Happy gut, healthy life?

Why the gut mucosal barrier is essential.

Hi everyone -

This week's new article is a continuation of my deep dive into how the gut mucosal layer is essential to health and life. I introduced the studies on how the mucosal barrier protects us from digesting ourselves in these two articles on Longevity Lifehacks: Aging - Leaking digestive enzymes cause autodigestion, tissue damage, and inflammation and then more in the article Autodigestion?

My new Genetic Lifehacks article looks at how the intestinal mucosa is synthesized, which genes are involved, and how the mucosal barrier is broken down by dietary emulsifiers, mycotoxins, and physical stressors.

In writing the article, I dug into a number of research studies on how the surfactants and emulsifiers commonly found in our food supply affect the barrier layer in our intestines.

One thing that really stood out to me is just how ubiquitous emulsifiers are in our food supply. For example, I found that even the active dry yeast that I use to bake bread at home contains one of the emulsifiers that affect gut health. This reminded me of the Sourdough School which uses traditional methods of baking as lifestyle medicine -- essentially connecting traditional baking with farming, nutrition, community, and wellness.

I'll let you read the full article on the mucosal barrier for more on how our modern lifestyle is out of sync with the essential gut protective barrier.

I hope all of you in the US are having a happy Thanksgiving holiday weekend with family and friends! And yes, I realize that an article on the mucosal barrier may not be what you want to read right after Thanksgiving dinner... Bookmark it and read it next week :-)

Stay curious,

~ Debbie

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Gut Mucosal Barrier: Foundational and Underappreciated

Key takeaways:
~ The gut mucosal barrier is a vital and underappreciated part of our overall health and wellness.
~ The mucus layer protects us from bacteria, viruses, toxins, and our own digestive enzymes.
~ Genetic variants in the mucus production genes can impact the risk of certain diseases.
~ Our modern diet is full of emulsifiers that thin out our gut mucosal barrier, leading to increased inflammatory response in the gut.

Click here to read the full article

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Please share with family and friends!

Black Friday Sale!

Use the coupon code BlackFriday for 20% off any Genetic Lifehacks membership or upgrade.

The coupon code works on new memberships or when upgrading from a monthly to an annual or lifetime membership. To upgrade, go to the member dashboard, click on Account Settings, and on the Subscriptions tab, there's an upgrade link.

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What I've been reading:

1.) Adipose tissue retains an epigenetic memory of obesity after weight loss

A new study published in Nature shows that even after weight loss, fat cells still have an epigenetic signature found in obesity. Essentially, the fat cells have permanent changes that aren't reversed by weight loss.

2) Coffee consumption is associated with intestinal Lawsonibacter asaccharolyticus abundance and prevalence across multiple cohorts

There's an interesting new study out on the microbiome changes from coffee consumption. The bacteria identified is a butyrate-producing bacteria. This may explain some of the positive connections between coffee and health.