Just as spiritual health is a journey requiring balancing of inner beauty, love, joy, creativity and inner peace with worldly interactions; so is physical health a journey of creating bacterial balance between the “good” and the “bad.” There are over one hundred trillion bacteria living in our guts with 400 to 500 different types, weighing in at approximately 4 lbs! Of this, 85 percent of the bacteria should be “good.”
Balanced flora is critical to our health and dysbiosis of bacteria, just like dysbiosis in life disrupts well being. Nature in its infinite wisdom is balance and the harmonious coexistence between the human host and intestinal microflora provide a window to nature’s soul. When we live in a state of dis-symbiosis, mal-homeostasis prevails, and eventually disease results. Fortunately, several healthy options for rebalancing gut flora and in turn, balancing life energy symbiotically, are widely available.
BACTERIAL DYSBIOSIS LINKED TO MOST MAJOR HEALTH CONCERNS
Balanced flora is essential. Good bacteria help provide the barrier function for our immune system, assist in digestion and absorption, make short chain fatty acids and synthesize vitamins B complex and K. Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria are especially useful in controlling intestinal pH, reducing bad cholesterol and synthesizing enzymes. Some good bacteria help break down lactase; assisting those of us who are lactose intolerant. Research indicates that some bacteria even have anti-tumor properties, especially against colon cancer. Increasing “beneficial” bacteria is the easiest way to strengthen our systems ourselves to protect from illness and disease causing microbes.
Unfortunately, not all bacteria are beneficial. H pylori cause stomach ulcers and gastritis. Overgrowth of yeast, especially Candida albicans result in food allergies, migraines, irritable bowel syndrome, asthma, indigestion, gas, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, colitis, neoplastic disease, depression, heightened premenstrual syndrome, vaginitis and chronic fatigue syndrome. Clostridium difficile and Enterobacter cloacae induce diarrhea. Yersinia enerocolitica is implicated in gastroenteritis. Klebsiella, Proteus, Pseudomonas and Citrobacter are all involved with various autoimmune diseases.
Luckily, health problems only arise if the bad bacteria “set up shop.” We all house a certain amount of bad bacteria, just as even the most spiritually enlightened person still has selfish thoughts. Fortunately, “good” bacteria prevent colonization of the “bad,” just as acts of selflessness speak louder than narcissistic thinking. We just have to make sure that the “good guys” significantly (by about 85 percent) outnumber the “bad ones.” A person seeking spiritual balance will never attain true transcendence as long as internal dysbiosis continues, which bacteria plays a large role in.
DO YOU HAVE BACTERIAL DYSBIOSIS?
There are several signs of imbalanced flora. Do fermented foods make you gassy? If so, it’s possible you have an overgrowth of the Candida albicans bacteria. Other yeast overgrowth signs include: vaginal yeast infections, athletes foot, jock itch, ringworm and nail fungus. Another possible indication is tongue thrush, a tongue with a white fuzzy coating, instead of a healthy pink coloration. Accompanying symptoms may include joint aches and pains, brain fog, fatigue, headaches, sugar and refined carbohydrate cravings and food sensitivities.
Certain lifestyle choices increase your risk for bacterial dysbiosis. Use of antibiotics, corticosteroids and birth control pills all kill intestinal bacteria—“good” and “bad”—making it more likely “bad” bacteria and fungi will recolonize. If you have been on any course of antibiotics (literally means “against life”) without replenishing “beneficial” bacteria, your system has likely been taken over by “bad” bacteria and yeast. Sugar and refined carbohydrate (think breads and pastas) ingestion feed “bad” bacteria, to the detriment of “friendly” bacteria. Stress, low levels of stomach acid, slow bowel transit time and poor ileoceal valve function are all digestive issues that increase dysbiosis.
Certain health conditions contribute to and are linked to bacterial imbalance: autoimmune diseases, breast cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome, colon cancer, cystic acne, eczema, irritable bowel syndrome, psoriasis, steatorrhea and Vitamin B12 deficiency (common among vegetarians and vegans).
