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Did you know bowels are the most important organ in your body?

If you were asked the question "what is the most important organ in your body" you might answer the heart or the brain or even the immune system. Although these are very important organs and their function is necessary for good health, the most important organ in your body is arguably your bowels.

Most of us think of the bowels as a tube where food goes in one end and waste material comes out the other end. In reality what goes on in your bowels dictates to the rest of your body how it will be functioning. Some have postulated that up to 70 percent of all the white blood cells in your body live in your bowels. In addition outside of the central nervous system, the bowels have the most nerve tissue and make most of the neurotransmitters in your body.

As wonderfully complex the system is, there is growing evidence that the most important part of the bowel is what is growing inside of it, primarily the bacteria.

Early thoughts on bowel bacteria were that they somehow helped with digestion. Over the past decade or so there has been an explosion of research as to the function of bowel bacteria and it is complex. We now know that the distribution of bowel bacteria is not constant. Different species of bacteria are dominant in different parts of the bowel. It is, in reality, a complex ecosystem where different species of animals live in different areas. It is unlikely to find an alligator living in the Rocky Mountains just as it is unlikely to find a mountain goat living in a swamp. The same goes for our bowels. Different species of bacteria seem to thrive in different parts of the bowel … and play specific roles.

Recent research has strongly suggested that the variety of bacteria in our bowels plays a significant role in development of diseases including diabetes, autoimmune diseases, heart disease and possibly even Alzheimer's.

A case in point is bowel disease. A reduction in the bacterium Firmicutes as well as an increase in the number of another bacteria, Bacteroidetes, correlates with an increased incidence of ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease and even irritable bowel syndrome. These changes in bacteria causes increased levels of inflammatory markers as well as providing a richer environment for even more pathologic species of bacteria. Indeed, one form of "bacterial therapy", fecal microbial transplantation, restores the balance of bacteria to the bowel and has been shown to be effective in life-threatening inflammatory bowel disease

Similar changes in the bowel bacteria - that is a decrease in bacteria that produce anti-inflammatory compounds with an increase in bacteria that produce inflammatory compounds - have been well-described in several autoimmune diseases as well as a number of liver-related diseases including fatty liver and alcoholic liver disease. Interestingly, changes in the bowel bacteria are also associated with obesity-related diseases such as high cholesterol, high triglycerides, hypertension, insulin resistance and diabetes.

Future medical therapy may include taking specific bacteria (probiotics) for the long-term treatment and, maybe prevention, of many chronic illnesses.

• Patrick B. Massey, MD, PH.D., is medical director for complementary and alternative medicine at Alexian Brothers Hospital Network and president of ALT-MED Medical and Physical Therapy, 1544 Nerge Road, Elk Grove Village. His website is www.alt-med.org.

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