Moodle at CCNM

Naturopathic doctors have always stressed the importance of treating the gut, and have used personalized diet to optimize health, botanical and other antimicrobials to treat stealth pathogens, and numerous other interventions to minimize harmful levels of inflammation and otherwise encourage best outcomes. How does the normal microbiome influence the importance and success of these treatments? How can emerging technology help us assess the importance of commensals and “possible pathogens?”

Over the past several decades, we have gained immense insight into the world of the human microbiome. The observations made using techniques like Fecal Microbiota Transplant and microbial sequencing are contributing to a new paradigm of what it means to be human. We now know we are not alone in our own bodies. We are a compilation of trillions of microbes and human cells working together as an ecosystem with the bulk of this ecosystem residing in our colon. This ecosystem and the repercussions of its health are now being investigated outside the local GI system. The colonic microbiome is communicating with our brain through neuroimmune, neuroendocrine, and direct sensory input. The bi-directional role this gut-brain axis has on health expands our understanding of what GI and mental health really means.

The trillions of microorganisms in your gut form a beautiful and staggeringly complex ecology that we are just learning how to see. This new learning affects our understanding of how our separation from the wild has set us up for the epidemic of hyper-inflammatory conditions which we're facing. This presentation explores new and old therapeutic interventions for inflammatory bowel disease, including food, probiotics, fecal transplant, helminths, and antimicrobials; all ways to influence the forest of the gut.