By Joan McDaniel April 10, 2015
Good question, and it is being asked by many research scientist with studies on Gut Bacteria. So before you reach for the hand sanitizer – Think about it for a minute.
Without Bacteria You would be Very Sick if not dead
We Are Bacteria
The world around us is Bacteria. The world is full of germs and since the theories of Louis Pasture, hygienic movement and the germ theory of disease modern medicine has been busy killing germs and creating drugs.
Germs can be one of your best Friends. We need bacteria, and we need germs. To stay healthy, free of disease, and strong you need bacteria all 100 trillion of them.
Is Reduced Bacteria (microbes) making us sick?
A growing number of studies are being conducted by scientists into the importance of gut bacteria. Scientists are now finding the role that a healthy gut plays in our general and mental health.
According to an article in the New York Times
“In his new book, ‘Missing Microbes,’ Dr. Blaser links the declining variety within the microbiome to our increased susceptibility to serious, often chronic conditions, from allergies and celiac disease to Type 1 diabetes and obesity. He and others primarily blame antibiotics for the connection”. Martin Blaser, is chairman of the department of medicine in New York University Medical School and former president of the Infectious Disease Society of America. He says,”chronic antibiotic overuse could be making kids fatter by killing off healthy gut bacteria. I don’t think its due to Big Macs, and I don’t think its due to lack of exercise. Our ancestral microbes are disappearing”
Great Video
I found this great animation video from NPR called “Exploring The Invisible Universe That Lives On Us — And In Us”
It how gut bacteria works
The Amazing World Living Inside of Us.
NPR has a wonderful animation video about how gut bacteria works and why you need it.
If you not feeling as well as you use to, maybe it’s because you are missing some needed germs.
In many ways you’re more microbe than human. There are 10 times more cells from microorganisms like bacteria and fungi in and on our bodies than there are human cells.
These microorganisms have a huge influence on our health. Without them, our bodies don’t seem to do as well. We don’t seem to be as healthy and might actually get sick more often.
But these tiny compatriots are invisible to the naked eye. So NPR asked artist Ben Arthur to give us a guided tour. Join me as we dive into the rich universe of the human microbiome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DTrENdWvvM
Your Immune System lives in your Gut
Your Immune System keeps you well by controlling the overpopulation of bad bacteria within a large population of good bacteria. Bacteria out-numbers your regular cells by a factor of 9 to 1. This community of trillions of bacteria inhabit your just about everywhere in and on your body, but most important place they inhabit is in your gut. Your Immune System is in your Gut.
There are Many Names for Gut and Gut Bacteria
Just to be clear, your Gut is also called: the belly, bear belly, colon, digestive system, and intestines. Your gut or intestines consists of both the small and large colon. The population of bacteria also has several names; bacteria habitat, biofilm, flora, gut flora, microbes, microbial, microbiota, microflora, microorganism, mid section, spare tire, and many others.
Your are 80% Good Bacteria and 20% Bad.
You need both good and bad bacteria. Good bacteria build cells and bad bacteria breaks things down. You need both like with digestion you need to break things down.
What Kills Bacteria?
Antibiotic drugs, alcohol, hand sanitizer, prescription drugs, over the counter medications, most cleaning products of the body and of the environment, most processed food, kill both good and bad bacteria and help create the SUPERBUG.
Prescription Antibiotics Kill Good and Bad Bacteria
The Germ Theory led to the development of antibiotics and hygienic practices. Since the discovery of penicillin and its introduction in 1947, antibiotics have been used as the standard treatment for bacterial infections. Antibiotics have been thought of as a miracle “silver bullet” for infectious disease and antibiotics have been responsible for curtailing many major life threatentiag, infections disease plaguing humanity, but there is more to the story. Soon after the introduction of penicillin, the first bacterium to show resistance was discovered, Staphylococcus aureus. The fact is that antibiotics, even when used appropriately, do create mutant bacteria.
Nothing Kills the Superbug
Antibiotics kill all germs even the good ones. Our Immune system needs bacteria and fighting enzymes but most pharmaceutical drugs work by killing germs and fighting or blocking your bodies natural enzymes. The pharmaceutical industry using the Germ theory as its guide consider any germ as bad and must be destroyed – Both Good and Bad bacteria.
The use of the medication may temporarily stop or reduce the inflammation but the bacteria never really gets killed, It simply adapts by changing its form. The White Coat industry overuse of antibiotics and prescription drugs surpasses the illness or inflammation causing the immune system to bury the toxin deeper in the body. The immune system fights back as best it can by hiding the toxin where it will cause the least harm. The bacterium is then free to adapt into what is now called a “Superbug”.
The Superbug is resistive to all known forms of antibiotics. There are many Superbugs one we are familiar with is called Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), another is C-DIFF. Despite sterile and clean hospital procedures the Human Immune systems is simple too weak to fight and MRSA and other superbugs. Superbugs have many carriers.
