You may have heard about how your gut can contain both good and bad bacteria?

This is very true, and in fact, you have more bacteria within your body than cells (it’s in the trillions).

A healthy balance of gut bacteria is so important for anyone really, but when the balance isn’t optimal then symptoms can often result.

In fact, its thought by many that bacteria problems in the gut actually lay at the heart of the majority of chronic health problems we see in the world today (including, but not limited to, digestive issues, pain problems and skin issues).

There are a number of factors, especially in this day and age, that can cause an imbalance in your gut bacteria… 

Antibiotics are certainly a huge one because they essentially come along and kill off the bacteria within your gut (regardless of whether that bacteria is considered to be “good” or “bad”). 

Destroying your good bacteria is certainly NOT something you want to be doing at any time.   

This is why I’m hesitant to use antibiotics unless it’s really necessary (which it can sometimes be), and almost always recommend that someone supplements with friendly bacteria and saccharomyces boulardii for a short period of time before, during and after using antibiotics.

 

 Aside from antibiotics, other drivers of poor gut bacteria include:

-          Drugs / Medication

-          Poor diet

-          Consuming foods you are intolerant or sensitive towards

-          Contraception

-          Stress

-          Toxin exposure

I could go on…

For example, if we were breast fed or not can play a part, as can if we were born naturally or by C section.

Or if we were allowed to play outside in the dirt when we were young, without our parents stressing over our cleanliness (our obsession with being clean these days certainly doesn’t help develop our gut bacteria).

Medication too may have an adverse effect on your gut bacteria.

So what’s the impact of this?

Well it could be huge…

A huge portion of our immune system is located in and around the gut so if that’s not healthy then it certainly exposes us to an increase chance of illness and health problems.

We are more likely to develop food intolerances and sensitivities, disease, irregular BM’s, depression, autism, diabetes, skin conditions, joint pain and much more.

Additionally, it can affect our bowel movements, and cause bloating, frequent gas, poor skin, and more.

So how do we make sure the health of our gut bacteria is as good as it can be?

Diet, lifestyle, avoiding toxin exposure, testing for underlying infections, supplements and so on can all be so important in this area and can help transform how someone feels each day.