PROBIOTICS ARE GRAND!
(FIND OUT WHY THEY AREN’T HALF AS GRAND AS FMT)
“Commercial dairy products are uniform, because they are made from milk using defined mixtures of pure cultures of bacteria and fungi. These dairy probiotics can substitute but not replace gut flora, because they can’t grow in a healthy gut.”
More of the same from Dr. Art Ayers January 25, 2014 post called Milk, Kefir and Gut Flora.“Repair of the suppressive immune system by repair of gut flora (including fecal transplants) and feeding gut flora with appropriate soluble fiber, may be a general approach to the cure of most autoimmune diseases and allergies.“ Dr. Art Ayers from his March, 2014 post called Health Diagrams II — Curing Autoimmunity and Allergies.
- Your Colon (Large Intestine) is 5 feet long.
- One of its main purposes in digestion is to reabsorb the water from the material passed to it from the Small Intestine.
- Your Gut contains 80% of your Immune System, with the vast majority being the bacteria that inhabit (or should inhabit) the Colon (HERE).
- You should have hundreds — or as many as several thousand — distinct species of bacteria living in your Colon.
- The bacteria living in (and on) your body outnumber your own body’s cells by approximately 10 to 1.
- Although water, fiber (both SOLUBLE & INSOLUBLE), dead cells, and mucus make up the biggest part of your stool, about a third of the 1/3 to 1/2 pounds of feces you excrete every day is made up of bacteria.
- Antibiotics kill bacteria; both the good and the bad. When the bad bacteria begin to take over the Large Intestine, we refer to this as DYSBIOSIS.
It’s really quite easy to understand. Taking large amounts of probiotics — especially over the long haul — has the potential to skew the numbers and type of bacteria in the specific direction of the product you are taking, which may not be a good thing. In other words, having too much of a specific bacteria in your Gut — even if it’s a “good” bacteria like Acidophilus — can crowd out other good bacteria that are needed as well, but maybe not nearly as well known. Here in America, we believe that if a little is good then a whole lot should be even better (HERE is an example with nutrition and supplements). Unfortunately, in the case of Probiotics, too many for too long of a period, or too often, can throw your normal ratio of good bacteria out of balance, creating Dysbiosis. What do I recommend?
- STAY OFF ANTIBIOTICS: When you are sick they give you Antibiotics. These destroy / kill your Immune System — of which the greatest portion is made up of good bacteria —- leaving you more susceptible to sickness. And when you get it, the cycle starts all over again. Bear in mind that numerous other drugs have Antibiotic properties as well.
- STAY OFF SUGAR: Antibiotics cause Dysbiosis, but it is largely fueled by LIVING THE HIGH CARB LIFESTYLE.
- TAKE PROBIOTICS: Hold on. I thought you just finished telling me how bad Probiotics are. No. Probiotics themselves are not bad, it’s how they are taken that’s bad. What’s probably more important is to make sure you are eating a variety FERMENTED FOODS.
- LESS HYGIENE: In many ways we are too clean — way too clean (HERE). Your SKIN should have a large and diverse number of organisms living on it, just like your Gut. In fact, to a large degree, your Gut gets its bacteria from your skin.
- BREAST FEED YOUR BABIES: Make sure you breast feed your babies, and while you are thinking of it, make sure to have a natural delivery and clean your child’s pacifier in your mouth (HERE).
- DON’T NEGLECT SEX: In the same way that sex with people who carry certain diseases can cause STD’s, REGULAR SEX with your spouse has as much potential to swap good bacteria as almost anything other than this next bullet point.
- FECAL MATERIAL TRANSPLANT: It sounds totally gross. I already know that. I also know that desperate times call for desperate measures. If you have any sort of chronic illness, you should really start thinking about a FMT. No; your doctor will probably not agree with you. The cool thing is that there are plenty of DO IT YOURSELF sites online.
