Microbiome Dysbiosis (4) Conceptual Expansion Exploring Clinical Testing, Microbial Relevance and Irrelevance [VIDEO:1hour,18minutes=78minutes]

UPDATE Feb 2025: I’ve noticed that some of the videos previously posted/streaming from the Vimeo platform are no longer reliably visible, while at the same time, this Substack platform has progressively allowed for direct uploading/embedding of videos; as such, many of the previously-posted videos are being reloaded directly into the Substack platform for more reliable access and archiving.

Video #4: Clinical Approach: Testing Microbes vs Treating Dysbiosis and How the Clinical Approach to Dysbiosis Differs from the Approach Used to Treat Infectious Disease

Objectives and Clinical Importance:

Explain: Major concepts in dysbiosis-induced disease and specifically explain the relative importance of laboratory testing and microbial identification in the treatment of dysbiosis-induced disease

• What are the strengths and limitations of laboratory assessment for patients who may have dysbiosis but who do not have evidence of clinical infection?

• What is the overall clinical value, and what are the adverse effects of excessive laboratory testing?

• What are the financial and ethical implications of overuse of laboratory testing, as well as the judicious use of laboratory testing which turns out to be inaccurate due to faulty methodology and false advertising?

Identify: Microbe-disease associations from the perspective of dysbiosis rather than from the perspective of classic Microbiology or Infectious Disease

Clinical narrative: The information in this presentation provides opportunity and contextualization to enable a broader perspective on the assessment and treatment of microbe-induced disease; most physicians inexperienced with dysbiosis-induced disease will assume that microbe-induced disease requires microbiologic testing and microbe-specific antibiotics—this is not generally and not always true, and the appropriate approach depends on the clinical disease and the suspected microbes, ie, requires knowledge and judgement rather than the reflexive “shoot from the hip approach” of antibiotic prescribing.

My course on “Human Microbiome and Dysbiosis in Clinical Disease” was developed over several years starting formally in 2015-2017 as a continuing medical education (CME) postgraduate online conference joint-accredited for doctors, nurses, and pharmacists:

• “American Medical Association Physician's Recognition Award (AMA PRA) Category 1 Statement: This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Essential Areas and Policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership … accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians. …designates this educational activity for a maximum of 30 AMA PRA Category 1 credits.

• Nursing Statement: …approved provider of continuing nursing education by the Washington State Nurses Association WSNA A-CNE, an accredited Approver of Continuing Nursing Education.

• Pharmacy Statement: …accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education as a provider of continuing pharmacy education. Objectives appropriate for pharmacists.”

I’ve established legitimate expertise on this topic for more than 20 years via clinical experience, post-graduate conference presentations, book publications, and numerous peer-reviewed professional publications.

1. Dr Alex Vasquez. Reducing pain and inflammation naturally - Part 6: Nutritional and Botanical Treatments Against “Silent Infections” and Gastrointestinal Dysbiosis, Commonly Overlooked Causes of Neuromusculoskeletal Inflammation and Chronic Health Problems. Nutritional Perspectives 2006 Jan

2. Dr Alex Vasquez. Neuroinflammation in fibromyalgia and CRPS is multifactorial. Nat Rev Rheumatol 2016 Apr;12(4):242. doi: 10.1038/nrrheum.2016.25 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26935282

3. Dr Alex Vasquez. Biological plausibility of the gut-brain axis in autism. Ann N Y Acad Sci 2017 Nov;1408(1):5-6. doi: 10.1111/nyas.13516 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29090837

4. Dr Alex Vasquez. Musculoskeletal Pain: Expanded Clinical Strategies: Printed monograph approved for ACCME PRA-1 Continuing Medical Education ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/101633549 Published by: Institute for Functional Medicine. 2008 May

5. Dr Alex Vasquez. Mitochondrial Medicine Arrives to Prime Time in Clinical Care: Nutritional Biochemistry and Mitochondrial Hyperpermeability ("Leaky Mitochondria") Meet Disease Pathogenesis and Clinical Interventions. Integr Med (Encinitas) 2014 Aug;13(4):44-9 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26770108

6. Dr Alex Vasquez. Reply to "role of Western diet in inflammatory autoimmune diseases" by Manzel et al. In current allergy and asthma reports (volume 14, issue 1, January 2014). Curr Allergy Asthma Rep 2014 Aug;14(8):454. doi: 10.1007/s11882-014-0454-4 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24947682

7. Dr Alex Vasquez. Correspondence regarding Cutshall, Bergstrom, Kalish's "Evaluation of a functional medicine approach to treating fatigue, stress, and digestive issues in women" in Complement Ther Clin Pract 2016 May. Complement Ther Clin Pract 2018 May;31:332-333. doi: 10.1016/j.ctcp.2016.10.001 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27814977

8. Dr Alex Vasquez. The Microbiome Arrives to Prime Time in Primary Care, Implications for the Anti-Dysbiotic Treatment of Fibromyalgia. Nutritional Perspectives 2015 Oct

9. Dr Alex Vasquez. Translating Microbiome (Microbiota) and Dysbiosis Research into Clinical Practice: The 20-Year Development of a Structured Approach that Gives Actionable Form to Intellectual Concepts. International Journal of Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine 2015 Jun

Currently, my largest and most detailed explanation of dysbiosis-microbiome is in Inflammation Mastery 4th Edition currently available at discounted price directly from the publisher:

[Adding a paywall line is necessary due to changes in Substack formatting requirements but nothing is added below this line]