Gut Health Foods

1. Food variety

Try to consume more foods that are darker shades of blues, reds and purples.

These darker colours indicate higher concentrations of polyphenols and natural anti-oxidants such as anthocyanin.

E.g beets, blueberries, aubergine (eggplants)

2. Choose nuts and seeds

Nuts and seeds are another excellent source of fiber and polyphenols. They also contain healthy fats, such as omega-3 fatty acids. 

Scientists have found that a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids is linked to a more diverse microbiome.

3. Add legumes to your diet

Legumes, like chickpeas and lentils, contain high levels of dietary fiber, plus a prebiotic fiber called gaslactooligosacchride which feeds “good” gut bacteria.

Studies have shown that galactooligosaccharide can help keep your gut microbiome support Bifidobacteria, a type of “good” gut bacteria.

4. Eat prebiotic foods

Many fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, and legumes contain prebiotics. Prebiotics are a type of fiber that feeds “good” gut bacteria.

Prebiotics pass through your gut without being digested and let your gut bacteria thrive. A wide range of compounds act as prebiotics, including fructans and oligosaccharides. 

e.g bananas, barley, oats, garlic, onions etc

5. Eat probiotic fermented foods

Probiotic foods contain live bacteria which help increase the diversity of your gut bacteria. 

e.g natural yoghurt, kefir, pickles, aged cheeses

Being Happy

Someone asked me online – “how are you so happy and positive all the time?”

I’m not.

Just like everyone I go through pain, misery, suffering, anguish, sadness, fear, frustration and the full spectrum of negative emotions.

It’s simply not possible to be happy all the time.

In fact it is those negative experiences and emotions associated with pain that often trigger moments of growth and bear the greatest fruits of change.

The suffering is sometimes inevitable but cathartic and provides different perspectives.

I’d say I’ve got a modicum of success in different aspects of my life but my path to where I am now has been littered with failure, loss and painful moments.

Without which, likely none of my journey may have happened…

All your experiences positive and negative shape your reality and world view.

Enjoy the suffering and make something of it!

Reversing Blindness

I cant believe I’m about to say this but…

We might be a step closer to reversing blindness!

Surgeons in New York have performed the first-ever whole-eye transplant in a human 

Until now, doctors have only been able to transplant the cornea, the clear front layer of the eye.

Months after the 21 hour partial face transplant, the transplanted eye has shown important signs of health

Blood now flows directly to its retina, the part of the eye that senses light and transmits those signals to the brain to create images.

It also has a viable pupil.

 Right now  the transplanted eye is not communicating with the brain through the optic nerve.

But, to encourage healing of the connection between the donor and recipient optic nerves, the medial team injected stem cells taken from the donor’s bone marrow into the transplanted eye’s optic nerve.

Stem cells, the building blocks for other types of cells in the body, can help to repair damaged cells, including in the eye.

Infusing the optic nerve with stem cells, might increase the odds of nerve regeneration and eye function.

It’s still too early to say whether the patient will see from the transplanted eye but with signs of progress since the operation… it’s promising

Bowel Cancer

A lot of my career is spent with bowels.

I’ve seen my fair share of bowel cancers and operated on them too.

Although surgery for bowel cancer has come on leaps and bounds over the decades and many patients go home within 1-2 days after having a piece of intestine cut out and stitched back together (!!)

it’s something that is still devastating to be diagnosed with.

Thankfully bowel cancer screening is nearing 100% accuracy every year.

For example analysing blood in the stool, a FIT sample – two negative FIT results means your chance of having an underlying bowel cancer is <0.04%!

Suffice to say, if you get invited for bowel cancer screening… do it.

Scoop your poop into a bag and send it through the post!

Scandinavian Sleep Method

Does your partner always steal the covers at night?  

Short of a sleep divorce, it might be worth trying the  The Scandinavian Sleep Method.

This allows couples to continue sleeping in the same bed without sacrificing sleep quality.

The premise is simple, instead of one giant duvet, each individual has a smaller personal one allowing blanket fighting to be reduced and ensure you get the correct thickness and the temperature you want without disturbing the other person.

Customised sleep hygiene.

Minimizing partner disruption means less parasomnias and awakening and a more restful sleep.

Each Nostril Smells Differently

New research has suggested that each nasal passage responds to odorants slightly differently (on brain imaging).

Interestingly, even odours sniffed simultaneously triggered two distinct representations in the brain.

Why is this?

Unknown as of yet but perhaps the olfactory system similar to the auditory system use interaural time differences to localise sound (the delay and differences between sounds heard in each ear)…

Smell differences between each nostril might help humans to rapidly locate the origin of an odour with a single sniff