100 Trillion Bacteria In And On You Right Now

Between our gut and our skin our bodies are hosts to about 100 trillion bacteria. Stop and think about that number for a minute. That’s is 100 trillion bacteria. The human body contains 23,000 genes which are human and over 1 million genes that are not. Up to 90% of our bodies cells are bacterial and only 10% human cells. As Dr Deepak Chopra puts in his book Super Genes we are basically a collection of bacterial colonies with a few human cells hanging on. By weight if these bacteria could be isolated it would add up to 3-5 pounds of your current body weight. This has major implications for our health and longevity. We can no longer continue to ignore these numbers if we want to live a long, healthy life.

The term Microbiome was introduced in the 19 Century. Dysbiosis is the term used to describe when this system is not functioning correctly. Yes, like any other organ system it can go bad and when it does the symptoms may be subtle or devastating.  Here are some of the very real human disorders we can suffer from when this system is out of order:

Chronic inflammation
Indigestion
Heart burn
Crohn’s disease
Lupus
Autoimmune disorders
Obesity
Malnutrition
Rheumatoid arthritis
Eczema, atherosclerosis
Alzheimer’s
Cardiovascular disease ( including heart attacks and strokes )
Cancer

Picture if you will a garden filled with beautiful plants and flowers all growing symbiotically in perfect harmony. A perfect ecosystem. If this was your garden, would you than begin to pour chemicals and compounds in to your garden that kill your beautiful plants and feed the weeds that will take over as soon as there is enough space for them. That is what most of us are doing daily. And the results of this are showing up in other areas.

If you don’t believe me here is a study performed by Dr Paresh Dandona the State University of New York at Buffalo’s School of Medicine. Dandona had 9 volunteers ( or victims as I would call them ) of normal weight and fed them a typical McDonald’s breakfast consisting of an egg sandwich with cheese and ham and 2 hash browns. This breakfast which appears to be harmless enough caused some shocking results in the victims, oh sorry, the volunteers bloodwork within minutes. The levels of C-reactive protein a marker used to indicate systemic inflammation literally ” shot up” with in minutes. With the elevations lasting for hours from this single “harmless enough ” meal. Knowing this why would you ever put this into your body again? Wait it gets worse. Dr Dandona noticed another substance in the blood of his subjects after the McDonald’s meal. An endotoxin literally inner poison. This endotoxin is produced by bacteria in the gut and its presence in the bloodstream signals the immune system to kick in, resulting in a cascade of effects which includes the inflammation. Next time you think about having one of these meals picture your beautiful garden being fed and suddenly the plants in your garden begin to release poisonous chemicals that hurt and eventually will kill the host and the entire ecosystem.

So what can we do to protect ourselves? We can start by making better choices. The number one thing you can do is avoid meals like the one above. Reduce and eliminate foods with added sugar and refined carbohydrates ( think of these as fertilizer for the bad bacteria ). Avoid antibiotics if possible. Avoid chemically processed foods. Adding prebiotics and probiotics to your diet. Look for foods with anti-inflammatory effects.

Prebiotics:. Fiber is a food that the good bacteria need to feed on to flourish. Fiber is a prebiotic in which the western diet is very low. Fertilizer for your garden

Probiotics Introduce new bacteria into the gut.