This is the most charming love story ❤️. Imagine falling in love with someone who is suffering (and I mean that in the true sense of the word “suffering”) from bipolar disorder and bouts of psychosis, doing research on your own to find a possible solution, experimenting and then finding a durable cure. Imagine that!
And it all comes down to poo 💩.
It is truly fascinating, and I urge you to watch for yourself:
Check out this amazing research from the University of Florida and Trinity College Dublin:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/08/250821004244.htm
Queuosine is a rare micronutrient crucial for brain health, memory, stress response, and cancer defense. It is “a vitamin-like micronutrient that we can’t make ourselves but can only get from food and our gut bacteria.”
“For over 30 years, scientists have suspected that there had to be a transporter for this nutrient, but no one could find it,” said Valérie de Crécy-Lagard, a UF/IFAS microbiology and cell science distinguished professor and department associate chair, as well as one of the study’s principal investigators. “We’ve been hunting for it for a long time. This discovery opens up a whole new chapter in understanding how the microbiome and our diet can influence the translation of our genes.”
Very iteresting! We are starting to map the microbiota.
Just wanted to share. Bubbie’s is a brand of fermented foods, and we have tried a couple of their products. They taste great and are fermented so you get a little probiotic boost.
I was thinking the other day that, if every deli and hamburger joint in America started using Bubbie’s pickles, what an improvement we would have in our overall gut health.
I really enjoyed this new (to me) variety of kombucha from Synergy and wanted to share. It’s made from algae!
I recommend this brand in particular because of their high quality, low sugar content, and varieties of ingredients.
Well, look what I stumbled upon today.
A bit off topic, but related in terms of a healthy microbiome…
I used to get canker sores frequently, and if you’ve ever had one, you know they’re horrible! Your lip swells, you accidentally bite it when trying to eat, it makes talking complicated, and it’s really painful! There’s nothing good about canker sores.
I talked to my dentist about it a while back, and he recommended a certain mouthwash that didn’t help.
I had noticed in the past that if I used Listerine, I’d end up with another one or two sores. It made the problem much worse. I had also tried salt, saltwater rinses, and campho-phenique, which helped a bit but didn’t solve the problem.
Then I started drinking kombucha, and they’ve disappeared. They are just gone. It’s like magic. Lifelong problem solved!
I did tell my dentist in the hopes that he and his staff would tell others. I’ll have to ask at my next cleaning and see if they are.
When I first got diagnosed and met my hematologist, he mentioned that many people with CLL also have a lot of canker sores. I told him how I fixed mine. Not sure what he’s done with that knowledge. I’ll have to follow up.
Anyway, I was talking to my sister yesterday evening and she had a canker… I told her about kombucha, and she said that she would double up on the probiotics. I told her that probiotics in the pill form had never helped me, but kombucha does.
This morning, she texted to say that she’s using kombucha and already feels better. 🌞
P.S. What if the common canker sore was seen and widely recognized as an early sign of poor gut health, and people knew what to do about it?
What if doctors knew to recommend probiotics and postbiotics (to rebuild a healthy gut) rather than recommending an antiseptic type of mouthwash that actually kills more of the good bacteria?
Was doing some grocery shopping this morning, and I needed kombucha.
Take a look at these three products.
I usually just drink a shot in the evenings… but if I were to drink the entire bottle…
The brand on the left would give me 42% of my recommended daily allowance of sugar.
The middle brand has 24% of the RDA of sugar.
The brand on the right has 6% of the RDA of sugar.
That’s a big difference! It’s definitely worth taking the time to look.
These are the notes I took while reading Good Energy and watching Dr. Casey Means discuss her new plan for optimally healthy meals.
She (and many other doctors and nutritionists) wants us to ditch the food pyramid, which pushed carbs as the staple food, and move to something like this 5-slice pie above.
If we could design each meal to include one element from each section, we would be healthier in terms of our mitochondrial function.
I put it on the fridge so I see it every day, at every meal.
I used to have tummy troubles all the time. ALL the time.
I was embarrassed to see a doctor about it. I minimized the issue and told myself it made sense that I had tummy troubles since many other people in my family also have this issue.
I dealt with it through restricting my diet, thinking that if I cut out the triggering food, things would stay on an even keel. (Now I wonder if the trigger was actually glyphosate).
Last year, we had a fish fry that really did a number on me. I was so worn out the next day that I tried something new: kombucha.
Overnight, everything changed. I’m happy to say that my stomach is very regular now.
I usually keep 1 or 2 bottles in the fridge and drink a “shot” or teacup-full after dinner. Once in a while, I’ll drink an entire bottle. It’s pretty high in sugar, so I try to go light on the amount in one serving.
I could kick myself for not trying it sooner, for not doing the research and figuring it out sooner. I could kick myself for continuing to suffer for so long. For decades.
Knowing what I know now, I wonder if this was the vulnerability in my particular system, which “let in the bad.”
Allowed prolonged mitochondrial dysfunction.
Let in the cancer.
Sigh.
Well, I can’t go back, but I can tell you: If you have tummy troubles, seek out some fermented foods.
There’s a wonderful doctor you can find on YouTube named Dr. Will Bulsiewicz. He’s the gastro doctor you never knew (or admitted) you needed.
Ok, we all know fiber is supposed to be good for us, but what is it really, and what does it do that’s so beneficial?
What It Is
First off, fiber is a material from plants that WE can’t fully digest, but our microbiome buddies CAN. They love it. It feeds them and makes them feel good, which in turn makes US feel good.
Fiber is actually a form of carbohydrate, but it doesn’t convert to glucose in our bloodstream like other carbs.
Our microbiome buddies actually ferment the fiber to break it down. Then they send out beneficial by-products (called post-biotic short chain fatty acids) into our bloodstream, which do great stuff such as:
● Reduce inflammation
● Regulate metabolism
● Regulate mitochondria
● Improve insulin & glucose levels
● Regulate hunger & appetite
● Protect and repair the lining of the gut, which allows the gut to better protect itself from toxins.
Where to Get It
Ok, I want it! I’m convinced! How do I get it?
I’ve learned a lot from Dr. Casey Means, through watching her interviews on YouTube, reading her book Good Energy, and taking her online class called “Eating For Good Energy and Healthy Metabolism.”
She recommends doubling the paltry USDA guideline of 25 to 30 grams per day. To be healthy, shoot for 50 to 60 grams of fiber daily.
Here are the sources she recommends:
Here are a few others:
To Sum it Up
So, when you eat fermented foods (probiotics) you are actually bringing in new, good bacteria. New microbiome buddies.
When you eat fiber, you are feeding your microbiome buddies, and they ferment that fiber inside you to create post-biotics.
Interesting Fact
Dr. Means also points out that our microbiome creates our neurotransmitters. Did you know that schizophrenia and depression can be diagnosed by analyzing a person’s microbiome? Huh!
The Cancer Canary 