One major thing that can set back your microbiome is a large dose of antibiotics. I myself was very sick as a 2 year old with pneumonia. I had to get IV antibiotics. They saved my life at the time but between that and contraceptive pill they set me up for poor gut health for the rest of my life. 80% of your immune system cells are in your gut and we’re finding more evidence that a healthy diverse microbiome can shape an immune system that’s more effective against threats like infections and viruses as well as internal transmutation into cancer. The one trillion bacteria that live in your body come with their own set of DNA. This bacteria with the DNA is called the genome. We discovered that the human genome can resist certain diseases. We rely on the genome for our microbiome. If we wipe that out with too many antibiotics it’s like burning the house down. A single round of antibiotics can impact your bacteria for up to a year. Of course they’re super effective and at times life saving. But the trick is knowing when to use them to use them only with absolutely necessary. The problem is we have created a pill happy population of people that are turning to antibiotics like quick fixes but you can’t trick your immune system and you can’t trick you gut microbiome. It knows more than you do, in fact you always have to trust your gut because it knows what your head hasnt figured out yet. If we know how important the microbiome is to our immune function why are we still treating disease like this?
There are many black spots in the medical model that we use today which holds us back from making progress in health. We continue to operate on a model of pathology. We fixate on tearing down disease at all costs instead of building up health and immunity. We’ve locked into this cycle of let’s destroy the microbe as our only way forward. Overprescribing antibiotics to patients for decades now and as we have seen with the recent pandemic this practice is finally catching up with us because the microbiome is cleverer than we think. I was also exposed to multiple rounds of antibiotics as a teenager because my acne was so bad and tetracycline was all they were giving out at that time, on top of the contraceptive pill, but when you were fourteen they don’t give the contraceptive pill they give antibiotics and when you’re so desperate to have to your skin clear and emotions are riding high and you’re so impressionable you just take them. I didn’t know to give any thought to what it was doing to my microbiome back then or how it was going to set me up for fodmap sensitivities, bloating, food intolerances, low stomach acid, IBS digestive distress later in life. Antibiotics wipe out the microbiome for some time, they affect the body’s ability to digest and use nutrients. Overuse of antibiotics is costing us from having healthy immune systems and healthy microbiomes. Harmful bacteria like Clostridia difficile has become increasingly resistant to antibiotics. These bacteria have adapted, have become stronger, they are cleverer than us and this is really really worrying, what we have seen with the recent pandemic is proof that we are going against mother nature. I help support people like you to reduce your dependance on antibiotics. Email my secretary on ei.tugruoyhtiwog@ofni for cancellation appointments.
Have a gut day,
Fiona
