What Causes Mucoid Plaque?


In my previous blog post I proved that mucoid plaque is a conventional medical concept. Read this first. Now I'm going to show you what causes it. Basically, anything that causes superficial damage to the mucosa causes mucoid plaque to form. In fact, researchers have actually created mucoid plaque in the lab. They did this by directly damaging rat mucosa using 50% ethanol.[1] They then watched as mucoid plaque formed over the damaged area. They did this to understand why mucoid plaque forms. Out of the lab though it's caused from the food that you eat.[2] The food that you are eating is indirectly causing superficial damage to your mucosa.

Take milk for example. You were told to drink 3 or 4 glasses of milk a day to prevent disease. Modern research is showing that this was perhaps a huge mistake. As you know, people of northern European ancestry have a mutation in the lactase gene, giving them the capacity to digest lactose into D-glucose and D-galactose. Experimental evidence in several animal species indicates that even a low dose of D-galactose in the diet causes, among other things, oxidative stress damage and chronic low grade inflammation.[3]

Chronic inflammation is one of the main factors that causes damage to the mucosa; the other ones are oxidative stress and microbes.[4] It's just like acute inflammation in many respects.[5] The only difference is that it is mild and prolonged rather than severe and acute. So it does not cause acute redness or swelling. But because of its prolonged duration, it actually produces more extensive tissue damage than acute inflammation.[22] During inflammation, neutrophils release lysosomal enzymes, which digest exudate and kill unwanted bacteria. But some of the enzymes also digest normal tissue and results in considerable collateral tissue damage.[6]

There is more bad news about animal products. The journal Nature recently reported that an animal based diet, including milk, alters the human gut microbiome in a harmful way. Such a diet increases the abundance and activity of putrefactive microbes. One such putrefactive microbe, Bilophila wadsworthia, produces hydrogen sulfide, which is thought to inflame intestinal tissue.[7] Benard Jensen spoke of this. He talked about how meat was very detrimental to the bowel because it is very putrefactive.[8]

Some researchers are mooting over acellular carbohydrates.[9] These are carbohydrates such as sugar, flour, and starches that are not locked up in cells. This includes whole grains, which have dry stores of starch designed for rapid mobilization during germination. The hypothesis is that these acellular carbohydrates produce a microbiota that causes inflammation of the gut. Mouse studies have indeed shown that a high sugar diet promotes intestinal dysbiosis and inflammation. [10] These researchers recommend we eat a grain-free whole foods diet of root tubers, leafy vegetables, stems, fruit, nuts, and only some consumption of meat.[9] Such a diet has carbohydrates that are locked in living cells. I should note that raw honey is an acellular exception. It actually promotes a healthy microbiota and helps heal wounds.[11]

In case you haven't heard, "low grade chronic metabolic acidosis" is a widespread condition in our modern society.[12] We are designed to eat mostly alkali-rich fruits and vegetables. But we are instead eating an acid-producing diet of mostly animal foods, sugars, alcohol, cereal grains, and processed foods. Such a diet makes the body overly acidic. In addition to causing many chronic degenerative diseases and accelerating the aging process, it causes acidification of the bile. This makes the bile extremely corrosive to the walls of the bile ducts, gallbladder, pancreatic duct, Sphincter of Oddi, Ampulla of Vater, and duodenum.[12]

Starchy foods — such as potato and grain products — which have been baked or fried at temperatures above 120 °C contain high amounts of acrylamide.[13] Rat studies show acrylamide causes severe damage to intestinal epithelium through oxidative stress and inflammatory responses.

You may not want to cook foods that are high in protein, fat, or sugar. It will generate large amounts of advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs). Some researchers are mooting over the possibility that AGEs stimulate inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract and elsewhere.[15] Even uncooked cheeses can contain large amounts of AGEs.[16] This is because of its curing or aging processes. In lab rats that were fed oil heated to their boiling points, histopathological observation depicted significant damage to the jejunum, colon and liver. [17] They think the heated oil results in the formation of free radicals that causes oxidative stress and induces damage. Note that most of the oils on the market, even in their uncooked forms, contain large amounts of AGEs due to the various extraction and purification procedures involving heat.[16]

Everyone knows that fiber is good for you. But there is an aspect of it you may not have heard of. It's food for the beneficial commensal bacteria in your gut. Fiber is rich in polysaccharides, which is exactly what the bacteria need to live. If you deprive them of fiber they will resort to eating the polysaccharide rich mucus layer in your gut. This makes the mucosa susceptible to harmful microbes, which cause inflammation.[18] Note that the fiber intake of people in industrialized nations is well below the recommended daily range of 28-35 grams for adults.

A discussion about what causes mucoid plaque would perhaps not be complete without mentioning chemicals. That's what one usually thinks of when one hears the word "detox". Various chemicals do in fact cause damage to the mucosa. Studies show that alcohol consumption promotes gram-negative bacteria overgrowth in the intestines. The bacteria produce endotoxins, which activate proteins and immune cells that promote intestinal inflammation.[19] Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) cause damage to the mucosa. [10] In fact, researchers use either NSAIDs, alcohol, or hypertonic saline in acute animal damage models to study how and why mucoid plaque forms.[20] Food additives such as carrageenan, xanthan gum, maltodextrin, and carboxymethyl cellulose are known to cause intestinal inflammation and damage.[10] Even herbs and spices like black pepper, cloves, garlic, ginger, horseradish, and mustard can cause intestinal damage.

