Part of Me is Missing

Did you know that 100 trillion cells live in or on you? That’s 10 times more than the total number of cells in your     whole body!

So do you feel like you’re a planet for those microorganisms?

If you get the good guys from your mom when you are born you’re in good shape for living with a healthy, comfortable, well-functioning gut (gastrointestinal tract). And oh, by the way, gut is a medical term.

That is until your first course of antibiotics that wipe out many of the good guys. Makes me think of the way Agent Orange defoliates plants.

The proper balance of your gut bacteria may never be the same after that first round of antibiotics.

Antibiotics devastate the gut microorganisms, the good guys, causing poor digestion and a leaky gut that lead to inflammation and immune system diseases.

Disruption in the normal relationships we have with our intestinal organisms can lead to difficult health problems. When all functions optimally we have a symbiotic relationship with them. We provide a nice warm home for them and they help us digest our food, make vitamins for us and keep the bad guys suppressed.

Unfortunately our modern lifestyle disrupts that harmonious relationship, damages the gut wall and allows lots of particles to leak out of the gut into the blood stream that were never meant to be there. Wherever those particles lodge creates inflammation leading to all sorts of symptoms that eventually become diagnosed as inflammation, allergies or immune system diseases.

In the 1980’s when I first began exploring the road to health I came across an old book by Tilden. He was adamant that the gastrointestinal tract (gut) was the source of all health problems. I was quite skeptical of his statements at the time but recent ongoing research on the complexity and diversity of the gut flora (organisms) may confirm his opinions.

With modern medicine we’ve sent chemicals (antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs) down our gullets that defoliate our intestinal tracts wiping out huge populations of the good guys. Often those populations never fully recover and we’re left with a diminished variety of the type of gut organisms that favor our wellbeing.

Then the opportunistic bad guys take over sending branches into the gut wall that allow larger particles of food into the blood stream along with toxins that a healthy gut would just flush out of the system.

And so a leaky gut is born.

And that was the birth point of my health problems.

My gastrointestinal tract has never been the same ever since I took repeated rounds of antibiotics trying to combat bladder infections many, many years ago (early 1980’s). Prior to that time I could eat most foods and they didn’t bother my G.I. tract. After multiple rounds of antibiotics I became allergic to (or extremely intolerant of) lots of foods, especially the most common ones in the standard American diet, wheat, sugar, dairy, yeast and many others. I did not understand at all what was causing all of this trouble.

Part of me is missing.

Only in more recent years with researcher’s revelations about the gut have I come to realize that part of me is missing. That part that protected the lining of my gut to sooth and protect it, that made vitamins for me, that helped digest my food, that kept the bad guys (organisms) from getting out of control. It’s like one of my organs was partially destroyed by those antibiotics.

And so began my quest for health and restoration. I’ve come a long way, can eat more of a variety of foods and feel much better. But the gut is still not completely healed.

And so I continue to research and explore healing for the gut.

Healing often comes more from old time wisdom and remedies than from all of our modern armamentarium of drugs and medical procedures. We will explore the common sense approach to healing the gut in this series.

Could something as simple as bone broth heal the gut?

Let’s find out…

Blessings,

Dr. Jo