Healthy gut flora maintains healthy gut functions: proper stool formation, bacterial balance between various bacterial species, generating B-Vitamins, Vitamin K2, the synthesis of digestive enzymes. Your gut flora modulates inflammatory responses and immune signaling and it communicates with your brain. Imbalances in gut flora and gut toxicity are at the root of many disease processes: inflammation, autoimmune, behavioral disorders, depression, anxiety.

So yes, with one shot aimed to the gut, you can knock down many health issues, or greatly reduce negative health symptoms. Again, that doesn’t mean “the shot” must consist of taking a probiotic here, and an enzyme there, of eating more vegetables or drinking detox teas. Although some of these can actually be helpful, healing the “modern digestive system” takes much more than that and it basically comes down to a few things which I present below.

It Starts In The Womb

80 percent of the function of the healthy human immune system is the ecosystem ofbacteria found in the gut.Since babies are born with a sterile gut flora,the mother essentially “downloads” her gut flora (health) into the baby through breastfeeding.Also,when a baby is born the naturalway, she/ he swallows bacteria and other microorganisms from the birth canal.Infants who experience neither vaginal birth or breastfeeding, or whose mothers pass unhealthy microflora on to them, are therefore at a great disadvantage.

So there is no wonder why digestive problems are usually getting worse with each generation! Mothers don’t prepare their body for pregnancy anymore, with nutrient dense foods and a proper gut healing.

First Childhood Years

Breast milk is nature’s perfect food for babies.Breastmilk contains all of the essential nutrients, antibodies and other factors important for growth and development. It also contains important antimicrobial factors, digestive enzymes, hormones and growth factors that are important for a healthy digestive and immune system.Breast milk is a natural source of probiotics, so babies who are breastfed receive an ideal source of the first immune-building good bacteria, and as a result also tend to have intestinal microflora in which beneficial bifidobacteria predominate over potentially harmful bacteria.

In cases where breastfeeding is not possible you can ensure your baby still gets the best nutrition by offeringhome made baby formula. On Weston A Price’s website you can find the best and most reliable information on this matter, as well as complete recipes.

Top baby formula brands sold in stores contain alarmingly high levels of food toxins, corn syrup and sugar .The most prevalent ingredients in baby formulas are: cornsyrup solids, sugar (sucrose), milk protein isolate, high oleic safflower oil, soy oil andother artificial, toxic, cheap additions, as well as genetically modified ingredients. These will set the road to digestive problems starting with colicky or constipated infants, food allergies and ending later on in life with a myriad of gastrointestinal disorders andhealth problems.

Vaccination, medication and wrong first baby foods (like cereal and fruits, instead of nutrient dense, appropriate foods for a developing brain and body), all contribute to a poor digestive system.

The Right Food For The Right Body

Although as a baby you couldn’t really choose the way to be born and your diet, as a grown up you can eat the right diet and reverse any of the possible damage that has been done. A healthy diet and lifestyle with no use of toxic substances should continue all throughout the life to ensure you don’t generate toxic buildup and inflammation in the body, as well asachronically malfunctioning digestive system.Most diseases and a suppressed immune system are basically created by these factors. If you don’t know what foods are healthy for you and what your body really needs, then you can easily find out throughMetabolic Typing®– a revolutionary system that combines ancient medicine with the newest technology to determine the way your metabolism functions, how to balance its unique biochemistry, maintaina healthy gutand reverse disease. The multitude of external factors that affected us throughout our lives, as well as our genetical inheritance play an important role to determine what foods are good for our body.

Antibiotics And Your Digestive System

The whole length of our digestive tract is coated with a bacterial layer providing a natural barrier against invaders, undigested food, toxins and parasites.If this “coating” (mucosal barrier) gets damaged, well….you get the picture! These beneficial bacteria protecting the gut wall also work against invasive pathogenic micro-organisms by producing antibiotic-like substances, anti-fungal volatiles, anti-viral substances. They engage the immune system to respond appropriately to invaders.Our healthy indigenous flora has a good ability to neutralise toxic substances from our food and environment, inactivate histamine and chelate heavy metals and other poisons.Again, this is all possible IF the “barrier” is intact…Without a well functioning gut flora, the gut wall not only becomes unprotected, but also malnourished.

A vast majority of people have a damaged gut flora and a major culprit to this is antibiotic use.

Penicillinsand other antibiotics with “-cillin” at the end of their name have a damaging effect on two major groups of our resident bacteria: Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria. This group of antibiotics allow bacteria normally found only in the bowel to travel to the intestines, which predisposes the person to development of IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) and other digestive disorders.

Tetracyclinesand other “-cyclines” have a particular toxic effect on the gut wall by altering protein structure in the mucous membranes, making it vulnerable to invasion by pathogenic microbes and alerting the immune system to attack the changed proteins, starting an auto-immune reaction in the body against its own gut. They also stimulate the growth of pathogenic Candida, Staphylococci and Clostridia.

