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Hello everybody, it’s Dr. B and Elizabeth here to share with you Today we’re gonna do some tummy talk, but until then we’re gonna switch over to the slides and let’s rock and roll and get ready for a B L A S T blast. So we’re keeping you in the know. This is the Our in the Know series. Short segment or a short series of different topics that you, the practitioner should know about to in order to help foster the most ultimate neurodevelopmental trajectory for your kiddos.
Elizabeth, you ready to do this? I’m ready. And she’s gonna take a nap while we hang out, but she’ll be back at the end. All right, girlfriend, take a nap. Yeah, let’s do this. So first of all, like always, I love to thank ChiroSecure for giving us as platform. Everything they do for the chiropractic profession.
They’ve always got our backs and they’re always looking to the future to keep us in the know and to keep us focused on on spreading chiropractic throughout the world. So ChiroSecure your awesome. Thank you for this opportunity. So tummy talk, let’s talk a little bit about the tummy. The reason I wanted to bring this up is there.
Over the last couple decades, there’s been so much amazing information with regards to the brain gut, brain connection. But what we really, the exciting thing is looking at how the microbiome. The intestinal microbiome is affecting neurodevelopment, and this is something we really should understand for many reasons.
So let’s dig in and dive into some tummy talk on this Thursday morning. So first of all this is a nice summary of what I’d like to share with y’all. The brain and gut microbiome develop rapidly. They develop parallel in the first couple years of life. So we know the first thousand days fetal development in the first two years, postnatally are the most critical for developmental neuroplasticity.
brain development. But what we’re seeing is that the brain and the gut, brain, belly, brain are they develop in tandem. So this is one of the reasons they’re thinking that the microbiome is so important for optimizing neural development. There’s at least 20 studies that link the, my microbiome, the diversity.
Of the microbiome with neurodevelopment and very well documented that the microbiome affects cognition, behavior, brain structure and function, brain development. And again all aspects of childhood health and adult health. We know that already. This is a great study to look up and read over, but it’s really fun what we’re seeing.
So I just wanna of give an overall synopsis right now when we have prenatal stress, and we’ve talked on this program several times about prenatal stressors. And we’re seeing this unfortunately, a lot more since March of 2020. And these prenatal stress oars affect neurodevelopment. So again, The prenatal period, first two, two years postnatally.
The thousand day. First thousand days is really what we look focus on as far as laying the groundwork for developmental neuroplasticity. If mom is stressed out, number one thing that shuts down the gut is. Trauma, toxins, thoughts, technology, tethered restrictions. That means subluxations toxins in our environment, the terrain, the environment itself that we’re in.
And if we’re stuck in a fight or flight state, stress shuts down the microbiome, baby inherits mom’s microbiome. It actually just takes one round of antibiotics, one round. , which is very common in the first two years of life, to totally alter the terrain within the microbiome means we can never really get back to its normal.
It’s innate status. We can help do what would I call gut rehab, but it never goes back to its normal terrain. So one round of antibiotics does that. So if. If mom is in a sympathetic dominant state, an altered A and S okay, and baby inherits that tip in the scale towards a sympathetic dominance, baby’s microbiome is compromised from the get-go.
And then we get gut dysbiosis, which is inherently tied to neurodevelopmental disorders, especially. . Okay, so this is the beginning. This is the foundation. So our number one thing is to think about is let’s get pregnant mamas under care in order to help minimize their stressors and maximize their microbiome because baby inherits mom’s microbiome.
And we also know that it used to be thought. That we had to be concerned if baby was born c-section and not get that gulp that initial inoculation of mom’s vaginal microbiome to seed their own gut. But studies are showing us that even if it’s a vaginal delivery, that baby can inherit some of mom’s or mom’s microbiome flora just through placent.
Oh, contact. We need to look at both realms. A lot of people mistake mistakenly think that if baby had a vaginal birth, everything’s calm, cool, and collected and fine, moral a story, not necessarily the case. Okay. So we’ll talk about some things. We want to think of a, as we wrap this up. So a couple things I just want you to think about is, The microbiome of the developing fetus and the developing child is greatly tied to motor development.
Okay, fine. And gross motor development. We need to if we have altered motor function, we are getting alter. Sensory input into the brain, and it’s that sensory input, that sensory environment, that sensory stimulation that is so critical for brain development. Okay, so the microbiome is connected with altered.
Fine and gross motor development. So that’s the thing that we should consider here. So we wanna look for if you see a little fiddle fart and they aren’t reaching their motor milestones, they’re not getting into tummy time, they’re not rolling over, they’re not bringing their hands to midline, they don’t have good motor control.
We also need to look at. What’s their gut function? Because oftentimes what you’ll see together with the lack of motor development is colicky doesn’t poop. Picky eater doesn’t latch on spitting up. So these are dynamics we need to look at in tandem. and maybe address both of those train tracks.
Okay. The connect, connecting the connectome, connecting the two brains in this, and then Wednesday they look at atopic dermatitis. When you see skin problems, think gut problems. And so I, I find it in fascinating when I read these studies that in this case atopic dermatitis, you sees red chics and bumpies and so forth is associated with learning disorders.
But when they do these, when they do the summaries they, their summary is usually along the lines of, we don’t know the connection, but we’re seeing, we’re seeing the correlation, but we don’t understand the connection. The connection is the gut, literally. Is going to feed the brain and brain development.
So of course you’re gonna see learning attention, behavioral disorders, if the gut, I if we have a gut dysbiosis, an altered gut microbiome. So these are things I just want you to start thinking of because I get a lot of pings on social media or messages or emails or so forth.
What do I do with this little one? I’m, I’ve been adjusting, I’ve been doing amazing chiropractic care. They’re coming in two, three times a week for several months, and I’m still seeing this slow to slow gains. Take a look at, do we need to to help support foster a healthier microbiome?
