This question is very interesting to me because of this leaky gut study done on an ALS mouse model.  The mouse leaky gut is looking at the anti-microbial properties of the paneth cells in the small intestine and show a huge change in the microbiome from having these sick paneth cells.  

This is also really interesting to me because my sister has ALS, but my uncle died from a bleeding ulcer, which we now know is the H Pylori, a spirochaete.  My sister has ALS and if you look at her medical history, she's had gastrointestinal problems going back 20-30 years, including IBS and diverticulitis. 

I did a poll in the ALS community and a good 60% said they had gut issues prior to developing ALS, and I had a conference call last night where a pALS was self-described as not having gut issues, but then when his gut was described, well, maybe he didn't feel sick from his gut, but he had enormous gut issues, so I am guessing that if we ever did a proper pre-ALS health assessment we'd find significant gut issues preceding onset, and this whole shift that's happening to the microbiota is just setting the body up for increased absorption of biotoxins, malabsorption of nutrients, which is discussed in the environmental enteropathy article, and reduced protection from that gut barrier because of the improper nutrition of of the colonic EC cells from the loss of butyrate producing microbiota.  Another said that their pALS actually had emergency surgery because of a hole in the intestine!  But, what is amazing to me is look up ALS and it is only described as a motor neuron disease and the disease is so much more, where the motor neuron disease is late stage of quite possibly failure to properly treat earlier problems, and simply apply strategies to mask symptoms, but never treat root causes.

For the large intestine and colon, butyrate is the main food for the colonic EC cells, and that shift in the microbiome from the sick paneth cells kills the food source for a healthy gut, and sets up for malabsorption of nutrients.

By far, the best guide I've found to fixing gut issues comes from a source about fixing depression, from an integrative approach to treating depression (who'd have thought going to the source of what breaks serotonin production might fix it?), https://books.google.ca/books?id=GpHwCgAAQBAJ&dq=info:1j-NjWz9EhEJ

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Hi Deb!

Thanks for your response, - I believe the scientific community is becoming convinced of the numerous chronic health issues related to the dis-functional micro-biome, and I agree that our failure to treat the root cause has led us down the wrong path and resulted in much suffering.

I would hope that there might be a re-perception of the intestinal tract, so it would be looked at in comparison to the outer skin - the G.I. tract is actually the "other" outside of the body, - simply "closed off" for short periods of time.  I remember when H. Pylori was named as a possible cause of stomach ulcers, - at which time many doctors commented it was impossible for bacteria to survive the stomach acid...  

A drop of nuero-toxin ( pure nicotine ) on the skin will kill.  Does it not seem reasonable that trace amounts of bacterial produced nuero-toxin might have chronic/fatal effects on the organism also?

A bad micro-biome may influence arthritis, IBS, MS, Crohn's, ALS, and numerous nutritional issues.  The following article in reference to treating appendicitis with antibiotics presents an interesting concept - antibiotics soon enough may be all that is needed.....

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/03/21/a-new-view-of-appendicitis/?_r=0

The appendix as a reservoir for good bacterial replenishment after food poisoning makes total sense, - could the appendix also serve to retain pathogenic bacteria - making recovery/treatment much more difficult than need be, constantly re-seeding with the bad bacteria?....  That would be nice to know.

There are so many things that can disrupt the gut. This article discusses one of the "4 As" that I discuss with autoimmune and other chronic disease patients I see. The "4 As" being antacids, antibiotics, Advil(this one includes aspirin etc...) and alcohol. With almost 80% of the immune system surrounding the gut, this type of disruption can be a big driver of immune problems. It can drive vitamin deficiencies, hormone deficiencies and imbalances, high toxicity levels(at least 50% of endogenously produced toxins as well as environmental toxins need to leave the body through the gut). All the big drivers of autoimmune diseases as well as chronic disease in general. As mentioned above, the gut is also known as "the second brain" given its huge impact on brain function. I read an interesting article lately about how the vagus nerve appears to almost be a highway for bad bugs liberated from the gut by a "permeability" issue to ascend up into the brain directly. They don't need to get into the bloodstream and get thru a dysfunctional blood-brain barrier to get into the brain. Even though dysfunctional intestinal permeability will cause a dysfunctional BBB. One of the other reasons the gut has such a big impact on brain function.

It is always great to hear new information - the vagus nerve connection is very interesting in implications.  I have a chronic rhino-sinisitus condition which flares, and often along with the flare seems to result in an increased heart rate and arrhythmia.  I have wondered if the path of the vagus nerve - on the inside of the mouth would make it vulnerable to bacterial toxins - disrupting it's inhibitory effect on the heart, along with unknown additional associated effects.