As I
mentioned at the end of my last post concerning Jillian's book claims, her biggest was this statement,
This
has always been a source of curiosity for me, Jillian is not the
first in the woo world, as we know it today, to make this claim. How
does poop - allegedly - feed candida and parasites? No one that holds this view
has ever really explained the mechanism of how feeding Candida
and parasites works; beyond a fake-book definition. Nor have any
recent alt-med proponents referenced any earlier literature
concerning said subject. I should rephrase that, none of the
woo-peddlers I am familiar with have explained the notion; if they
have, I have missed such explanation.
While
I have heard the term “autointoxication” in regards to early
treatment of mental illness, it has been so long I never put all the
information in a neat little package. The memories of “history of
psychology” classes are returning – haha! Imagine my surprise
when I came across the following in another phase of information
gathering.
According
to Metchnikoff, the bacterial community residing in the large bowel
of humans was a source of substances toxic to the nervous and
vascular systems of the host. These toxic substances, absorbed from
the bowel and circulating in the bloodstream, contributed to the
ageing process. Gut bacteria were thus identified as the causative
agents of “autointoxication.” The offending bacteria were capable
of degrading proteins (putrefaction), releasing ammonia, amines, and
indole, which, in appropriate concentrations, were toxic to human
tissues. Metchnikoff inferred that low concentrations of toxic
bacterial products could escape detoxification by the liver and enter
the systemic circulation,,,
As
one with a problem GI tract, I want to try and unpack this notion as
a layman. Maybe the loons aren't so looney? They are. Is there
truth to the matter or is this notion past its prime? No truth and
past its prime. One
thing I do know, drinking JJ - as described by Jillian Epperly - is
not is the solution to my abnormal GI tract.
As
I discovered, poop issues have been described as a cause of disease
since at least the 16th Century BCE.
In ThePapyrus Ebers (translated
from the German version by Cyril P. Bryan ; with an introduction by
G. Elliot Smith, 1930), an Egyptian medical papyrus of herbal knowledge
Bryan notes in chapter 9,
Here
is Herodotus (142) reporting
that the ancient Egyptians used enemas three days per month along the
lunar cycle,
We're
not going to go that far back in time, though I am curious as to the genesis of this idea (ca. 1800s) and why it is no longer held.
The
oldest complete “book” in existence is an Egyptian pharmaceutic
papyrus of the 16th century BC that offers as a basic explanation of
disease the notion of poisoning of the body by material released from
decomposing waste in the intestines. The intuition was that disease
is a process of internal putrefaction—as evidenced by the voiding
of vomit, diarrhea, mucus, etc—and that that putrefaction can most
easily be initiated by the contents of the colon, foul matter that is
always undergoing a process of degeneration.
This compelling suspicion shaped medical theory for more than 3 millenia; the personal physician to France's Louis XV in the 18th century was merely echoing the Ebers Papyrus when he warned that disease was the result of blood turned “feculent” by contamination with “the depraved remains of concoction” in the intestines.
From the late 1700s onward, European and American physicians were convinced that constipation was becoming ever more common because of changes in diet, exercise levels, and the pace of life associated with urbanization. By the beginning of the 19th century, there was a medical consensus that constipation was the “disease of civilization,” a universal affliction in industrialized societies that engendered the full range of more serious human ailments. As a popular American health manual warned in the 1850s, “daily evacuation of the bowels is of the utmost importance to the maintenance of health”; without the daily movement, “the entire system will become deranged and corrupted.” (Internal URLs removed)
This
early idea then became about autointoxication with the arrival of
germ theory. This theory proposed that unnamed “toxins” were
being absorbed from the bowel and causing systemic disease.
A more elegant rationale for colonic corruption of the body became available in the mid-1880s, when bacteriologists came to realize that intestinal flora broke down protein residues in feces into several compounds that exhibited pronounced toxicity when injected into animals. Reasoning that putrescine, cadaverine, and similar “ptomaines” generated in the bowel could be absorbed into the bloodstream, late 19th-
century
medical scientists formulated the theory of intestinal
autointoxication, or self-poisoning, from one's own retained wastes.
The constipated person, French physician Charles Bouchard declared,
“is always working toward his own destruction; he makes continual
attempts at suicide by intoxication.”
(Internal
URLs removed)
As
the article notes,
Autointoxication ,
therefore, was not a new idea and began to fade by the 1920s.
