Your body is colonised by a multitude of organisms that outnumber your own cells by a factor of about ten.

These roughly hundred trillion invisible creatures cover your insides and outsides, thriving in your mouth, nose, ears, intestines and on every inch of your skin.

However, most of these organisms live within your digestive tract.

GUT MICROBIOME

The gut microbiome is the term used to describe the bacteria that live in our gut.

The gut microbiome can be considered another organ in the human body. It weights from 1 to 1.5kg and rivals the liver in the number of biochemical reactions it participates in.

The contents of the stomach are relatively germ free because the acid the stomach makes is very good at killing bacteria (we will see later that this a very important process). However, as things move down the GI tract, the number of bacteria increases progressively, reaching very high numbers as you enter the colon (large intestine).

It's now becoming recognised that, rather than just being part of the waste material that our body makes, these good gut bacteria are actually absolutely essential to good health. Consequently, we need to seriously consider treating the gut bacteria with far more respect than we have in the past.

Is your microbiome healthy and dominated by friendly, beneficial bacteria? Or is it sick and overrun by bad, unfriendly bacteria? As we will learn, this can have a huge impact on your health.

The balance of bacteria in your gut can impact not only digestive symptoms, but a wide array of seemingly unrelated symptoms and conditions including mood, energy, skin, your joints, metabolism, sleep, immune function, hormone balance, and thyroid health. 

ROLE OF THE BENEFICIAL GUT BACTERIA

• Aids in digestion and the absorption of nutrients
• Production of vitamins (mainly B and K)
• Creates a physical barrier against potential invaders such as bad bacteria, harmful viruses and injurious parasites (pathogens must compete with endogenous flora)
• Acts as a detoxification machine. The gut’s bugs have a role in preventing infections and serving as a line of defense against many toxins (including heavy metals) that make it down into your intestines. So when you decrease the good bacteria in your gut, you increase the workload of your liver
• Profoundly influences the immune system’s response
• Produces and releases important enzymes and substances that collaborate with your biology, including vitamins and neurotransmitters
• Helps you handle stress through the flora’s effects on your endocrine and hormonal system
• Helps with mood management (possible mechanism: stimulation of gut hormones release, interaction with vagus nerve)
• Assists you in getting a good night’s sleep
• Helps control the body’s inflammatory pathways, which in turn affect risk for virtually all manner of chronic disease
• Weight management (certain micro-organims increase our capacity to harvest energy from the diet, hence making us gain weight more easily.)

GUT DYSBIOSIS

Given the important roles the gut bacteria play in our health, it is not surprising that if the balance between the millions of bacterias in our gut is disturbed, it can lead to consequences for our health.

This imbalance is called dysbiosis.

Dysbiosis is believed to play a role in many chronic and degenerative diseases. This is mostly because it leads to a dysfunction of the immune system, as well as the production of toxins, such as LPS (aka endotoxins).

An immune system in a body with abnormal bacterial flora (dysbiosis) is exposed to a whole host of toxic substances. These toxins come from all the opportunistic microbes which happily flourish in the gut and elsewhere in the absence of our beneficial flora's control.

When the gut flora is abnormal, the gut walls often become damaged and leaky (causing leaky gut), allowing those toxins to cross the gut barrier, where it can cause a lot of damage to other organs and tissues.

TWO TYPES OF DYSBIOSIS

• Small intestinal dysbiosis (SIBO or small-intestinal bacterial overgrowth), or bacteria overgrowing in the wrong part of the intestine. Learn more about SIBO.
• Colonic dysbiosis (imbalance of good vs bad bacteria in the colon), which we will talk about in more details in this section.

CAUSES OF DYSBIOSIS

Many factors in your life, from as early as birth, can have an impact on your gut bacteria.

Here are the main causes of dysbiosis:

• Antibiotics. All antibiotics have a damaging effect on the gut flora, and the changes to gut bacteria after antibiotics can last up to 18 months. If for any reasons you have had to take many courses of antibiotics in your life (especially in the space of a few months), you are at greater risk of having a damaged gut flora. One worth mentioning is tetracyclines, which are routinely prescribed to teenagers for acne as a long course, lasting from three months to two years. We are also affected by antibiotics in our meat supply, so if you buy conventional meat you are exposed to antibiotics every time you eat meat
• Chemotherapy
• C-section delivery and lack of breastfeeding
• Pain killers (long term use of NSAIDS or opioids)
• Steroid drugs (prednisolone, hydrocortisone, etc.)
• Contraceptive pill
• GERD/reflux medication (especially PPI like nexium or Losec, etc.)
• Diet. A diet full of processed food has a serious detrimental effect on the gut flora. A diet rich in processed carbs, sugary food and grains promote the growth of opportunistic fungi (Candida in particular) and bacteria.
• Artificial sweeteners.
• Sulfates and sulfites in food (promote the growth of sulfur reducing bacteria)
• Stress
• Exposure to toxic substances (pesticides, heavy metals, etc.).

HOW DO YOU IMPROVE THE BALANCE OF BACTERIA IN YOUR GUT

1- An anti-inflammatory diet. To improve the balance of bacteria in your gut, you must create a positive environment for the good bacteria to thrive. And the first step to achieve this is via the food that you eat, and don't eat!

Remember that the steps outlined in the 'Finding Your Ideal Diet' sections of this program will help you find your very own anti-inflammatory diet. Avoiding refined sugar and processed food is an important step for everybody.

2- Remove pathogens. This will be done in Phase 2 The Big Clean Up, through the 'Clean Up Protocols' 1-3.

3- Encourage the growth of beneficial gut bacteria. This is also included in the 'Clean Up Protocols', through the use of probiotics and prebiotics. In the later part of the program, you will also be encouraged to introduce fermented foods in your diet, as well as various prebiotic foods.

4- Reduce toxicity. In Phase 1, you have started this process by Reducing Your Toxic Exposure. In Phase 3, we will go deeper in the process of detoxification.

5- Live in low stress lifestyle. Stress has a significant impact on your gut bacteria, and practices such as meditation have shown to improve the balance of bacteria in the gut. Throughout the program, we encourage you to try the techniques in the 'Light Up Your Spirit' section and find what works best for you.