RECREATING BACTERIAL SYMBIOSIS
Luckily, attaining bacterial balance is easier than reaching spiritual balance, though they are interrelated. There are several important steps for rebalancing flora: First, eliminate what “bad” bacteria feed upon (sugar and refined carbohydrates). Second, use antibacterial herbs (not antibiotic pharmaceutical drugs) to kill off “bad” bacteria, such as: Oregon grape root, grapefruit seed extract, garlic, thyme and wormwood. Third, take a high dose multiple strain probiotic supplement for at least one month. Finally, eat prebiotic foods (foods that feed beneficial bacterial), such as: Jerusalem artichoke, chickory, onions, garlic, leaks, bananas, peas, legumes, eggplant, asparagus and mushrooms. Eat more cultured and fermented foods, such as: kim chi, miso, kombucha, tempeh, saurkraut, non pasteurized yogurt and kefir. These foods contain beneficial bacterial strains. Eat a diet high in fiber which supports good digestion and elimination. If stomach acid is low, supplementing with HCl acid may be useful.
If we cannot create a symbiotic relationship within our body, how can we expect to create symbiosis with the outside world and our inner consciousness? How can we create harmony of the mind, the body and the spirit, if the body is in a state of chaotic dsybiosis? If bacterial dysbiosis promotes a disease state within each of us, how can we heal the planet? Bacterial dysbiosis prevents internal peace and completion, which threatens our ability to foster a symbiotic relationship to the universe. We need to nurture interdependence inside and out to allow for more awareness and compassion.
I currently have this problem. 3 years ago I had a serious lung infection, with the other symptoms you mention such as depression and fatigue, joint pain, bloating and many other symptoms. Mine was actually caused by sugar, too many carbs and too many antibiotics without taking probiotics. Now I am on a course of natural antimicrobials and probiotics, starting to feel like my old self again.
My doctor told me that I had an overgrowth of enterobacter cloacae and possibly candida at one time altough that did not show up in the stool test. I am taking grapefruit seed extract, a caprylate complex, colloidal silver at 10ppm, lots of raw garlic at night (feel sorry for my husband) and no simple carbs like rice, potatoes and other grains as they turn into sugar and feed the bacteria. The idea is to cut out sugar and create an alkaline atmosphere that weakens the bad bacteria. So far it is working. I haven’t felt this good in about 10-12 years!!
Congratulations Vanessa! That’s fantastic! And way to stick with it. How incredible to be feeling so much better when you aren’t even done creating a better bacterial balance. I’d love to hear how it turns out for you.
Hi Katie,
Well for the most part when I stick to the diet which is 90% of the time, I feel fantastic. However I find if I cheat even a little, for instance eat a Kind Bar with 5g of sugar – I feel it later. So the imbalance is severe. I just added in colostrum yesterday and I am taking a multivitamin pea protein shake for breakfast daily, which has fiber and all sorts of gut healing supplements, so I hope to stay away from the antibiotics. I am also doing Vit C therapy, which is controversial and procey, but so far I am getting results. Katie, are you a sufferer from this type of imbalance or know anyone who is?
That’s fantastic that you are getting such great results Vanessa! Actually, most of my clients suffer from dysbiosis at some level and are usually feeding the dysbiosis through a diet of refined carbohydrates and sugars. It can definitely take time to overcome. The dysbiosis I battled about 10 years ago was caused by the parasitic infection of giardia which resulted in excessive intestinal permeability, which resulted in the development of multiple food intolerances and over-stimulation of my immune system setting off an autoimmune cascade causing issues for my thyroid, inflammation and fatigue. It’s fascinating and scary how much damage dysbiosis can cause! I’m so glad you found a practitioner that was willing to support you to health naturally and was willing to test you to find out the true cause of your symptoms, instead of just writing it off as IBS and something you will just have to suffer forever! I see that happen to people over and over and it is so frustrating!
Katie, your story sounds exactly like mine. I was very healthy until i turned 16 and then everything, severe asthma, food allergies, inflamation, low immune system, weigth gain, candida everywhere, type 2 diabetes onset and hypothyroidism, in that order. Im only 28 and ave tried everything from colonics to diets to medicine o alternative, supplement.. All. I think someone is missing something… I know candida is playing a big roll but could i have something like what you had? Im in ny? Any competent, out of the box, integrative or alternative drs that you ay suggest? My candida is so bad that my symptoms are permanent even with heavy probiotics and diflucan which im afraid will destroy my liver.
