Here's a microbe you should know about: Bacillus subtilis

My original recipe for SIBO Yogurt included three microbes chosen for their ability to colonize or germinate in the small intestine and produce bacteriocins, natural peptide antibiotics effective in killing the species of SIBO. The original formulation therefore specified L. reuteri, L. gasseri, and B. coagulans. 

However, B. coagulans proved to be unreliable in generating the high microbial counts we desire to overcome the trillions of invading fecal microbial species of SIBO. I therefore replaced it with B. subtilis, a virtual powerhouse of a bacteriocin producer, producing up to 7 bacteriocins, thereby giving you greater power in pushing back invading fecal microbes in SIBO. 

So in this episode of the Defiant Health podcast, let me get you acquainted with this powerful microbe that, I believe, can provide major advantages in your efforts to take back control over gastrointestinal and overall health. 

Chapters

• 0:00 SIBO Yogurt Recipe Evolution
• 1:19 Introducing Bacillus Subtilis
• 2:40 SIBO's Widespread Health Impacts
• 4:57 Commercial Probiotics vs. SIBO
• 5:50 Switching to Bacillus Subtilis
• 8:43 Bacteriocin Powerhouse Benefits
• 9:49 Resources for Implementation

Transcript

William Davis, MD: 0:06

My original recipe for SIBO yogurt included three microbes chosen for their ability to colonize or germinate in the small intestine and produce bacteriocins natural peptide antibiotics effective in killing the species of SIBO. The original formulation therefore specified lactobacillus roteri, lactobacillus gastri and bacillus coagulans. However, bacillus coagulans proved to be unreliable in generating the high microbial counts we desired. To overcome the trillions of invading fecal microbes of SIBO, I therefore replaced it with Bacillus subtilis, a virtual powerhouse of a bacteriocin producer producing up to seven bacteriocins, thereby giving you greater power in pushing back invading fecal microbes in SIBO. So in this episode of the Defiant Health Podcast, let me get you acquainted with this powerful microbe that I believe can provide major advantages in your efforts to take back control over gastrointestinal and overall health. Let's take a moment to consider a very interesting microbe, bacillus subtilis, labeled the subtle bacillus some years back by a microbiologist. Microbiologist discovered this microbe almost 200 years ago and thought of it as a soil microbe, because it's found in abundant quantities in soil, especially around the roots of plants. And so it's likely in abundant quantities in soil, especially around the roots of plants, and so it's likely that humans acquired it by consuming roots and tubers. And it has been since shown that Bacillus subtilis is a normal inhabitant of the human gastrointestinal tract.

William Davis, MD: 1:57

Well, I first became acquainted with Bacillus subtilis because I was looking for microbes that have two characteristics. I was looking for microbes that have two characteristics that they either colonize or, in this case, germinate in the small intestine and produce bacteriocins natural peptide antibiotics that kill off mostly fecal microbial species. So if you've been following my conversation, you know that I'm very concerned about the small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, or SIBO, that I believe has now affected over half the US population because of a variety of reasons, such as the overexposure to antibiotics, processed foods containing preservatives and emulsifying agents, many other factors. But this has allowed fecal microbes to over-proliferate in the colon because we've lost beneficial species that were suppressing them. So there's over-proliferation of fecal microbes in the colon which then ascend into 24 feet of small intestine. This is a very destructive process. Those fecal microbes colonizing the 24 feet of small intestine are very inflammatory to the largely unprotected small intestine and the small intestine is naturally very permeable because that's where we absorb nutrients. But when you have fecal microbes colonizing the small intestine it increases its permeability and that opens the door for the entry of bacterial breakdown products, especially something called endotoxin into the bloodstream, and that is why microbes in the, especially as SIBO, can be experienced in the brain as sleep disruption, anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, parkinson's disease, cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease.

William Davis, MD: 3:50

It can be experienced in the skin as a variety of different skin rashes like rosacea or psoriasis. It can be experienced in joints and muscle as fibromyalgia or rheumatoid arthritis. It can be experienced in joints and muscle as fibromyalgia or rheumatoid arthritis. It can be experienced as autoimmune diseases. It can be experienced as metabolic distortions such as higher blood glucose, type 2 diabetes and prediabetes. It can be experienced in the heart as atrial fibrillation, congestive heart failure, impaired contraction of the main pumping chamber, left ventricle, and as coronary disease, especially coronary plaque rupture. The process that leads to heart attack, sudden cardiac death, in other words, sibo and endotoxemia, explains so much what we didn't know or were uncertain about in human health.