What is interesting to note, at this juncture, no solid explanations as to why alt-med latched on to the debunked theory of autointoxication. While the almighty dollar, would seem to be the easiest motivating factor to target. It's not so black and white IMO. Or, is it and I am being naive?
As
I was attempting to put this post together, gathering a central idea
was alluding me,
until
background reading homed in on this point. Dr David Gorski was
answering this question with a bit of hyperbole, “Have you ever considered this simple question: Are you clean inside?”
Well,
no, not really. I know that, like every other human, I’m most
definitely not “clean inside,” if by “inside” you mean my
gastrointestinal tract and upper respiratory tract. As is the case
for everyone, my colon is crawling with hundreds of species of
bacteria, where the most common species (E.
coli)
makes up only 1% to 2% of the total bacterial count and by the time
the stool makes it out around 10% of its mass is made up of bacteria.
We humans aren’t even “clean outside,” either, given the
bewildering variety of bacteria that live on our skin and mucous
membranes. Any part of,,,
But
as Gorski states,
,,,but
worms and gastrointestinal parasites are relatively uncommon causes
of colon disease in the developed world. Third, as a surgeon, I
can tell you from simple experience operating on the colon that
hardened feces do not accumulate on the walls of the colon as the
colon cleansers claim. Any gastroenterologist who does a lot of
colonoscopies could tell you that too. Even in disease states in
which colon motility is impaired, we generally do not see the feces
“caking” on the walls. Even in the case of mechanical obstruction
by, for instance, a colon or rectal cancer, what we see is lots of
fecal matter fairly evenly distributed in the lumen of the colon.
Then
this popped from Jillian,
So,
Jillian,,, if you know EVERYTHING, why don't you know that
autointoxication is bunkem in regards to theory of disease; it went
by the wayside in the 1920s? Why are you latching on to a antiquated
idea?
Caveat::
In the early 2000s there was a renewed interest in the
“neuropsychological consequences of alterations to gut microbiota
(formerly referred to as “flora” or “microflora”) in
conjunction with modern stressors, and an urbanized, Western
lifestyle. Notice it states “microbiota” not shit getting stuck and feeding
Candida
and parasites!
So
curiosity has gotten the best of me. What is autointoxication? For
the most part already answered, poop stuck in the colon leeching
poison throughout the body. Not very fancy so here's a better
descriptor provided by Edzard Ernst citing Thomas, et al: Intestinal autointoxication: a medical leitmotif
(1989).
The
theory of autointoxication claims that by-products of incomplete
digestion may poison the body and, therefore, cause disease. It can
be traced back to most ancient cultures of medicine. In the Western
world, humoral medicine was based on the idea that all diseases were
caused by the imbalance of the four body humors. Conversely, health
constituted a balanced mix of these humors. Waste products formed in
the intestinal tract were thought to be a major potential contributor
to such imbalance. Both Hippocrates and later Galen viewed
"autointoxication" as a major etiologic factor of disease.
What
is its pre-modern history; IOWs who has championed the notion?
Anybody we “know”?
As
I stated above, in prior research, I came across a blurp about Élie
Metchnikoff. He was a Russian zoologist who pioneered
the study of cellular immunology and who is widely credited with the
discovery of phagocytosis. Metchnikoff, is not the first, as many
names are mentioned consistently. What is interesting, the treatment
of mental health disorders such as melancholia and the link made to
autointoxication. For a time that seemed to be the money shot, but
out side of our scope.
During
the 19th century, the theory of autointoxication represented theruling doctrine of medicine. French physician Charles Bouchard coined
the term “autointoxication” with the publication of Lectures
on Autointoxication in Disease (1887)
and the theory of autointoxication gained international recognition.
German doctor Hermann Senator enriched the theory by apparently identifying
the chemical process underlying toxin formation: intraintestinalputrefaction of proteins.
In the 1860s, Senator raised the notion that systemic disease, including mental health
disorders, could be rooted in intestinal ‘self-infective’
processes, "autointoxication".
Charles A. Tyrell was particularly aggressive in promoting
himself, his books, and, most importantly, his therapeutic device,
the "Cascade".
And of course, one we all
know. John Harvey Kellogg was a slightly more respectable, albeit
overoptimistic proponent of autointoxication. He claimed that colon
therapy prevented surgery in all but 20 of 40,000 patients suffering
from gastrointestinal disease
SirArbuthnot Lane viewed the colon as a simple ‘sewage system’. Within this ‘cesspool’, as Lane called it, the normal intestinal bacterial flora was said to be altered and a migration of bacteria toward the small intestine would encourage an even greater absorption of intesting toxins.
