Sometimes, when you take too many antibiotics, your good bacteria get destroyed and your bad bacteria take over wrecking a whole host of havoc on your system. Sometimes you’ll need to take more antibiotics to get rid of the issues.
Other illnesses caused by lack of good bacteria:
- Allergies and asthma.
- Yeast infection
- Eczema
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Ulcerative colitis
- Lactose intolerance
- C-difficile
- Depression
- Fatigue
Imbalance in the body is caused by:
- Pharmaceutical drugs – especially antibiotics
- Antacids
- Stress
- Crohns Disease
- Gastric bypass
- Steroids
- Hormones
- Inadequate fiber in the diet
So what can you do about it?
Luckily, you can get rid of it by changing the way you eat!At the same time you take probiotics to repopulate your belly with good bacteria. Amazing! Even the things we think are environmental, initiate with our intake of food!
You can get the best probiotic supplement with bacteria in from the health stores which is being advised by most nutritional authorities but you can also get probiotics in food. Yogurt, miso and sour dough bread are the foods that come to mind. Fermenting food is a good way to get probiotics! I guess if I can soak and sprout, fermentation would be a natural evolution and my next step to a healthier lifestyle. You can also get supplements with all different types of probiotics. The thing you want to look for is “live and active cultures”.
“[There is an]…invisible epidemic of insufficient probiotics. We’re not getting what we used to through diet, and we’re destroying what’s there. As a result, the balance of our intestinal microbe population has changed, sometimes with disastrous effects on our immune system.” Gary Huffnagle, Professor of Internal Medicine and Microbiology at the University of Michigan Medical School.
So you’ve decided to get pregnant and you want to make sure your body is fit and healthy for the new journey you are about to embark on. Your gut is the door to your immune system and that’s one of the best places to start – by healing your gut flora. The most important element of a healthy gut is to feed it live, active cultures. The yogurts out there don’t have enough live and active cultures to help that! And since we now know about milk, mucus and sugar, we realize that we could have done more harm than good – bacteria loves sugar!
The use of probiotics as an everyday supplement is debated. They are live organisms and enhance digestion and nutrient absorption. In Brendan Brazier’s book “Thrive” he says, “By consuming probiotics on a weekly basis, your chance of infection- and therefore the need for antibiotics- is greatly reduced. Consistent probiotic use has shown to dramatically improve immune function.” He says that daily use is not necessary, a few times a week would be helpful.
There are several different supplements out there. They can be found at Whole Foods, and at your local health food shop. Some don’t have any animal products, dairy or gluten. The older you get, the less good bacteria you produce; the supplement would give you a little extra. It is also important that you look to see if the supplement you use needs to be refrigerated. Some require refrigeration after a certain date because of the live organisms.
“There is a solid theoretical basis for why probiotics should help prevent… and even reverse cancer. Probiotics produce short chain fatty acids in the colon, which acidify the environment. Lower colon pH is associated with lower incidence of colon cancer. Probiotic bacteria reduce the level of procarcinogenic enzymes….” (Michael S Donaldson, Director of Research, Hallelujah Acres Foundation)
Here’s what you need to remember – The drugs we take, even with a prescription from a doctor, have profound effects on our body. It may make one thing better, but while it is doing that, it sometimes makes 10 things worse. That is why it is so important that we take responsibility for what we put into our bodies especially when preparing for pregnancy.
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