Defiant Health Radio with Dr. William Davis
Defiant Health Radio with Dr. William Davis
The Powerful Influence of the GI Microbiome on Sleep
Sleep issues represent a major struggle for millions of people: too little sleep, trouble falling asleep, trouble staying asleep, early morning awakenings followed by difficulty falling back asleep. Some people complain that, despite having a full night of sleep, they awake feeling like they didn’t sleep at all, struggling with sleepiness, fog, and fatigue all through waking hours. There are also known associations of health conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome and Parkinson’s disease with disruptions of sleep.
The science that explores the role of gastrointestinal microbes in sleep are yielding new and exciting lessons. Recently, for instance, lack of sleep has been shown to adversely impact the composition of the GI microbiome, i.e., there is a bidirectional cross-talk: the brain communicates with the gut, the gut communicates with the brain in ways that influence sleep. But new observations are also emerging from our fermentation projects, especially our yogurts in which we ferment unique microbial species to very high counts, increasing the number of microbes a hundred, or even a thousand-fold, efforts that are yielding new lessons that have not yet been formally described in human scientific studies. So let’s discuss some of these interesting lessons that are emerging involving sleep.
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Super Gut: The 4-Week Plan to Reprogram Your Microbiome, Restore Health, and Lose Weight
Sleep issues represent a major struggle for millions of people Too little sleep, trouble falling asleep, trouble staying asleep, early morning awakenings followed by difficulty falling back asleep. Some people complain that, despite having a full night of sleep, they awake feeling like they didn't sleep at all, struggling with sleepiness, fog and fatigue all through waking hours. There are also known associations between health conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome and Parkinson's disease with disruptions of sleep. The science that explores the role of gastrointestinal microbes in sleep are yielding new and exciting lessons. Recently, for instance, lack of sleep has been shown to adversely impact the composition of the GI microbiome. That is, there's a bidirectional crosstalk the brain communicates with the gut, the gut communicates with the brain in ways that influence sleep. But new observations are also emerging from our fermentation projects, especially our yogurts, in which we ferment unique microbial species to very high counts, increasing the number of microbes a hundred or even a thousand fold Efforts that are yielding new lessons that have not yet been formally described in human scientific studies. So let's discuss some of these interesting lessons that are emerging involving sleep and later in the podcast let's talk about Defiant Health sponsors Paleo Valley, our preferred provider for many excellent organic and grass-fed food products and BioDequest, my number one choice for probiotics that are scientifically formulated, unlike most of the other commercial probiotic products available today. Just over the last few years, it's becoming clearer and clearer that the gastrointestinal microbiome plays a major role in determining sleep, how long we sleep, how well we sleep, the patterns that occur during sleep. But think how much time we've wasted trying to use drugs like sleeping pills, benzodiazepines and other things that really don't do anything for the microbiome that is the cause for sleep disturbances, or many sleep disturbances. It's become clear that the microbiome, the gastrointestinal microbiome, influences sleep by a variety of mechanisms. That includes the so-called gut-brain axis, the vagus nerve, by generating blood-borne metabolites and by disruption of the circadian rhythm. So let's run through some of these new and emerging insights in how the gastrointestinal microbiome plays a major role in influencing the quality and quantity of sleep.
Speaker 1:Those of you who have been following my conversations know that we talk a lot about the microbe lactobacillus reuteri, a microbe that virtually all of us have lost because it is very susceptible to common antibiotics. So even if you took your last antibiotic 10 or 20 years ago, maybe a moxicillin for an upper respiratory infection or a urinary tract infection, lactobacillus rhodoridae is very susceptible to common antibiotics and it disappeared from your gastrointestinal microbiome. You may recall that the microbiologist who first discovered this species in 1962, dr Gerhard Reuter, who isolated it from the breast milk of a breastfeeding mother in Germany, he remarked back then that it was easy to find in breast milk and stool and other body secretions. Over his 40-year academic career he found it increasingly difficult to find this microbe anymore in any body fluid. In fact, by the end of his career he found that almost nobody had it and this has been corroborated several times by other research groups. That lactobacillus roteri has essentially disappeared from the modern gastrointestinal microbiome, and recall that it is a ubiquitous microbe in other populations, such as hunter-gatherer human populations in New Guinea or the Brazilian rainforest. They all have lactobacillus rhodori because they've not been exposed to antibiotics and other factors. Other mammals like moose and deer and gophers and beavers they all have lactobacillus reuterite, also suggesting that this species, this microbial species, is essential for mammalian health.
Speaker 1:But back to this issue of sleep, lactobacillus reuterite. That is an observation that I've made and many people in my audience have made, converting many of us from struggling with sleep or, for me personally, a chronic insomniac for decades, now sleep straight through the night, with rare awakenings, likely due to the oxytocin boost that roteri provides when it takes up resins in the GI tract. It's a sleep effect only about half of us experience when we restore lactobacillus roteri. Why doesn't everybody experience this effect? Well, it's not quite clear, but we can speculate that maybe some people, the occasional person, already has lactobacillus roteri, but that's uncommon. Another would be variation in the response of the brain to produce oxytocin with restoration of rhodori. Or perhaps it's some variation such as maybe some people are more susceptible to increasing melatonin release with oxytocin. So this is an area ripe for research.
Speaker 1:But know that you have access to a microbe, lactobacillus rhodori, that we make into yogurt. We do that because we want to increase the microbial counts. It's not yogurt, of course. It looks and smells like yogurt. You cannot buy it in a store. But we use long fermentation in some vehicle, typically organic, half and half. We do that for 36 hours to allow this microbe to double. Remember microbes don't have sex right. There's no male and female microbes, they just double themselves. Lactobacillus roterite doubles every three hours at human body temperature. So we allow it to double 12 times. And when we count the number of microbes via something called flow cytometry, a laser-assisted microbial counting process, we get around 300 billion microbes per half cup serving. That may be also part of the reason why we get such great effects by restoring roteri at high doses.
Speaker 1:Another microbe that has proven very helpful and once again not described in the scientific literature yet is Lactobacillus casei, and specifically the shirota strain, available as a commercial product called Yakult Y-A-K-U-L-T that you find in little plastic containers in the refrigerator aisle of most major grocery stores. Now the product itself is not very good because it's made with skim milk and lots of sugar. So we don't drink the Yakult product, we just use it as a source for this microbe and you can ferment it. You can ferment it by itself or you can ferment it with lactobacillus rhodori same temperature, same amount of time and this yields profound sleep for many people. For me personally, I did this and I had to stop it because I was sleeping 12 hours a night as a chronic insomniac, so I had to stop it. But many people who don't get the really over-the-top effect of Roteri may benefit by adding lactobacillus casei. You can try it by itself, though I feel that Roteri is so important to your overall health and well-being, that we should never abandon consumption of Lactobacillus Roteri until such time we figure out how to permanently reimplant it. But we don't know how to do that just yet. So combining Lactobacillus Roteri with Lactobacillus KCI Sherota strain can be a huge effect in cultivating healthy sleep. Another important microbe for sleep is lactobacillus gasseri, and this seems to be true of many strains, not just one strain. But it appears to reduce sleep disruptions that are caused by stress. In other words, people have financial stress, personal stress and thereby struggle to fall asleep or stay asleep. Lactobacillus gastrate appears to reduce those sleep disruptions.
Speaker 1:Melatonin is an issue here, not orally ingested melatonin, but orally ingested melatonin has been shown to remold or improve the composition of the gastrointestinal microbiome. So that's one thing, but we have to recognize that the gastrointestinal microbial species produce far greater quantities of melatonin than the pineal gland that we ordinarily think of as a source of melatonin. In fact, it's the gastrointestinal microbiome that produces hundreds of times greater quantities of melatonin. That thereby suggests that dysbiosis, that is, disruptions of the microbial species in the colon, as well as SIBO small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, s-i-b-o may reduce the number of microbes that are able to produce melatonin and that may underlie sleep disruptions and leads to increased risk for such conditions as Alzheimer's dementia. So let's go through that again. So it's loss of beneficial species that characterize colonic dysbiosis or SIBO small intestinal bacterial overgrowth that in turn cause a reduction in the production of melatonin and lead to other diseases like dementia that may underlie a lot of sleep disruptions. And, by the way, melatonin oral supplementation can be a useful way to recultivate the healthy species that in turn produce more melatonin. So melatonin may work, at least in part, by favorable modulation of the gastrointestinal microbiome.
Speaker 1:Another phenomenon we're experiencing and this is not reported in the scientific literature, this is anecdotal but among many people is the increase in the intensity and frequency of so-called alpha dreams. But you may notice that you're having more vivid dreams in that early phase of sleep. That likely reflects a number of positive changes in the microbiome that result from all the things we do, like restoration of lactobacillus reuteri and other small intestinal colonizing species, their production of bactericids that reduces the number of fecal microbes in the small intestine and colon, and production of butyrate, the fatty acid that facilitates better sleep. And there may be other reasons, but many of us are experiencing an increase in these so-called alpha dreams, dreams that materialize just at the onset of sleep. Let me pause now and take a few minutes just to tell you about Defiant Health podcast sponsors. When we come back, let's discuss some other interesting aspects of the interaction between the microbiome and sleep.
Speaker 1:The Defiant Health podcast is sponsored by Paleo Valley makers of delicious grass-fed beef sticks, healthy snack bars and other products. We're very picky around here and insist that any product we consider contains no junk ingredients like carrageenan, carboxymethylcellulose, sucralose or added sugars, and, of course, no gluten nor grains. One of the habits I urge everyone to get into is to include several servings of fermented foods every day in your diet, part of an effort to cultivate a healthy gastrointestinal microbiome. Unlike nearly all other meat sticks available, paleo Valley grass-fed beef, pork and chicken sticks are naturally fermented, meaning they contain probiotic bacterial species. Paleo Valley has also launched a number of interesting new products, including extra virgin olive oil, spice mixes, organic coffee, strawberry lemonade, super greens and essential electrolytes in a variety of flavors. And if you haven't already tried it, you've got to try their chocolate flavored bone broth protein that makes delicious hot chocolate and brownies. See the recipes for the brownies in my drdavisinfinitehealthcom blog. Listeners to the Defiant Health podcast receive a 15% discount by going to paleovalleycom.
Speaker 1:Backward slash defiant health and I'd like to welcome Defiant Health's newest sponsor, biodiquest. I've had numerous conversations with Biodiquest founders Martha Carlin and academic microbiologist Dr Raul Cano. They have formulated unique synergistic probiotic products that incorporate what are called collaborative or guild effects, that is, groups of microbes that collaborate with each other via specific metabolites, potentially providing synergistic benefits. They have designed their Sugar Shift probiotic to support healthy blood sugars. Simple Slumber to support sleep. Ideal immunity to support a healthy immune response. Heart-centered that supports several aspects of heart health. An antibiotic antidote designed to support recovery of the gastrointestinal microbiome after a course of antibiotics. The BiotiQuest probiotics are, I believe, among the most effective of all probiotic choices for specific health effects. Enter the discount code UNDOC15, u-n-d-o-c all caps 15, for a 15% discount for Defiant Health listeners.
Speaker 1:There's also a very interesting phenomenon called alpha-delta sleep, and all that means is early sleep, as I mentioned, is characterized by so-called alpha waves on an EEG. Deep sleep is characterized by a different kind of wave called delta wave sleep. That's deep sleep like phase four REM type sleep. That's where a lot of reorganization of memory occurs. Consolidation of memory and better emotional health emerges from having lots and lots of deep sleep. That's one of the reasons, by the way, that people with sleep apnea have such awful health issues, including emotional, psychological issues, because they are deprived of the deep delta phase of sleep.
Speaker 1:In some people there's an odd situation where during delta sleep, when they should be deep asleep, it's intruded by alpha type waves. This is called alpha delta sleep. So these are people who say things like this I slept an entire night, like eight hours or more, but I woke up feeling like I didn't sleep at all. So it's a disruptive phenomenon when alpha waves interrupt or invade delta forms of sleep, and this is driven by endotoxemia. So those of you new to this conversation need to know that when fecal microbes like E coli or salmonella and other species from the colon invade the 24 feet of small intestine and then take up residence and produce endotoxins, a component of their cell walls, that are released when they die. So these fecal microbes in the 24 feet of small intestine, turning over very rapidly they only live for a few hours release these toxic compounds into the intestinal lumen, into the intestine internal contents, and these endotoxins gain entry into the bloodstream, because the small intestine is, by design, very permeable, because that's where we're supposed to absorb things like vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, amino acids. So the small intestine containing a lot of endotoxin that then in turn enters the bloodstream and that endotoxemia high levels of endotoxin from fecal microbes in the small intestine causes this alpha-delta sleep. So the solution, of course, is to address the endotoxemia and not take a sleeping pill right Now.
Speaker 1:Another phenomenon important to sleep is the proliferation or the presence of lactobacillus and bifidobacteria species. These are the species that we cultivate by doing such things as consuming lots and lots of fermented foods and probiotics and our yogurts and other fermented projects. So recall that, even though fermented foods like sauerkraut or kimchi have species like Leukonostoc mesenteroides or Pediococcus pentasaceus, these are microbes that don't take up residence in the GI tract, they just pass through after you consume that food but they somehow, by an uncertain mechanism, cultivate, promote the proliferation and colonization of lactobacillus and bifidobacteria species. So in other words, consumption of fermented foods increases so-called species diversity, the number of beneficial microbes in the gastrointestinal microbiome. When you increase the populations of lactobacillus and bifidobacteria they convert. Among their many effects is they convert the amino acid glutamate to GABA. That is an inhibitory factor that facilitates sleep. So let me run through that again. All the efforts we make to recultivate, to increase the populations of beneficial lactobacillus and bifidobacteria species, many of them not just one or two strains, but many species help convert glutamate to the relaxing or inhibitory GABA compound. So all the efforts we make to cultivate healthy gastrointestinal microbiome via a GABA-driven mechanism further cultivate better sleep.
Speaker 1:Another phenomenon to be aware of are what I call cortisol awakenings. That is, if you're in a real stressful time of your life financial stress, emotional stress, family stress, maybe you have a parent who's declining and you have to take care of this parent, or you have a child with learning disabilities, whatever. A lot of stress, prolonged, serious stress, not momentary stress, but prolonged, sustained stress tends to shift cortisol behavior. So recall that cortisol is meant to be released by the adrenal glands in the morning to help you wake up. So this occurs along with other hormones like norepinephrine and epinephrine. These are excitatory hormones to help you become awake.
Speaker 1:When people who are stressed the timing of that morning surge can be mistimed and often occurs too early occur, for instance, at 2 am or 3 am. That causes you to wake up and then struggle to fall back asleep. It's not uncommon for someone to sit awake in bed or watch TV or read a book for hours after they awaken. It's very disruptive because it's very difficult to obtain a full night's sleep when this happens. Now, one thing we cannot do with our current knowledge, our current insights into the microbiome, is change that timing. In other words, can we shift it from 2 am to 7 am or something like that? To my knowledge, no one knows how to do that, nobody in the alternative world, no one in the conventional world. The only thing we can accomplish right now is to subdue or reduce the magnitude of that cortisol surge. And there are two microbes that are very helpful, two I've mentioned Lactobacillus rhoderi, very helpful in suppressing abnormal cortisol surges, and Lactobacillus gasseri, also very effective in suppressing cortisol surges. So you may still have a tendency to wake up in the middle of the night, but it should be less marked. So, until we find a way to shift the timing, this is kind of a second best in introduced microbes that are known to suppress the abnormal rises in cortisol.
Speaker 1:And then, lastly, another major influence on the quality and duration of sleep is butyrate, that is, butyric acid, a fatty acid that is the likely mediator, at least of some of the effects of a circadian rhythm. That is the rhythm we all follow to suit our lives on this planet, with a 24-hour time cycle so that we sleep at night we're awake during the day. A lot of that is determined. That circadian rhythm is determined, likely by butyrate, maybe other factors also Butyrate is a major player.
Speaker 1:So one of the things you can do to cultivate better sleep is to cultivate what are called butyrogenic species, that is, species in the gastrointestinal microbiome that are producers of butyrate or butyric acid. So this means we're going to cultivate beneficial butyrogenic species such as Fecalobacterium prosnitzii, lachnosporaceous species, ruminicacaceous species, acromantius species. So these are microbes we cultivate. Then we feed them. We feed them with prebiotic fibers and related compounds, especially inulin that comes from onions, garlic, shallots, green, unripe banana, root vegetables. We feed ourselves with these fibers that in turn cause proliferation of butyrogenic species like Fecalobacterium, and then we also consume these fibers that cause these microbes to produce butyrate.
Speaker 1:A common observation in many people is that when they add prebiotic fiber such as inulin and other sources like root vegetables and legumes, they experience an increase in vivid childlike dreams and the depth of sleep. And many people who wear these actigraphic devices such as an Apple Watch or an Aura Ring and many other of these devices that indirectly quantify the quantity of deep sleep. Many have noticed about a 15 or more percent increase in the duration of deep phases of sleep, which in turn leads to better emotional health, better coping with stress and then also an overall improved sleep experience and thereby daytime functioning. So there you have it. The gastrointestinal microbe is proving to be a major influence on the quality and duration of sleep, and I've given you several strategies you can put to use to gain better sleep and try to get away from such things as sleeping pills or just having disrupted sleep with impaired daytime functioning.
Speaker 1:Now, if you learned something from this episode of the Defiant Health Podcast, I urge you to subscribe through your favorite podcast directory. Post a review, post a comment. Let's help build this movement of self-empowerment in health and getting away from reliance on conventional health care. Thanks for listening.