Aminoglycosides(Gentamycin, Kanamycin, Erythromicin) have a devastating effect on beneficial bacteria such as physiological E.coli and Enterococci. A prolonged course of treatment with these type of antibiotics can completely eliminate such beneficial bacteria from the digestive system, leaving it open to invasion by pathogenic species of E.coli and other microbes.

For more about the dangers of specific antibiotics, you can read a previous article: What Really Happens When You Take Antibiotics?

Food Sensitivities (Reactivities)

Food reactivities can play an importantrole in many common health conditions, including chronic digestive problems, like “leaky gut”.Most common allergenic foods are pasteurized dairy, gluten, corn, soy, eggs, nuts and shellfish. But many timesthe reactive food can be afood chemical like solanine and it’snot easy to determine without testing. And sometimes even foods which are considered “healthy,” such as chicken, broccoli, or garlic can become “reactive” and cause symptoms.

Often, there are many reactive foods or chemicals, not just one or two. Inaddition,reactions can be delayed and/or dose-dependent. This means we may not feel the effects of a reaction until many hours or days after we have eaten the reactive foods, or unless we eat enough of the reactive food. If you have food sensitivities, the first thing you need to do is identify which foods and food chemicals are causing you problems, using aspecific and accurate lab testing. An elimination diet of 6-8 months which should be implemented into your own, metabolic type diet, along with a specific gut healing protocol is most of the times essential for recovery.

Pathogens

Parasitic, fungal and bacterial infestations are becoming an epidemic in the modern society.There are many symptoms of such infestations which people experience in daily life, believing that these issues are completely normal.Other times such infestations can be quite asymptomatic, which makes it even harder to connect them to your overall unwell feeling.

The average human being is composed of ~ 100 trillioncells.Some researchers suggest that of the 100 trillion cellsof our body, about 90 trillion are parasites, bacteria,fungi, viruses and other creatures! A healthy body has asymbiotic relationship with such organisms. But when the ecosystem of your body is out of balance, these organisms multiply, thrive and obtain sustenance by robbing the body of nutrients.

Mycotoxins released by fungus are capable ofmodulating your immunesystem, becoming stealthinvaders to any bodytissue!They can disrupt key immuneregulatory cycles andcommunications, allowing allparasites to proliferate!Candida albicans colonizes most people and is the mostsignificant fungal pathogen causing localized and systemicinfections, allergies, and even triggering autoimmune disorders suchas celiac and Crohn’s disease.

Candida overgrowth is considered a “modern epidemic” since it evolved during our current times when society is drugged out more than ever and processed diets are the norm. The key factors that promote an imbalance in the body and so allowing candida to turn pathogenic and spread are:antibiotics and sulfa drugs,steroid hormones, immunosupressant drugs,pregnancy and birth control pills,processed diets high in carbs and sugar, yeast, as well as molds and overdoing fermented foods.

The rapid and direct proliferation of the yeast following antibiotic use strongly suggests that the problem ofcandidais one which stems from an inner state of imbalance, rather than from an outside attack by a microbe or disease.This is a very important point to understand if one wishes to get rid of an overgrowth problem, suggesting thatcandidais not so much a problem as is the body’s own failure to control it! (William Wolcott, Founder of The Healthexcel System of Metabolic Typing)

Comprehensive lab testing is many times required to specifically determine the type of parasites, bacteria and fungus, as well as a real, targeted and effective gut healing program which includes pathogen elimination with powerful natural herbs and nutrients.

Healing The Gut

Healing the gut is not complete without reinoculation of beneficial bacteria (probiotics), without re-establishing normal levels of hydrochloric acid and enzymes, to ensure a proper digestion of nutrients. Although these come in the form of supplements which became widely available, the quality, the method and time frameof using them are an essential aspect to be determined by a health professional. In my program, Metabolic Typing®Gastro Health, I offer all the necessary guidance througha real gut healing protocol to fit your unique needs.

Make It A Life Style

Now that you have the necessary know how and are already finishing a comprehensive gut healing protocol, does it mean you can go back to your old dietary habits and life style, as soon as you are “healed”? If you finished a proper and efficient healing program the answer is “no”. That’s because you will not want to go back to your old diet and lifestyle! An efficient, highly personalized and comprehensive program will ensure you achieve the necessary transformation in order to not only heal your gut, but to heal the whole person with a previous sick gut! Although the gut healing program will develop over adetermined period of time, many of the practices you’ll learn about your health, body, diet and supplementation will have to continue throughout your life. And if you achieve a good state of health, you won’t have it otherwise, because you”ll realize how precious that is!

Resources:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/10/25/toxins-in-baby-formula-milk.aspx

http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/nourishing-a-growing-baby/

Check, Paul. Healing Fungus And Parasitic Infections – The Absolute Essentials

Campbel McBride, Natasha, MD. Gut And Physiology Syndrome