I am one Good Example For I was very Sick And Was Hospitalized
I should know for in January of 2012, I was hospitalized for 8 days. I was very sick, I couldn’t catch my breath and hardly had the strength to stand up or walk. I staggered to my neighbors, asked her to drive me to the emergency room of the local hospital. Once there I had to use a wheel chair. Even with O2 (Oxygen), my O2 saturation (how much oxygen is in your blood) measured 84% it is should be above 90%. The hospital took a battery of blood test and X-rays but did not know what was wrong with me let alone how to fix it. I simply could not hold onto the oxygen I took in by breathing.
Finally after an endoscopy of both ends (my request) they found Candida Yeast infection in my esophagus (Esophageal candidasis), GERT with stomach acid burns to my esophagus. I was so weak that during the endoscopy exam, my heart stopped (PAF Paroxysmal, Atrial Fibrillation sudden, but not lasting long). I woke up and everyone around me was white as a sheet. I recovered almost instantly was taken back to the room.
By the way Yeast hates Oxygen and was destroying mine. I was given a 5 day supply of Yeast anti-fungal oral medicine as a treatment and once my O2 saturation got above 90%, I could get rid of my Oxygen nasal canal and go home with the fungal medication and 12 others all to do with the heart. It took another couple of days to get stronger. Once home, I was so sick I had to climb the stairs on may hands and knees to my bedroom.
I was the Perfect Example of Someone with a Weaken Immune System
My immune system had been so weakened that it literally had been overrun by bad bacteria, candida, fungus and yeast. My immune system was completely defenseless, more antibiotics or modern medicines couldn’t help either. The anti-fungal helped a little but you never really ever get rid of yeast you simply learn to control it.
My Body had been under Stress for Years
Years ago I had been diagnosed with Irritable Bowl Syndrome (IBS) and told to “live with it” for there was nothing that could be done. I had a lot of bloating and gas.
I am now a nurse and over the years had asked my doctors for antibiotics for the many colds, and my many cases of bronchitis. But this time the infection was different it wasn’t bacteria I had never even thought of a yeast infection. I also had COPD, was a borderline diabetic, heart disease, hypothyroidism, GERT, a bad gut, high blood pressure, and a lot of pain that came and went. I was living by following the Doctor’s suggestion, that I “learn to live with it.” I was under medication but as each year passed I just kept getting weaker and sicker. Use this link to see a before and after picture.
So, To Get Well I Fired the Doctors and Started My Own Research
I live alone and had no one to care for me so I turned my computer on and began to research health, healing, diets, food and nutrition.
I have been working at taming this yeast infection for about three years now, I am winning but boy what a battle. There isn’t any instant cure for it other than listening to your body and feeding it what it needs and building up the bad, good bacteria and enzymes that you need to fight this battle.
Most of You is Gut
The Gut or the intestines consists of a small and large intestine. The size of the small intestine (small bowel) is about 20 feet long and the large intestine is about 5 feet long.
Its job is to digest what we eat it is also the home to 80% of your immune system. Just think about it over 25 feet of gut and most of is the bacteria and germs of your Immune System. Stretched out your bigger than the most front rooms.
Types of Gut Illnesses – Inflammation and many if not all illnesses start in the Gut or Colon, here is a partial list of disease and symptoms:
If you’re not feeling very well, check this list for some symptoms. I think I had many of them.
Acne, arthritis, auto-brewery syndrome, bad breath, bloating, irritable bowel syndrome, brain fog, cancer, CDIFF (Closridium difficile), Celiac disease (CD) or Coeliac Disease, colitis, constipation, stomach cramping, Crohn’s, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, diarrhea, diabetes, diverticulitis, fibromyalgia, smelly gas and stool, heart burn or GERT, heart disease, hyper motility syndrome, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), weak immune system, indigestion, intestinal dysbiosis , leaky gut syndrome, mental foggy, Fungal and Bacterial Overgrowth, piles, premature aging, recurring Infections, skin conditions, the so-called yeast syndrome, ulcerated colitis, and many others
In children – Attention Deficient Disorder, anorexia (eating disorders from lack of appetite), food allergies, malnutrition, mental and physical retardation, dysfunction and many more.
Gut Bacteria you need both good and bad with the good keeping the bad in check and under control.
I Got Well by Building up my Gut’s Enzymes and Bacteria
Not to get hung up looking for a solution my many infections including Candida yeast Infection, I will just simply say;
YOU NEED BACTERIA BOTH GOOD AND BAD
I will go into what steps I took and what is available but that is for another time. Getting well was not easy and a long slow process. The best thing for you is to learn your body. Learn to talk to it and feel it. It didn’t take a day to destroy the immune system and it cannot be instantly rebuilt. It takes some kind nurturing and lots and lots of different kinds of good food with a healthy life style of moving around.
I got started by eating food fresh from my garden and I have written many articles on foods and superfood. I started with lettuce for two reasons that was the only thing I could digest and it is easy to grow. I didn’t have the strength, but could manage a hand-held shovel.
