Madonnas Secret for Longevity Seen Aiding Bacteria Boom
Madonnas Longevity Secret Seen Fueling Bacteria Boom
Jamie Squire/Getty Images
Madonna performs during the Bridgestone Super Bowl XLVI Halftime Show at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Madonna performs during the Bridgestone Super Bowl XLVI Halftime Show at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. Photographer: Jamie Squire/Getty Images
Madonnas Longevity Secret Seen Fueling Bacteria Boom
Chef Mayumi Nishimura poses for a photograph at Integral Yoga Natural Foods store in New York.
Chef Mayumi Nishimura poses for a photograph at Integral Yoga Natural Foods store in New York. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg
Madonnas Longevity Secret Seen Fueling Bacteria Boom
Chef Mayumi Nishimura shops for groceries at Integral Yoga Natural Foods store in New York.
Chef Mayumi Nishimura shops for groceries at Integral Yoga Natural Foods store in New York. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg
Madonnas Longevity Secret Seen Fueling Bacteria Boom
Chef Mayumi Nishimura holds a bunch of radishes for a photograph at Integral Yoga Natural Foods store in New York.
Chef Mayumi Nishimura holds a bunch of radishes for a photograph at Integral Yoga Natural Foods store in New York. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg
Madonnas Longevity Secret Seen Fueling Bacteria Boom
Chef Mayumi Nishimura poses for a photograph in front of Integral Yoga Natural Foods store in New York.
Chef Mayumi Nishimura poses for a photograph in front of Integral Yoga Natural Foods store in New York.
Chef Mayumi Nishimura poses for a photograph in front of Integral Yoga Natural Foods store in New York. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg
The secret to Madonnas staying power may be surprisingly simple: gardening.
What the pop star does involves no trowel or soil. Thanks to dishes of fermented soy beans, millet and brown rice prepared by her personal chef, Mayumi Nishimura, Madonna practices a form of inner horticulture -- cultivating her intestinal flora in a burgeoning alternative approach to health.
Studies of the trillions of bacteria living on and in the body suggest the Material Girl, 53, may be onto something. By eating foods rich in fiber and laced with so-called good bacteria, she may be encouraging helpful microbes to flourish in her bowel, aiding in food digestion and vitamin extraction and possibly staving off diseases from asthma to colon cancer.
This diet that Madonna is following is very sensible, says David Topping, chief food-nutrition researcher at Australias Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Adelaide, who studied gut biology for 25 years. The bac! teria th at live inside you are fulfilling very important functions.
While scientists try to understand the ecology of the bacteria and their interactions with diet and disease, companies are looking for ways to profit.
The health benefits of gut germs have spawned a global market for products that contain friendly bacteria, called probiotics, in the form of tablets or supplements added to foods by companies including Danone, Nestle SA (NESN), and Yakult Honsha Co. (2267)
The market for supplemented dairy products such as Danone (BN)s Activia yoghurts and Yakults fermented drinks, worth $14.7 billion six years ago, will probably expand 32 percent to $33.5 billion by 2016, Euromonitor International estimated last month.
Quinoa, Not Coffee
Studies published in the past year have linked certain bowel-dwelling bacteria to a stronger immune system, while others have been associated with autism and obesity. In one paper published in the journal Nature, scientists showed that a type of white blood cell that produces antibodies only acquired its infection! -fightin g ability after spending time in the gut.
Nishimura, who has cooked for cancer patients before being hired by Madonna, serves quinoa and other whole grains as staples, along with vegetables and soy sauce, she said in a telephone interview from New York. She also tries to offer seaweed every second day -- usually sauted or boiled.
We eat food processed as little as possible, Nishimura, 55, says of her dietary approach, known as macrobiotic. She doesnt recommend meat, dairy and coffee. An agent for Madonna didnt respond to a request for comment.
Whole grains and fiber act as both food and fertilizer to the bacteria in the bowel, according to Mark Morrison, a microbiologist with Australias CSIRO in Brisbane studying ways to improve gut function and health.
Terrific Interest
There are 10 times as many bacteria in the human intestinal tract as there are cells in the body. As coordinator of the Human Microbiome Project, Lita Proctor is helping to organize collaboration from hundreds of scientists around the world trying to map and study microbial communities living on the skin, in the mouth and bowel, and in other parts of the body.
