this is to respond to sotto’s claim echoing, nay, plagiarizing blogger sarah pope’s, that using birth control pills causes “severe gut dysbiosis,” that is, kills good bacteria in the gastro-intestinal tract.
i sent pope’s link to doc butch, an internist, and this is what he emailed back:
Strange. Googling, found an incredible dearth of studies linking oral contraceptives to gut dysbiosis, how long it takes to develop, how long it takes to resolve on discontinuance of pills. No comparative studies. Even searching studies on gut dysbiosis in infants and neonates; there’s no mention or an “also” mention of contraceptives as cause.
Food additives, steroids, psychological and physical stress, antibiotics are the main cause of intestinal dysbiosis, not Pills. Antibiotics are the most common culprit. Women, pregnant or non-pregnant, are often prescribed antibiotics. In a review article on pediatric inflammatory bowel diseases, pneumonia before the age of five and consequent frequent use of antibiotics is implicated in the dysbiosis. No studies I found implicated birth control pills as primary cause or significant contributory cause for the development of pediatric gut dysbiosis.
And as I’m getting frustrated searching for studies, here’s a little math that snuck up. About 10 million women in the U.S. and 100 million women worldwide use combination oral contraceptive pills. I bet many of them are long-term users. And many probably eventually get pregnant. But we don’t read about an epidemic of intestinal dysbiosis among women and infants.
Another piece of math. Of those more than 100 million women, 95 to 98% of them successfully use birth control. Less deaths and diseases among them, no abortions, no unwanted pregnancies. Also, for some of the 2 to 5% who get pregnant despite conscientious use of the pills, antibiotics are often implicated for decreased effectiveness of birth control pills. The same antibiotics that are one of the most common causes of gut dysbiosis.
well, no wonder sotto’s staff had to settle for the blog of a “healthy economist.” wala kasing medical studies supporting such a claim, not on the internet anyway, which should have raised warning signals. this is not to disparage sarah pope, who’s clearly an advocate of natasha mcbride’s alternative health ek-ek (kanya-kanyang agenda), and who was clearly plagiarized, despite sotto’s chief of staff hector villacorta’s claim to the contrary.
On the claim of Ms. Pope that the senator plagiarized her blog in his “turno en contra’’ speech last Wednesday to stress his objection to the RH bill, Villacorta said he called the office of the IPO which stated that there is no such crime as plagiarism of a blog.
‘’There is no such thing. Blogs are public domain and government can use any information if it is for the common good,’’ Villacorta told the Manila Bulletin after checking with the IPO.
our intellectual property office should clear this up, ASAP. surely our laws are no different from US copyright laws?
read,too, Copyright and Public Domain.
more from doc butch: “Actually, gut dysbiosis is a disease of the modern age. The onslaught of modern age gut challenges – antibiotics, toxic medications, toxins, additives, chemotherapy, radiation, dietary changes, environmental pollution – has wreaked havoc on the gastrointestinal system. Too much, too little time to adjust. So, some indeed suffer the gut dysbiosis.
“Intestinal dysbiosis is basically an imbalance of the gut microflora. In all its myriad indications for infections, antibiotics, while saving lives, also destroys the intestinal microflora, including the beneficial bacteria, with consequent overgrowth of the bad.”
on probiotics & yakult: “Probiotics is a new to new-age medical armamentarium, built around the concept of gut dysbiosis, anchor to the commerce of countless products.
Probiotics are functional and supplemental foods that provide the beneficial bacteria to restore or maintain microfloral balance.
“Of the intestinal organisms, three considered most important and beneficial are: (1) lactobacillus acidophilus (2) Bifidobacterium bifidum (Bifidus), and (3) Saccharomyces boulardii. (1) and (3) colonize the small intestine, while bifidobacteria, an anaerobe, predominate in the large intestine.
“Of the three, lactobacillus has gotten the most press, touting with impressive gut benefits: inhibition of pathogenic and non-patho gut bacteria, production of natural antibiotics (bulgarican and acidophillin), detoxification, production of enzymes that help the lactose-intolerant, vitamin synthesis, etc.
“Yogurt has been around much much longer, for thousands of years providing a source of daily doses of good bacteria. Yogurt provides the basic idea for probiotics. Yakult is recognized the ‘pioneer’ of the probiotic industry.
“Yakult is a fermented dairy drink that contains probiotic cultures instead of yogurt cultures. They differ in culture types: Probiotics like yakult, contain various species or strains of lactobacilli or bifidobacteria, while yogurt cultures are lactobacillus bulgarius and streptococcus thermopiles.”
“If you become a probiotic convert, it’s not an easy religion. And as a daily supplement, it is not inexpensive. Yakult is suggested to be taken once or twice daily. And if you’re really concerned about your gut microfloral ecology, the dietary protocols are severe: Give up pork and many other yummy delights, elimininate alcohol, caffeine, carbonated beverages, no subtitute sweeteners. Egads! good luck.
“Oh, one last point. . . or idea. No studies to support it. If you listen or read the doom-and-gloom articles on gut dysbiosis, you would think there is an epidemic of gut dysbiosis. Earlier, I said some suffer it. But despite the decades of indiscriminate use of antibiotics, plus all the other modern-day additions to gut insults, there is really no epidemic of gut dysbiosis out there. Sure, I have had patients with it. Clostridium deficile colitis. Bacterial overgrowth syndromes. But no gut dysbiotic epidemics.
“I think the human gut continues to be resilient, adapting slowly and, I think, efficiently. But, indeed, some people can’t. So, people who develop dysbiosis from short-term or long term antibiotic use, people with irritable bowel disease, or conditions predisposing to gut dysbiosis. . . then certainly, go the probiotic way, Yakult, lactobacillus, alternative modalities,
prophylactically or as daily supplement.”
More danger in Sottoism than hormonal contraceptive use…
(My comment posted at Angela’s “Sotto self-destructs #RH bill” blog post.)
[…] records to resolve the plagiarism issue, he hopes, but it was a lame argument to begin with. read sotto, guts, plagiarism #RH. according to a doctor, an internist, who does a lot of research via the internet: Googling, […]