Would like to share my research with you...

Hi Songbyrd, I hadn't given much thought to this before but I take a low dose antibiotic (Minocycline 50mg twice a day) for my skin.

Would this affect the gut bacteria? And if so should I take pro biotics or would the antibiotics kill them? Or is it a matter of spacing the dose so I take a probiotic at midday and the antibiotocs morning and night?

I heard on NPR the other day that yogurt doesn't actually change the colonization of your gut, but actually just gets the bacteria that is already there to behave better. They also said you have to eat it like 3 times a week otherwise the effect wears off.

I'm curious if pre/probiotics are similar.

I'm sorry, when you refer to "leaky gut" between the intestinal cells are you talking about a leak into the vascular space, interstitial space or peritoneal space?

So everyone can stay in on the convo, I will stay it's a leak between the cells.

The cells in your intestine are too far apart because the proteins that keep them together aren't being made.

I guess I need the proper physiological explanation to fully digest what you're saying.

Okay...it appears to leak through the paracellular space. Enterocytes are held together by tight junctions...transmembrane receptors associate with one another across the paracellular junction and are held in place by anchor proteins attached to actin to allow for some contraction. LPS moves from the apical to the basolateral side of the enterocyte and empties into circulation if it's unbound, or into the lacteal if it's bound to a chylomicron. However, chylomicron-bound LPS is less of a risk as its lipid A portion is inactive when it's bound. Eventually the chylomicron is emptied and loses its ApoB48 apolipoprotein at which point it's considered LDL cholesterol. When oxidized this can bind the toll-like receptors competitively against LPS and doesn't cause such a severe inflammatory response. Or, the liver can take up the LDL along with its bound LPS (if it's still there and hasn't been picked up by a chylomicron in circulation) and acetylate the LPS, inactivating it. If the LPS is free and immediately enters circulation, it can bind to a TLR on skeletal muscle which causes the host of metabolic diseases associated with obesity. Free LPS can also bind TLRs in the intestine, but because the apical membrane is under constant LPS onslaught, TLR's are lowly expressed in normal conditions. However, obese individuals have greater TLR expression in the intestine which allows for some immune response (the TLRs are a major part of the innate immune system). Does that make more sense in terms of leakiness?

Yes. So you meant leaking into the vascular space. I thought we were making the jump to bacterial "leaking", which would of course result in a more severe reaction aka septicemia, however you're talking more at the biochemical/microbio level, so my confusion is thus alleviated. Thanks for sharing, and I'll have to research it further as it's relevant to my work.

YAY I was worried that I was overdosing on probiotics bc the box says take 1 but I always take two bc they are lower dosage then my previous pro-biotics but it looks like with some of your comments you cannot od on probiotics! That is great news! I have also heard pro-biotics are given to children help swing ADD, ADHD, and other behavioral disorders mood swings. Something about the happy hormones starting in the gut? Do you know anything about that?