A Brief Note About Probiotic and Prebiotic
A brief note about probiotic and prebiotic. I wasn’t strong enough to even try a detox program and had to watch how much roughage or fiber I ate in my food until my gut got stronger. I re-balanced my gut flora by first simply eating salads. The terms Probiotic and prebiotic are sometimes used interchangeably, but are different . Probiotic is the actual bacteria like what you would find in natural Yogurt where the prebiotic is non-digestible foods or called fiber. Dietary fiber contained in natural food helps establish a healthy environment for good bacteria to thrive. There are many health sources that say they have natural probiotic, but I found the only source had to be natural food. The bacteria just cannot stay alive in a bottle no matter what the manufacture says.
But now on with the show,
Just what happen to medicine to make it a killing machine of bacteria both good and bad?
Brief History of Our Modern Medicine and the Progressive Era
It is hard to understand and then try to explain why modern medicine seems to be so toned deaf to my illness and what I think are many other people’s illness. I am an amateur historian and have arranged my collection of American History which I have gathered over the years.
America’s Foundation of the modern Medical Research Libraries were created in the early 1930s. It was created in part by the European and German philosophy movement. Philosophical theories from men like Charles Darwin, Carl Marx, Louis Pasteur and many others.
Religious Righteousness
America’s history is filled with the same religious fervor that put the Pilgrims on the Mayflower. Its history is full of a religious righteousness of “Doing God’s Work” and to perfect mankind. After the Civil war, the reconstruction movement created a drive for social justice with the Social Gospel Movement . This gave way to the Progressive movement and Teddy Roosevelt’s Trust Busting.
The Industrial Revolution created wealth beyond imagination and these ‘Rag to Riches’ Robber Baron industrialist began to repay society by philanthropic giving to colleges, hospitals, medical research, libraries, museums for social betterment. Many large financial endowments were established by Rockefeller, and Carnegie and others.
The Progressive-era reformers committed to improving and modernizing mankind through education, scientific research, technology. The grand solution to societies’s weakness was to tame the rugged individual and all of his/her vices and establish an urban-industrial society. The progressives loved systems and industrial organizations. Systems-people aim for perfection. Their minds mirror this: excessively structured geometry, balance, equilibrium, symmetry, order.
The early 20th century progressive reform systems were adopted and became government control agencies. Government became involved in more and more activities of daily living (ADL’s)
Foundation of Modern Medicine
The foundation of modern medicine was created in part by the inspiration of Charles Darwin‘s theory of natural selection, and the social hygiene movement. The hygiene movement represented a rationalized, professionalized version of the earlier social purity movement.
The Germ Theory – Infectious diseases were caused by an infectious agent or ‘germ”
The Germ Theory was proposed in the mid 16th century It took a very long time for this idea to be accepted. The idea gained widespread credence by scientific discoveries of the 17th through late 19th century. Much of this work was done by Louis Pasteur a chemist and Robert Koch a doctor. Their work supplanted earlier explanations for disease such as Galen’s miasma theory.
The foundation of modern medicine was created by hygiene movement, and the Germ theory. The Germ theory states that fixed species of microbes (bacteria, etc) from an external source invade the body and are the first cause of infectious disease.
What Happen to the Forgotten Immune System?
During all of this foundation creating and the funding of research scientists with their pet projects, there never seemed to be any mention on the human immune system, nor did any of these research labs even seem to consider it. Nor did they consider the well established homeopathic method or the Medicine Man of Traditional Folk Lore
Traditional Medicine Was Replaced
What started out as a calling was overturned into a profession. The new licensed professional replace traditional and the Medicine Man. Organized professionals joined their own approved good o’boy networks which were accepted and empowered with the arm of the government issuing the licenses and permits.
Research scientist with social causes received foundation money and the Traditional Folk lore Medicine man was pushed aside. Research even took over the Doctor. Research controlled medicine not the Doctor. The only thing the doctor was left to do was chose between the growing list of lab created medications and what kind of disease he thought an illness qualified for.
The Germ Theory ignores the Human Immune System. If modern medicine says anything about the immune system they simply say it overreacts. They call it an “Overactive Immune System” disease.
Not to go into an essay on how American Medicine (the kind we have today) got started that would take a large book and many have already been written. Lets just say inventions like the automobile may have been created by individuals but now operate as industries mostly under government control.
Modern Medicine now creates the untreatable superbug
Modern medicine is creating the superbug. There is a major lack of education on the importance of bacteria and how to protect it within the human gut. The antibiotic resistant superbug is taking hold in hospitals and OCHA’s, infection control, or universal precautions, isn’t going to stop it. The monster just continues to grow.
I Am Not A Robotic nor a manikin
If you are anything like me, I am not perfect. I am far from perfection, I may think I’m good but never perfect. My immune system isn’t perfect either for I’m an unbalanced imperfect Human being not a robot.
Till next time
Sources
Books
GAPS Gut and Psychology Syndrome By Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride MD
Folks this ain’t normal by Joel Salatin
Cortical Monkey and Healing by Dr. Majid Ali.
LINKS
https://xenophilius.wordpress.com/2010/01/19/germs-that-are-good-for-you/
http://www.naturalnews.com/046990_antibiotics_Big_Pharma_immune_system.html
http://www.naturalnews.com/049185_antibiotic_resistance_superbugs_US_hospitals.html
http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-14119/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-your-microbiome.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2015/04/04/tech-titans-latest-project-defy-death/
