencs for further reading. Shows that a lot of additional scientific work is needed. The author has applied his own strategies on himself and measured the progression of some indicators as proof of concept. Fairly easy to implement strategies such as adding some mushrooms to your meals to get increased levels of spermidine.
Well supported by scientific referencs for further reading. Shows that a lot of additional scientific work is needed. The author has applied his own strategies on himself and measured the progression of some indicators as proof of concept. Fairly easy to implement strategies such as adding some mushrooms to your meals to get increased levels of spermidine.
November 13, 2022
This book is a decent overview of the ways in which acute and chronic infections are a key driver in various illnesses that crop up as people age. I don't have the chops to interpret all the papers cited, and some of the mechanistic explanations were rushed, but I at least found it convincing.
I'm giving it 2 stars because the "And What We Can Do To Fight Back" tag that I took as part of the title was a tacked on paragraph at the end of a chapter or section, that could often be boiled down to something like "Eat fiber".
I was left feeling like I would've spent my time better reading a superlong virology Masters/PhD intro that goes into 80 pages of background on the field before getting to their specific experiment.
I'm giving it 2 stars because the "And What We Can Do To Fight Back" tag that I took as part of the title was a tacked on paragraph at the end of a chapter or section, that could often be boiled down to something like "Eat fiber".
I was left feeling like I would've spent my time better reading a superlong virology Masters/PhD intro that goes into 80 pages of background on the field before getting to their specific experiment.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews