You know those horrible pictures of starving children with swollen bellies that they have advertisements for charities. That swollen belly malnutrition has a name, Kwashiorkor, and it may very well be linked to the same leaky gut autoimmune problems that are plaguing so many children in industrialized nations.
One thing that researchers in Malawi noticed was that twins seemed to get kwashiorkor at different rates. Often only one twin had it which was odd since presumably they were eating about the same amount and kind of food.
After studying over 300 pairs of twins they found a difference in the intestinal microbes of the children with kwashiorkor. The theory was that perhaps the microbes were causing the problem. So they gave the microbes to some sterile mice. The mice started losing weight.
Why am I not surprised?
One of the things that was shocking to me once we got the diagnosis was the medical textbook photos of children with celiac disease. They look a lot like children with kwashiorkor. You see the same distended bellies, the same flattened butt, the same scrawny limbs and the same vacant look in the eyes.
I can clearly remember in my own life when the problems started and it was soon after I was released from the hospital after my appendix burst. I had gotten a horrendous internal infection called peritonitis and was on injected penicillin four times a day for over two weeks.
My gut was never right again.
What if the cause for these conditions is antibiotics which are never followed up with probiotics? I certainly do not want to suggest that we eliminate the use of antibiotics. Without them I would not be here today complaining. Yet the use of antibiotics without following up with probiotics or the indiscriminate use of antibiotics as a diagnostic tool is really disturbing to me.
If you want to read the actual study I have a link below. Although I have been thinking that understanding the microbiome was going to help us with autoimmune diseases for some time, it never would have occurred to me that it might also help save starving children. in Malawi. That would be really great.
