Enterococcus

Enterococcus is a bacteria that we all have and we all need. The problem is how many of them we have and much of our immune response is allocated to keep them under control. When their levels get too high, they can be pathogenic and cause things like endocarditis, urinary tract infections, or diverticulitis. No matter what they cause, this indicates the total body burden of pathogens is too high. Not only enterococcus, but other things are draining your immune response.

Enterococcus is a survivor. It has developed many ways to increase resistance to antibiotics and our immune response. It can form biofilms and is probably the most proficient at lateral transfer of DNA to and from other bacteria. This can make it very resistant to antibiotics. They can tolerate both aerobic and anaerobic conditions and they can also survive a large range of intestinal pH and temperatures. If you have too much enterococcus, that often means you have too few of the other bacteria. This would indicate to me that the environment of the intestines is not what is desired. What can cause this is another topic and requires much speculation. (Insert your Borrelia discussion here.)

Diet is very important in controlling enterococcus. We know enterococcus is found in the soil, water, and even insects, so what we eat increases or decreases our intestinal enterococcus levels. Anything dairy increases our enterococcus levels and cheese may be the worst. Even eating beef has been shown to increase enterococcus levels. Enterococcus is present in the making of bread so it could increase enterococcus levels. Like mentioned above, we need enterococcus, just not too many.

Enterococcus is in the class called Firmicutes and many of them can be considered your soil derived bacteria. Eating a plant based diet or saponin rich foods can increase enterococcus levels short term. It is my belief that it is better for long term health as it increases the antibacterial substances in your GI tract but can aggravate a current condition.

Soy has been shown to alter the ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteriodetes in the GI tract. This would be beneficial to anyone who has an increase in enterococcus. There are numerous enterococcal strains and only a few of them become pathogenic. (Soy also reduces Clostridia numbers.)

What is interesting is that in a study of soils, pine forests have much lower Firmicute levels compared to other soils in other types of forests. Does that mean that terpinoids can reduce Firmicute levels? (terpenes from the pine trees) I don't think that has been investigated, but Nigella sativa seeds have plenty of terpinoids. A lot to think about on this one.

Georgia Hunter,

When I had allergy patch tests done some years ago, I was positive to Balsam of Peru. Do you think terpenoids have any relationship to Balsam of Peru or that I would be prone to a reaction to nigella sativa seeds due to that? I haven't tried them yet.

Georgia Hunter said...

WalkingbyFaith said...
Georgia Hunter,

When I had allergy patch tests done some years ago, I was positive to Balsam of Peru. Do you think terpenoids have any relationship to Balsam of Peru or that I would be prone to a reaction to nigella sativa seeds due to that? I haven't tried them yet.

A quick disclaimer, I've never even heard of Balsam of Peru. A quick search showed some interesting things. Myroxolon balsamum is the tree of interest and its resin called red oil contains terpenoids, phenylpropinoids, isoflavonoids, and many other chemicals that can be isolated and studied. All three of these compounds mentioned can be beneficial to someone who has chronic infections.

One study suggested that the reaction to Balsam of Peru was not a contact dermatitis reaction.

One study showed that an isoflavone in Myroxolon balsamum was a very potent anti-Helicobacter pylori compound. Another showed its anti-mosquito and anti-flea properties. The benzyl cinnamate seems to be the most potent component and propolis made from the tree is more potent than other propolis sources.

If I had to make a guess as to what was happening, I would say the isoflavinoids and flavones from the oil increased your neurotransmitter pathway by supplying the needed polyphenols and bioflavinoid chemical structures. A limiting factor in our pathways are the physical ingredients needed. A simple example is you can't make gravy without flour and if you do, it won't taste good. You can't make BH4 without the proper chemical structures on hand. These get depleted over time and are one of the limiting factors in our immune response.

In your situation, I'd be eating as many brightly colored foods as I could. The more the merrier.

Thx, but not sure I understand, especially the brightly colored foods part. Another thing is I noticed you mentioned benzyl cinnamate. Not sure if that's any relation to cinnamon or not, but I recently noticed the smell of cinnamon hurts me now. I used to love it. Now I'm having reactions to it. I have multiple chemical sensitivities and they've been getting worse. Fluctuates depending on what I'm treating with, but I'm starting to worry about it. I'm concerned it could get progressively worse or become permanent. From what I understand, Balsam of Peru is similar to fragrance. Many trees, like pine and cedar, have strong fragrance as well. I imagine that many natural fragrances are used in combo with synthetic ones in the production of different fragrances. It's the chemicals that people react to.