1) What is your Microbiome?
• Friendly bacteria and other types of microorganisms that live throughout the body: in our digestive tract, our mouths, our skin, our reproductive tract, our bladder, our eyes, and our lungs.
• There are tens of thousands of different types of bacteria in your body! These microbes are tiny friends with benefits.
• The more biodiversity the better your health.
2) Is your microbiome linked to your health? YES!!!
• Key for healthy digestion, a balanced immune system that isn’t prone to allergies and inflammation. They determine whether we are overweight or a healthy weight.
• They prevent cavities and gum disease in the mouth, skin, respiratory and urogenital infections.
• They even balance our brains and lower our sensitivity to stress.
3) Changes in our modern lives since ~1950 that have destabilized the microbiome AND the immune system
• Our modern lifestyles: our diets, c-sections, insufficient breastfeeding, hygiene, antibiotics and anti- bacterial products have all tremendously impacted the biodiversity of our inner ecosystem.
• This deforestation of the microbiome has specifically thrown our immune systems chaos and is behind the skyrocketing rate of: inflammatory conditions, allergies, asthma and autoimmune disease.
4) Diet: You are what you eat!! Feed your bugs!
• Your healthy gut flora are very sensitive to your diet. If you eat sugar and high carb diet, your gut microbes will influence your body to store more calories as fat. What do the healthy bugs like to eat? Fiber, greens, fiber, greens, fiber! The research suggests that even the minimum daily requirements of fiber are ten times lower than they need to be for our microbiome’s optimal health.
5) Antibiotics
• Kill the friendly microbes and pathogens alike causing tremendous imbalance in your microbiomes that can last for up to at least 4 years. Make you more vulnerable to pathogens afterwards. Tip the immune system into the inflammatory and allergic profile. Consider using natural alternatives instead: BodyTalk, Essential Oils.
6) Anti-bacterial Products
• Many scientists and the FDA now recommend throwing away everything in your house that says “anti-bacterial”: mouthwash, hand soap, hand gels, etc. These products often contain things that could lead to more antibiotic resistant bacteria, and make you more prone to allergies and hormone imbalances.
For Mothers
7) Vaginal vs C-section births (for Mothers)
• The microbiome gets seeded during a vaginal delivery from the mother’s vagina. Not so, during a c-
section. Some smart doctors are now swiping the mother’s vagina and painting these healthy bugs on c-section babies to give them the best start in life.
8) Breastfeeding
• Builds a healthy microbiome and a healthy immune system for a baby. It also helps avoid digestion issues. Some of the sugars in breast milk (not found in formula) are especially designed to feed the bacteria in the gut. Something good to know when deciding what is best for your baby.
Re-balancing your microbiome and immune system
9) Body Talk is an excellent microbiome and immune system re-balancer.
• Builds a healthy microbiome and a healthy immune system for a baby. It also helps avoid digestion issues. Some of the sugars in breast milk (not found in formula) are especially designed to feed the bacteria in the gut. Something good to know when deciding what is best for your baby.
10) Probiotics and Prebiotics: Are they right for you?
• Prebiotics are supplements of plant fiber that you take to promote healthy gut flora (a “feed the good bugs” strategy). You can accomplish the same thing by eating greens and fiber!
• Probiotics are supplements of healthy bacteria (sometimes 2, 5, 10, or 40 different species or types of bacteria) found in pill supplements at the health food stores or in some foods such as yogurt, Kombucha, and fermented foods. This is an “add back the good bugs” strategy. Since your digestive tract should have thousands of different types of bacteria adding back a handful is a bit like a thimble full of water in the ocean. However, it still can help especially if you have taken a lot of antibiotics or after antibiotic treatment, probiotics are an excellent way to start rebuilding a healthy ecosystem.
Learn more about Brain-Gut Health with Angie Tourani in our upcoming Gut-Brain Health talk this coming Wednesday, 24th January !
Article by Laura Stuve, PhD, Adv BodyTalk Instructor and Practitioner