Now, you might have heard of the mucusless diet. It was first proposed by Arnold Ehret.[25] And it was apparently later adopted by other gurus such as Robert Gray, John R. Christopher, Norman Walker, Alfredo Bowman (Dr. Sebi), and Richard Anderson. The idea of the diet is that certain foods, particularly dairy, meat, legumes, and grains, cause the body to produce unhealthy mucus. The use of the word "mucus" is actually a misnomer. What so-called mucus-forming foods actually do is that they directly or indirectly cause damage to the mucosa as I described above. This results in a "mucoid cap" (mucoid plaque) forming over the damaged area. An important point to recognize is that some modern pathologists inappropriately refer to mucoid cap as "mucus".[20] [21] [23] [24]

References


[1] See journal article called "Role of mucus in the repair of gastric epithelial damage in the rat. Inhibition of epithelial recovery by mucolytic agents".

[2] See book called "Pharmacology of Peptic Ulcer Disease". The ISBN-13 is 978-3-642-75860-7. On page 194 it says that mucoid plaque has been likened to an "everyday" phenomenon in response to the ingestion of food and the mechanical grinding of digestion.

[3] See journal article called "Milk intake and risk of mortality and fractures in women and men: cohort studies". The doi is 10.1136/bmj.g6015.

[4] See journal article called "Wound healing of intestinal epithelial cells".

[5] See journal article called "The inflammation theory of disease". It explains how TLRs, which trigger acute inflammation, can also maintain chronic inflammation by responding to commensal bacteria in the gut.

[6] See book called "Tidy's Physiotherapy". The ISBN is 978-0-443-10392-6. Go to page 339.

[7] See journal article called Diet rapidly and reproducibly alters the human gut microbiome. Here is a free copy.

[8] See book called "Tissue Cleansing Through Bowel Management".

[9] See journal article called "Comparison with ancestral diets suggests dense acellular carbohydrates promote an inflammatory microbiota, and may be the primary dietary cause of leptin resistance and obesity".

[10] See journal article called "Combinatorial effects of diet and genetics on inflammatory bowel disease pathogenesis".

[11] See journal article called "Effect of honey in improving the gut microbial balance".

[12] See journal article called "Chronic metabolic acidosis destroys pancreas". You can get it here.

[13] See journal article called Acrylamide exposure aggravates the development of ulcerative colitis in mice through activation of NF-κB, inflammatory cytokines, iNOS, and oxidative stress.

[15] See journal article called "Dietary Advanced Glycation Endproducts Induce an Inflammatory Response in Human Macrophages in Vitro".

[16] See journal article called "Advanced Glycation End Products in Foods and a Practical Guide to Their Reduction in the Diet".

[17] See journal article called "Evaluation of the deleterious health effects of consumption of repeatedly heated vegetable oil".

[18] See journal article called "A Dietary Fiber-Deprived Gut Microbiota Degrades the Colonic Mucus Barrier and Enhances Pathogen Susceptibility".

[19] See journal article called "Alcohol and Gut-Derived Inflammation". It says: "Studies show that alcohol promotes both dysbiosis and bacterial overgrowth, which in turn leads to an increase in the release of endotoxins, produced by gram-negative bacteria. Endotoxins activate proteins and immune cells that promote inflammation."

[20] See book called "Gastric Cytoprotection: A Clinician’s Guide". The ISBN is 978-1-4684-5699-8. Go to page 84. You can read it for free at books.google.com. It says: "[Mucoid cap] is quite different in properties and composition from the original adherent mucus over the undamaged mucosa, although it has been wrongly designated as mucus by some."

[21] See journal article called "Gastroduodenal mucus bicarbonate barrier: protection against acid and pepsin". It says: "This was compounded by the misnaming, as mucus, of the mucoid cap seen on histological sections of reepithelializing gastric mucosa following acute damage. The mucoid cap on top of the damaged and repairing mucosa is primarily a fibrin gel with necrotic cells and remains of the adherent mucus layer from the original, undamaged mucosa."

[22] See textbook called "Pathology for the Health Professions". The ISBN is 978-0-323-35721-0. You can read it for free at google books. Go to page 34.

[23] See journal article called "Gastroduodenal mucosal protection". It was written by A. Allen, G. Flemstrom, A. Garner, and E. Kivilaakso. It says: "This layer is frequently referred to as a mucus or mucoid cap; however, its designation as mucus is misleading".

[24] See textbook called "Glycoprotein Methods and Protocols: The Mucins". It's the 2000 edition. You can read it for free at google books. On page 58 it says: "This mucoid cap has been confused with the adherent mucus that covers the normal undamaged mucosa; however, it is a quite different structure consisting primarily of a fibrin gel and necrotic cells with some mucin staining."

[25] See his book called "Mucusless Diet Healing System: Scientific Method of Eating Your Way to Health". You can buy it here. You can also read it for free here.

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4 comments:

  1. This attic ale has so many glaring inaccuracies in the first few sentences I would be amazed if anyone read any further.

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    Replies
    1. I’d rather be Autocorrected than inaccurate :) **article

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    2. What makes you say so, evidence? specifics?

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    3. I already gave you specific evidence.

      Delete