Okay. And then another one, this is really interesting. So they look at PPIs. So look at, let’s look at the connection here. PPIs altered gut function. We’re seeing that more and more with the stressed out little fiddle far. And so we see the colicky, hard to console reflux, not good, poopers, yada yada.
They get put on PPIs. That’s the number one. No-no, the number one, other than good chewing habits, the next. Number one step in gut rehab is looking at stomach acid balance. And when you use a P I to lower stomach acid, you’re actually causing a train wreck at, while at the, as a train’s leaving the station, so to speak.
That’s the number one thing we need for good proper absorption, digestion, breakdown of proteins, yada. . But PPIs are being associated with this, a gut bacteria called C difficile or clostridia difficile infections, which we’re seeing on the rise. Those are generally associated with the use of antibiotics, and we’re seeing that become more of an issue with little fitta farts.
being born in a hospital setting, particularly with C-sections, and there’s antibiotic exposure or perhaps antibiotic exposure to to strep. B and c Difficile can manifest oftentimes not a hundred percent of the time with chronic diarrhea, loose stool symptoms. But we’re also seeing that bacterial infect, that the C Difficile infection, gut infection is associated with sudden death, sudden infant death syndrome, sids.
So we’re seeing also a higher rate. This c difficile infection in the autism population. So I need you to understand that connection as well. The gut is so incredibly important for optimal neurodevelopment and neurological function, and in this case, we’re seeing a a correlation between gut infection and Sid.
Okay. So just some good take home points, some things to be thinking about with regard to what am I seeing in my practice? I’m seeing these kiddos with the the cluster of symptoms that we’re used to seeing these days. Not a good sleeper, hard to console. Doesn’t like tummy time spitting up frequently.
Not good bowel movements. Cranky, hard to bond with. Which is gonna create another issue because then they’re harder to breastfeed, which further hampers an altered microbiome. So you see the big picture. So this is a cluster of things we’re seeing more and more, especially in the pandemic babies where the stress factor has gone.
Mom’s too stressed out. Her gut is shut down. Inherently, baby’s gut is gonna be shut down. Okay? So if you’re seeing these struggling kiddos let’s maybe think about some things that we can do. And if you don’t feel comfortable in this realm, definitely reach out. Reach out to me. Reach out to somebody that is well versed in helping to support the microbiome now, bowel movements.
Not just bowel movements, not just pooping movements. We should have theoretically three, at least three bowel movements a day, about eight hours after every meal. It is not okay for baby to have a bowel movement every other day. Or some people even say one time a week is enough. Think about those toxins that are being stored.
How do we get rid of toxins? Poop skin, lungs. Okay, so not am I just thinking about bowel movements, the frequency of bowel movements, but there’s so much fun research coming out with regard to moving exercise and a healthier microbiome and really fun stuff looking at exercise. and the microbiome and autism and how when kiddos on the spectrum were using exercise, were at doing different various exercise that their autistic like symptoms decreased and their microbiome health increas.
So these are fabulous connections that we should really be mindful on. So let’s put some pieces together. Baby doesn’t have good motor movements. They might have an altered microbiome that’s associated with that. They are are floor movements when we’re growing up. Tummy time rolling over creeping, crawling, getting to a sitting upstate stance that are, those are all building blocks to more progressive movement so our brain feels safe moving about our terrain.
And that will cr will is basically developing a a calm environment in the brain to move about the world to continue to flourish. Different body movements. I e exercise, which will enhance the microbiome. Kiddos with developmental challenges can be weary of moving through space cuz they don’t know where their body is in space.
Thus they move less, they exercise less. Thus a unhealthier microbiome. equals more neurodevelopmental challenges. So you put that into context. What we need to think about is completing the picture for parents plus. So let’s think about this. Why might movement foster a healthier develop microbiome movement helps to regulate the autonomic nervous system.
because it upregulates very key neurotransmitters to help modulate the nervous system. When the nervous system’s modulated, our stress level goes down the microbiome, the gut can be healthier. Take home points adjust to help decrease the stress, balance out the autonomic nervous system, bring that gut back on board and to help foster a better connection between the brain and the body and the brain.
So one feels more comfortable moving through space and exercising. Which leads to a healthier microbiome. And then possibly do some gut support. Some simple things like making sure people eat in a rested state rather than on the go, rather than mom stressed out and feeding baby. A few bites in between being stressed out.
Let’s eat in a calm, cool, collected environment. Let’s create an environment that is calm in order to digest our food. Maybe we look, need to look at some digestive enzymes or some probiotics, things that foster and reseed that microbiome so it can be as healthy as possible. There was a really fun study that I found from China.
Regarding chiropractic care and increasing a healthier microbiome. And what they did was their chiropractic care consisted of it. It was a rat study, but where the practitioners actually just basically stroked. along the spine and created this calming effect that was their chiropractic, okay, not what we’re, not what we would really call a chiropractic adjustment, but moral the story is when you calm the system down.
When you increase the balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic tone, you can stabilize, you can help foster a healthier microbiome. And for those little fiddle farts, especially in the two years of life, you are actually fostering brain development. The gut has has bacteria that sends signals.
To the what we call the microglia, the immune cells of the brain to help foster optimal neuro pruning and neurodevelopment in those early years. So do not neglect the gut. Get that gut moving. So again, hopefully you found some pearls here. Thank you ChiroSecure. Elizabeth is done with her nap boom.
And until next month, we wish you let’s see what’s gonna happen between now and then. Easter. Easter and tomorrow will be ba. The Good Luck Day. What? St. Patrick’s Day. Yes, the Green Day. So we wish you a happy Green Day. Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Happy Easter and keeping amazing and saving lives.
ChiroSecure, we love you. Thanks so much.