More from American Pharmacist Suzy Cohen – Eating Bugs is a good Idea!
From our skin to our cheeks and teeth, the diversity in bacterial species found in our bodies is incredible. One place with an especially diverse bacterial ecosystem is our gut, which is estimated to contain anywhere from 500 to 1000 different species of bacteria, collectively called “gut flora”. It’s hard to imagine isn’t it, especially because you’ve probably only heard of a handful of organisms among them the most famous Lactobacillus acidophilus…
…Are you getting the message? Take probiotics, and eat foods that don’t upset the delicate balance or add to your food sensitivity burden. What you eat upsets balance, so consider eliminating artificial dyes, sweeteners and chemicals, as well as soda, white refined sugar, anything from a box that could sit in your cabinet for a year and still be eaten (!), anything food that is “fast” or refined/processed, inferior oils and fungus-promoting foods (sugar, vinegar, candy and mushrooms)…
…Any medication, prescribed or over-the-counter has the ability to destroy your probiotic status. Yes, you heard that right, all medicines are drug muggers of your probiotics. If you take any medication on a daily basis, you should be restoring gut flora. You must put back what medication stole or your body pays the price. On a related note, antibiotics do not discriminate between the “good” bacteria and the “bad,” so be sure to use them sparingly. A great thing to do is take your antibiotic in the morning, and a probiotic in the evening. There is debate about whether or not to start the probiotic while you’re on the antibiotic, and I do think you should. No sense in waiting until the end of the antibiotic course, by then you will have annihilated most of your 100 trillion organisms! So do as I suggest, take them simultaneously, just separate the antibiotic from the probiotic by at least 4 hours. This ensures that your population of “good” bacteria won’t be completely destroyed while you recover from the infection. Remember, nurturing your own “flora fingerprint” is absolutely essential for healthy digestive and immune systems, so embrace your gut flora and help keep it going strong!..
…Yeah, seriously love your gut bugs, they keep you healthy. They are stored in your appendix, so if you’ve had that organ removed, you need to be absolutely vigilant about taking high quality probiotics on a daily basis. Generally speaking, if you begin probiotic supplementation, you may experience mild stomach discomfort, cramps and even a little bit of diarrhea, this is normal and harmless and comes with repopulating the territory.
Nutritionhelp recommends a quality supplement to provide friendly bacteria and this would be included in a personal report. As part of a Nutritionhelp programme we suggest that this is added after one month of following the introduction of the yeast-free and sugar-free dietary advice and basic supplement programme. Why the wait? In eating foods that will no longer be a source of food for the yeast, and in supporting the immune system with a tailor-made supplement programme, the yeast will begin to starve and die, and as a result, release even more toxins (‘die-off’). When the gut yeast is alive it is known to release at least 79 toxins, which is why it may make people feel so poorly, so increasing the output of toxins, as the yeast dies, may increase symptoms even further. Following the programme in stages will hopefully limit the level of the initial ‘die-off’. Once the friendly bacteria are introduced the first wave of ‘die-off’ should be over.