How frustrating for you! Yes, Diflucan can be really hard on our bodies and you are right to be concerned about long-term use ramifications for your liver. Often the problem I see, and what I personally experienced, is practitioners working downstream of the symptoms instead of dealing with the preliminary cause and then working downstream on each trigger. If that has been how practitioners have worked with you up until now, your health is not going to improve, symptoms will just continue to manifest in new ways. Of course, the difficult thing, but the most important, is to determine the cause of the problem. I unfortunately don’t have any colleagues in New York that I could refer you to. I do work internationally via Skype and phone sessions for folks that aren’t in Denver. That said, I only work with folks that I am certain I can improve their health and I may or may not be able to take your health to the next level from what little I know about your health right now. What I suggest is that you sign up for a complimentary Vitality Strategy Session with me, so that I can learn more about your symptoms and your health history. You can sign up on the right side of my website. From there I will suggest a strategy to improve your health and will explain if I might be the right fit to lead you through one or more of the steps. Whether you decide to work with me or with someone else, you will have a plan and strategy to work with, so you can find the right practitioner for each step of the way. I wish you the best of luck in getting this figured out and hope to get to talk to you soon!
[…] feeds parasites, yeast & bacteria in the gut, when they are not fed they cause intense […]
My son was hospitalized for a staph infection, MRSA. He spent 3 days on Vancomycin 200 mL/hr. Then after he was home he was put on Bactrum and Clindamycin every 6 hours for 8 days. He has been off all meds and returned to school, the infection in his arm looks good but still has small blister like pimples on that same arm they tell me will eventurally go away to just use wart medicated bandaids on them, thats about 25 bandaids He came home a few days ago from school and his hands are all blistered and peeling, I have also heard of others in the the school that had MRSA. this whole house was bleached down when all this started. I have a call into his doctor but I have not had a return call we are new to the area new doctor we are using through the hospital. His hands are so white with what looks to be large peeling of what looks like blisters his fingers are raw. could this be from him not having good bacteria left it almost looks like a yeast infection on his hands
I’m so sorry to hear everything your son is going through Debbie. It is possible that he has developed cutaneous candidiasis, which is candida of the skin (the antibiotics would have killed off all good bacteria so nothing to prevent a take over of candida) or maybe exfoliative keratolysis, which could have flared-up because of a weakened immune system or it might be an allergic reaction to the extremely strong antibiotics he was on and his system is detoxing the antibiotics through his skin. I would be interested to hear what his doctor says as I do not know. I would personally do a strong round of probiotics indefinitely, regardless of what the skin condition is. The medications you mentioned will have killed most all the good and the bad, so it is very essential to reinoculate to prevent candida or some other opportunistic critter from taking hold. Good luck and please share what you find out.
Katie Bauer recently posted..Kick the Crack (aka Sugar) Addiction
Hi Katie,
I saw you mentioned fiber intake as a good thing in your article. I just wanted to mention that fiber can actually inhibit the healing of a person with bad bacteria in their gut due to the bad microbes liking fiber and feeding off of it. You can see more info here: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/03/18/mcbride-and-barringer-interview.aspx
Thanks so much HC! Yes, you are so right that in cases of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, fiber will make the person worse. In cases of large intestinal overgrowth, I think it can be helpful to have fiber to ensure proper bowel movements and passing off bad bacteria. Most important is good bacteria for both cases of small and large intestinal overgrowth. Thanks so much for the clarification point. Much appreciated!
Katie Bauer recently posted..Get Your Juices Flowing and Combat Constipation
Can you suggest any treatments or success stories for exfoliative keratolysis . My 15 year old son has had this for over a month and is vey worried about it and it is affecting his mental health. I’m worried too . Km
Hi Katy, I’m sorry EK is not an area that I specialize in. I know that it can worsen based on environmental conditions, allergies and harsh chemicals coming in contact with the hands. So treating it would revolve around that. If I was dealing with EK in myself I would be more concerned with why I developed it in the first place than with treating it. My assumption would be that there is something going on with my immune system that I would need to uncover. I would likely do a skin prick allergy test and IgE blood allergy test (a full panel, not conducted by the same folks that do the skin prick test because they tend to only do a blood test based on the results of the skin prick test when they are actually testing different reactions.) I would also get a cell-mediated intolerance blood test and test all 200 foods + environmental allergens + dyes/additivies + medications + botanicals (such as the ALCAT or the LEAP test). I would prefer the cell-mediated test to an IgG test. And then you are going to end up with an excessively long list of foods and other things that your son has a mild, moderate or severe intolerance or allergy to that should be avoided. Avoiding the inevitably long list will feel overwhelming but it will need to be done strictly to determine whether that is helpful. All of that said, that is what I would do, but I do not have examples of it helping folks with EK. I’ve never worked with a client with EK before. Good luck and please feel free to update us on how it is going.