Its extremely heartening and healthy to have so much attention now paid to the diet, says Proctor, who works at the National Human Genome Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.
Even so, Proctor says the research is still in its infancy, and products based on partial understanding may not deliver what they promise.
Thats not holding up the industry, she says. Its a very flu! id, ill- defined area, but with a lot of terrific interest.
Flowers and Weeds
The term probiotic is vague and theres no accepted definition for it. Measuring results may be even more of a grey area and some supplements are destroyed by stomach acid before entering the gut, according to Proctor.
Nishimura relies on fermented foods such as miso, soy sauce and tempeh to play the role of probiotics and says the benefits of her diet can be quickly noticed.
I feel better than I did 20 years ago, Madonna wrote in a preface to the cookbook her chef had published in 2010. I am very grateful to you for this.
The garden analogy is helpful when it comes to describing the complex ecology of the bacteria living on humans, says Julie Segre, the lead investigator working on the skin microbiome at the National Human Genome Research Institute.
There are some flowers that make it easier for other flowers to grow in the same soil, Segre says. The most important thing is to keep out the invasive weeds, she says.
Transpoosions
When the weeds take over, Australian gastroenterologist Thomas Borody has a radical approach to reestablishing the balance of intestinal flora in his patients: he transplants fecal germs from disease-free individuals directly into the upper reach of the colon, in a pouch known as the cecum.
His Sydney clinic has done 1,800 of the procedures, which he jokingly dubs transpoosions, over 25 years. Borody, 62, says the treatment has helped patients with ailments ranging from autism to pseudomembranous colitis, a resilient infection that causes abdominal! pain, l oose bowel movements and fever.
The next day their diarrhea stops, the doctor says. After the procedure, he asks patients to avoid treatments that may damage their gut flora. Three studies presented at the American College of Gastroenterologys meeting in October indicate fecal transplants can help with bouts of diarrhea associated with the bacterium Clostridium difficile.
When Weeds Take Over
Keeping inner bugs healthy is crucial because otherwise they risk taking over more than the garden. If intestinal bacteria arent able to survive on the food their host consumes, the germs will try to feed on what they can find -- mucus as well as anything else, according to CSIROs Topping. That may lead to inflammatory bowel disease, a painful condition that can evolve into colon cancer, he says.
Staving off disease is one reason people have turned to Nishimuras cooking in the past. The chef, who prepared meals for cancer patients in Boston, says the diet helps with constipation, menstrual pain and body odor. When she first changed the way she ate, Nishimura says she also found that her allergic skin rash improved.
So Fresh
Typically, Nishimura tailors her meals each day to suit the way her employer feels, she says, adding that Madonna prefers the chef herself to shop for ingredients. Popular dishes include seaweed in miso soup; hijiki -- a type of brown seaweed -- served with carrots and onions and seasoned with soy sauce; and cooked oats for breakfast, Nishimura says.
Whole grains demand harder work for bowel bacteria, which help the body extract vitamins and nutrients from food, because the insoluble fiber they contain is only broken down in the lower reaches of the digestive tract in a fermentation process that delivers different quantities and varieties of inflammation-fighting short-chain fatty acids to the bodys cells.
There is solid evidence that microbes play a role in tuning the immune system, says Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia Universitys Mailman School of Public Health, where scientists showed in January that children with autism and gastrointestinal disturbances have a bacterial species not found in non-autistic children with tummy upsets.
Madonna and others making similar diet choices may not know theyre pushing the science frontier. They may just feel better.
When you cut out animal products, white sugar and coffee for 10 days you start to feel the difference, Nishimura said. When I first began this diet, I remember how my head became clearer, I woke up earlier and felt so fresh in the morning that I didnt want to stay in bed.
Madonna herself isnt lacking in stamina. Her world tour, which starts in Tel Aviv this month and ends next March, includes 75 concerts in Europe and North America. Her previous world tour was in 2008 and 2009, when she also published six childrens books and directed or produced two movies.
To contact the reporters responsible for this story: Kanoko Matsuyama in Tokyo at kmatsuyama2@bloomberg.net; Jason Gale in Melbourne at j.gale@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jason Gale at j.gale@bloomberg.net.
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