Lane's
solution, thecolectomy. Lane removed sections of the colon with seeming
resolution of symptoms. Total colectomy and other variations of
colon resection quickly spread in popularity throughout Europe and
the United States.
The
1920s saw a bit of a resurgence to this waning idea, so much so there
was a rise of acidophilus milk even without convincing scientific
evidence; this pattern carried on through the early 1930s.
I
don't want to get too bogged down in a detailed who's who of
autointoxication. I think it suffice to say that it was not a
passing fad. There were some reasonably intelligent men researching
said notion and there was no woo involved. These researchers were
actively attempting to solve and heal medical issues in their
patients. And bear in mind this was the early 1900s, our knowledge
base was not as vast as it is today But the wheel did fall off, just
nor completely.
Autointoxication
was a catch-all diagnoses, eventually the voice of opposition became
louder, “treating intestinal toxemia [as it was also known as] waspracticing medicine by hypothesis alone.” One would figure that germ theory would have relegated
autointoxication moot. In reality, bacteriology only buttressed the
notion that fecal decay triggers physical decay. The notion that the
colon and appropriate plumbing where a cesspit, hung out for a bit
longer.
It
wasn't until a growing discontent among physicians concerning themarketing of bacterial products within medical journals and beyond,
that support for autointoxication began to be questioned more
thoroughly. “Due
to autointoxication be being both scientifically vague and broad in
its potential application, the diagnosis itself became a Petri dish
for the growth of quackery and charlatanism - so-called
colon-cleaning products, dubious “colonic” contraptions and
unsafe, lay-administered protocols stood side-by-side with largely
unregulated bacteriotherapy products. Purveyors of what would later
become known as probiotics were often part of fantastical claims
built upon questionable products,,, bacterial supplements were
increasingly being viewed in the same category as pseudo-scientific
patent medicine and nostrum cures. By the mid-1930s even the dairy
industry was distancing acidophilus milk from medicinal properties.
In a 1938 article entitled ‘Lactobacillus acidophilus milk gets
psychoanalyzed’, one indicating a more than subtle shift toward
Freud, dairy scientist Theron H. Butterworth suggested that the time
had come to ‘merchandise
acidophilus milk as a superior fermented milk beverage – not as a
medicine’.
Aname that frequently appears in regards to criticism is Arthur J.Cramp, who initiated a campaign against what he saw as "proprietary
evil". JAMA joined the critique as well.
The
political reaction against lay practitioners is most clearly
seen in the position of Arthur Cramp, in what was originally called
the “Propaganda Department” of the American Medical Association.
The book, Nostrums and Quackery, that he edited for the AMA Press,
particularly takes issue with Charles Tyrrell’s “J.B.L. Cascade,”
a home enema device that consisted of a water-filled cushion with a
nozzle. Despite the anticolonic stance of Cramp and his committee,
the editor of JAMA provided a favorable description of the appliance
and specific advice to a medical doctor with a question about the
efficacy of the device. Again, there seem to be two separate
communities, the antiquackery advocates, and the doctors seriously
interested in the therapeutic possibilities of colonic irrigations.
Anothercritic, Walter C. Alvarez, an internal medicine physician at the
University of California, San Francisco, was one of the most vehement
critics of the autointoxication theory, at least as it pertained to
chronic functional constipation.
He
was of the opinion that in chronic constipation, lower bowel
distention sets in motion a “reverse peristalsis”, a retrograde
flow of intestinal contents back toward the stomach.
This backward mechanically-induced movement, or as he called it,
ripples coming up the tract (enough to bring colonic materials to the
tongue), brought about many of the symptoms of autointoxication.
As
you can see the notion of autointoxication for all practical purposes is bunk; although it is a
notion steeped in history/ In the end,
regarding science based medicine, the idea of autointoxication
failed. It is only with the addition of “Leaky Gut Syndrome”
that alt-med can justify holding onto this notion. As we will find
out in a later posting, if you got a “leaky gut” you have bigger
problems than Candida and parasites.
So
with that said, this posting will be dipping into a part II. While
autointoxication itself has gone the way of the dustbin. The notion
of of poop getting stuck and leeching poisons, still has traction in
the alt-med world.
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