Katie Bauer recently posted..Declare Your Independence Today
hi there, i am suffering with a yeast overgrowth and low benificial bacteria and also some out of balance non pathogenic bacteria that have overgrown a little bit by the names of 2+ Alpha hemolytic strep and 1+ Hemolytic Escherichia coli (a stool analysis confirmed this) i started out very bloated and everything i eat made me feel sick! i have fatigue but not so much now i have cut out the sugar, ive had a yellow coated tongue mucus in my stool daily diarrhoea eye floaters anxiety and brain fog and many more! ive had lots of symptoms! anyway my symptoms when they flair up lead me to having symptoms of hypoglycaemia when i don’t eat on time or eat the wrong things and also all day long ectopic beats (palpitations) worse when i don’t eat and better after a big meal! a naturopathic doctor said my adrenal glands need some support but i dont feel like i have adrenal fatigue (kidney and thyroid and blood pressure all fine on tests) as i have no trouble falling asleep and awaken feeling refreshed after 8 hours sleep every-night! i know stress can cause palpitations, but i guess my question is can low beneficial gut bacteria cause hypoglycaemic feelings when not eating on time or eating the wrong things? and possibly palpitations ? could palpitations be from the low blood type feelings that cause adrenaline and thus cause palpitations or does it sound like they could be caused by and adrenal issue ? thank you very much for taking the time to read my comment 🙂 any information or advice or opinions would be massively appreciated!
Hi Jamie,
Yes, dysbiosis can definitely result in your symptoms. RE: hypoglycemia/low blood sugar symptoms… A candida overgrowth can result in high levels of toxic yeast byproducts in the blood such as tartaric acid. Tartaric acid inhibits the krebs cycle which is a critical cycle for blood sugar balance. The krebs cycle provides malic acid which is converted to blood sugar when glucose is used up. Insufficient malic acid production prevents sufficient glucose production resulting in hypoglycemia symptoms. The low blood sugar results in sugar cravings and consuming sugars in the short-term make a person with hypoglycemia feel better, but feeds the yeast which increases the tartaric acid in the blood resulting in a cycle of yeast overgrowth and hypoglycemia and sugar cravings/consumption. The body should be able to produce sufficient glucose simply from proteins and fats in the diet, but that often isn’t possible with a yeast overgrowth. In this case more and more grains, fruits and refined carbohydrates and sugars get consumed as the body experiences hypoglycemia.
As for adrenal fatigue/stress. Yes, palpitations are often a result of adrenal dysfunction which is the result of too many stressors. Every time your blood sugar spikes or plummets it causes stress in the body. Dysbiosis and other causes of inflammation (insulin, food sensitivities, heavy metals, tobacco, etc.) also result in stress on the body and the release of stress hormones. Over time, this drains the adrenals. Best way to know if your adrenals are implicated is to ask for an adrenal saliva test (not blood) so you can track adrenal hormone release throughout the day/night. Palpitations are often connected to hypoglycemia specifically because of the stress response and also with dysbiosis. If there is a stressor in your body (blood sugar imbalance or candida or bacterial overgrowth or some other inflammation inducing situation), your adrenals will release the stress hormones including adrenaline which causes heart palpitations. Heart palpitations can also be caused by hyperthyroidism or from Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism so you may want to get a full thyroid panel including thyroid antibodies. You may not have adrenal fatigue (fatigue after sufficient sleep), but could be in adrenal stress when your adrenals are pumping out high levels of the stress hormones (cortisol and adrenaline) resulting in heart palpitations. Over time, when the body is constantly in fight or flight from stressors (dysbiosis, hypoglycemia, food intolerances, mercury, smoking, etc.), the adrenals stop functioning correctly and producing hormones and that results in adrenal fatigue and then you experience the low energy, low blood pressure, etc. Only way to know though is with the adrenal saliva test.
Katie Bauer recently posted..Are Your Sugar Cravings all “in Your Head”?
For sure probiotic may solve the great part of problem but I’m afrayd that isn’t suficient. I have been making a natural treatment that solved my problem bus it was a mix of food and natural indian medicine, and till now I’m okay and two years passed since I started the treatment..
Thanks so much for sharing João! And yes, I fully agree that our food is essential, especially fermented, naturally probiotic rich foods combined with foods to strengthen our immune system.
Katie Bauer recently posted..How to Survive This Post-Election Thanksgiving (While Being Gluten Free!)
Yes, for sure prebiotics are the best way to fix many problems on the gut. The main of them is candidiasis and my public share awesome results with us on the blog!
Leandro recently posted..A Candidíase Causa Depressão? Como a Candida Albicans Afeta a Mente