William Davis, MD: 4:37

So I asked this question sometime back. Well, what if you went to the store, to the health food store, and got a commercial probiotic off the shelf and took it? Would this SIBO 30 feet total of fecal microbes in the small intestine and the colon? Would that commercial probiotic get rid of it? No, highly unlikely. It might suppress some of the symptoms, like bloating, but it will not make that process go away. So here's another set of questions what if we chose microbes that, yes, survive stomach acid and bile and are known to adhere to the intestinal epithelium in the small intestine or at least germinate there, as in spore-forming microbes, and produce bacteriocins?

William Davis, MD: 5:25

So I chose three in my original recipe for what I called SIBO yogurt. I kind of regret calling it SIBO yogurt because it made people think it was only good for treating SIBO. It's not. It's actually a collection of keystone or foundational microbes that helps you rebuild a healthy gastrointestinal microbiome. But I called it SIBO yogurt just to drive home the point that it might be useful for SIBO. So I chose three originally In the original formulation a strain of lactobacillus roteri, a strain of lactobacillus gasseri.

William Davis, MD: 5:59

Both survive at high counts. We've known this for decades. Even Dr Gerhard Reuter himself showed that rhodori and gasseri survive stomach acid and bile. One of the studies he did a very exhaustive study, by the way in the late 1990s was to have participants swallow a capsule that was motorized to open in the ileum and grab some of the contents of the ileum and then have it expelled and studied and, lo and behold, loaded with rhodoride and gastrite, as well as if you run a stool test if you've been taking rhodoride, because, remember, most people have lost rhodoride the vast majority of Americans have lost rhodoride because of its susceptibility to common antibiotics. But if you took rhodori and then did a stool test you'll find rhodori at high count. So we know it survives.

William Davis, MD: 6:49

We also know that rhodori and gastri have expressed what are called adhesin proteins. That allows them to adhere to the small intestinal wall. We want that right small intestinal wall. We want that right. And we know they produce bacteriocins. Roteri produces typically two, roterin and rhotocycline, and gastro produces typically three or four. Now the original formulation.

William Davis, MD: 7:11

I picked a third microbe, bacillus coagulans, which is a very interesting microbe because it also produces bacteriocins. It's been shown to have such effects as reducing muscle injury during strenuous work or exercise. So I think it could be a real advantage to athletes. But we ran multiple assays to see how many counts we get. With rhodori gassero we get super-duper high counts, typically about 300 billion per half-cup serving. If fermented by themselves With coagulants we get wild variation, typically low numbers, rarely more than 10 billion in that half-cup serving.

William Davis, MD: 7:47

So I replaced bacillus coagulans. It doesn't mean bacillus coagulans is not interesting. It just means that dairy may not be the best vehicle to provide the nutrients necessary for that species to proliferate to high numbers. So I switched it out for Bacillus subtilis, much easier to ferment. You can ferment it, by the way, at 90 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit, about 34, 35 Celsius, for 24 hours, not the usual 36 hours we've been using for lactobacillus species, because bacillus subtilis is a rapid fermenter and you don't need more than 24 hours. That's very easy. I've not had any failures with the bacillus subtilis.

William Davis, MD: 8:27

But the magic of bacillus subtilis is that it does not colonize the small intestine, but it germinates in the small intestine where it forms a biofilm. It's very good at forming a biofilm. That is a mucus-like layer that allows it to sequester itself and protect itself and take up longer-term residence, presumptively for greater benefits long-term. So think about this We've got a couple of bacteriocins being produced by lactobacillus roteri three or four typically, depending on strain of lactobacillus gastri and we've run DNA sequencing on the bacillus subtilis and the strain that we've been playing with has seven bacteriocins. So it's a powerhouse of bacteriocin production. It also produces something called surfactant, and what that is is, while it makes its own biofilm, it also disrupts the biofilms of other microbes, such as pathogens and candida, by the way. So the combination rhodori gasseri subtilis, I think is an extremely potent combination, especially if you have SIBO and you need to push back those invading fecal microbes and thereby reducing endotoxemia and its effects that are body-wide on every organ of the body.

William Davis, MD: 9:49

Now, if you don't know what I'm talking about, please see my Super Gut book. See my WilliamDavisMDcom blog, where the recipe for SIBO yogurt is there, as well as in the book. If you need support, I invite you to join my conversations in my innercircleDRDavisInfiniteHealthcom, where we talk about this and we keep you updated on all the new ideas. So I introduced this recipe, the new recipe, in that inner circle and showed people how to make the yogurt. So that's your way of engaging and acquiring support as these ideas evolve.