[stylist] Helen, it's all your fault, Of Microbes and Men

Tue Feb 3 00:07:25 UTC 2015

Helen,
I just cannot ignore a prompt such as yours. I've stolen your word in my
title, but gave you credit, whether you want it or not!

Poopulation Control 
	after Helen

Our body is a host to varied forms.
Bacteria, yeast, viruses hide out-
our navels, toes, and armpits are the norm
I search new remedies to think about.

My shedding skin feeds dust mites in the rug.
while pillows breathe in microbes from my nose.
A virus might jump bodies if I hug.
For cleanliness, I've given up on those.

Recycled water washes veggies, fruits,
while adding hormones, penicillin too.
Will probiotics working in cahoots
with fecal transplants of another's pooh,

transform our lives to regularity?
With worries gone about things that perturb,
like gluten, we could find some parity. 
What's missing we can do with oils and herbs.

You say you've tried all that but nothing works?
You must have secrets that cannot be shared.
Just give up all those sweets and fructose perks,
the cheese, hot chocolate, spices. You'll be spared.

In deprivation now, I say, "Who cares!"

Jackie Lee

Time is the school in which we learn.
Food is the fire in which we burn.
Delmore Schwartzsort of	 

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of EJ Kobek via
stylist
Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2015 9:16 AM
To: Barbara Hammel
Cc: Writers' Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] Writers and depression

Hi, Barbara,

Wow, that's a process you all went through around H-pylori....I'm glad the
treatment helped, and, of course, I'm with you in amazement about our
guts...."They" are, BTW, now beginning to treat depression schizophrenia,
and all sorts of "mental illnesses" with probiotics. So probiotics aren't
just limited to gut symptoms, although things like Chrones and IBS are
being well helped with darned good ones like Allign and VSL#3 (pricy, but I
hear worth it).....I'm imagining they would help with the emotions.

Radio Lab (anyone else a super-fan?) did a report on lacto-b's effects on
mice...I hate vivisection, but this was interesting. They took a set of
mice and divided them into two groups: one group received lacto-b
probiotics and the other nothing. They then stressed the mice by putting
them in bowls of water - mice don't like water. The non-probiotic group
panicked, swam around for four minutes and then gave up in despair. The
lacto-b group swam around for four minutes, didn't panic, felt some
distress, but kept on going. Cutting to the chase: the researchers found
that the probiotics had increased the serotonin levels in the gut, which
then resulted in increased GABA in the brains on the mice. GABA is a happy
hormone.....And of course, there is the enteric brain that affects our
moods....Probiotics has an effect on resiliency.

Anyhoo.....I do not have any digestive issues, but I do indulge
in probiotics in all forms: sauerkraut, good vinegars and
probiotics-in-bottles. I do this because, while I have a good water filter,
I do not have Reverse Osmosis, so I assume I am drinking everyone's
anitbiotics, Viagra, birth control, chemotherapy drugs, etc. So I try to
repopulate my gut....I swap out my probiotics after each bottle, knowing
that each brand has slightly different culturing techniques and therefore
different strains with different vitalities....Sauerkraut made from red (as
opposed to green) produces more good bacteria, BTW. Someone studied
this....good for them...grin.

Poem time!

"Re-poopulate!" by Helen Kobek

Gather 'round, you fine and dedicated entities!
Respond to the call to settle where you will!
Know we are stocked with all the best amenities!
Your supportive needs within the host to fill.

Re-populate!

--------------------
Okay, short and quick....but hey, I like this conversation.  I'll finish
this one later....)grin)

Have a good day everyone...

Helen

On Tue, Jan 27, 2015 at 10:57 PM, Barbara Hammel <poetlori8 at msn.com> wrote:

> The only thing that I could add here, as my piece for the writing prompt
> is to tell you how a change in one's diet and the killing of a pesky thing
> called Helicobacter Pylori can make a huge difference.
>
> We presume that Jesse came to us with all of his hidden health issues.
> Three years after he came into our family he had a surgery to fix double
> hernias and we thought that would be the end of our miserable existence of
> listening to him scream from sun up till sun down and most of the nights
> for SIX months.
>
> Much to our chagrin, that was only a taste of what life would be like to a
> greater degree.  It wasn't continuous screaming and it wasn't up half the
> night every night but the next few years were pretty long.
>
> Then we went to a gastroenterologist who had us collect a stool sample --
> such a fun task when your child is still in diapers -- so he could test it
> for whatever he was looking for.  Well, Helicobacter Pylori showed its
ugly
> self and we began the couple of years of antibiotic treatments to kill the
> dumb thing.
>
> In case you don't know, in the 1990s it was discovered that, most
> certainly, H. Pylori is the cause of stomach ulcers.  We learned that %40
> of the people over age 60 have this monster in them but only %20 of that
> %40 present with the ulcers.  Due to healthier means of preparing food and
> treating the water supply, the percentage of folks who have H. Pylori has
> dropped in the under 60 crowd.  Why his twin doesn't have it we'll never
> know since they came out of the same environment.
>
> In 2013, after having done the treatment for H. Pylori, as I said, it
> still persisted in lingering in his system.  So, it was off to the
> infectious disease doctor.  His recommendation:  Instead of taking the two
> antibiotics one after another and the probiotic at the same time, we were
> to give him both antibiotics for 42 days and then a month or two of
> probiotics. Amazingly, we are almost certain that Helicobacter Pylori is a
> thing of our past.
>
> Along with all that medicine, we finally got everyone in his world on
> board to remove all gluten from his diet.  Voila!  Except for the bouts of
> aphthous ulcers he gets in his mouth -- we don't know why yet -- he has
> become a happy boy.  He does not have the horrible gassy stomach.  He does
> not have that funny garlicky-smelling breath that was peculiar to a tummy
> that was full of stuff that needed to get out.
>
> Killing H. Pylori did not solve constipation/diarrhea cycles, but it has
> helped it become more manageable.
>
> It is so amazing to live in a time when so much is being learned about how
> the health of our gut affects the rest of our body and in a time when
> autism is being studied so thoroughly since it seems to be on the rise.
> (Autism is a topic for another day.)
>
> Is it any wonder to anyone now why I need not one, but two different
> antidepressants?  And, maybe you are right.  Maybe they are what is
> inhibiting my creativity which also figures into why I can feel so down.
> Too many thoughts run through my head and yet I cannot make them leave
> through my fingertips to my Braille Edge.
>
> Barbara
>
>
>
>
> Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.--Robert Frost
> -----Original Message----- From: EJ Kobek via stylist
> Sent: Monday, January 26, 2015 6:45 PM
> To: NFB Stylist
> Subject: Re: [stylist] Writers and depression
>
> Hi, all, esp. Vejas,
>
> Want to say much more, as we all do!  What's amazing is that medicine is
> starting to look at lacking of imbalance of gut bacteria as a source of
> despair (whatever one calls it), and they are even starting to care for
> people with schizophrenia with probiotics....A fabulous book called
> "Missing Microbes" even looks at the gut and other bacteria we need for
> physical and mental health that are becoming extinct, along with other,
> larger creatures....micobes we really need that are being disappeared by
> misuse of antibiotics.....
>
> Gut bacteria has an amazing impact on our mental health!!!
>
> Might I propose a TOPIC for writing? Intestinally?
>
> The topic:  Beneficial bacteria!
>
> A haiku, a poem, a story, a prose piece?
>
> Just an offering. I'll get to it during our blizzard today and
> tomorrow....anyone else?
>
> (Smile, grin.....)
>
> Warmly,
>
> Helen (and her beneficial bacteria)
> _______________________________________________
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