… And the key to a relationship of mutual benefit is to feed it well…
We keep learning more and more in the world of natural medicine, but the mainstream is yet to catch up – however, we do know – friendly bacteria is fundamental to optimising our general health & wellbeing as well as preventing ill health.
At Earth Clinic, supporting the microbiome – that’s the whole world of beneficial bacteria in our body – is one of the 1st things we get our clients to do. Why? Because bacteria…
… removes dagerous toxins that enter the body via the gut and skin
… helps detoxify the body
… helps create new cells
… helps create most of the happy hormone, seratonin in the regulate to elevate mood
… supports the regulation of the metabolism and is linked to obesity
… helps prevent allergies
… strengthens the immune system
… protects skin integrity and prevents skin infections
… supports proper digestion and absorption and MORE!
What scientists are telling us now, is that our microbiome is set around the age of 2 and 1/2 years old and is dependant on a number of factors – whether we were naturally born or caesarian, if we were breastfed or not, if we enjoyed a natural environment vs a sterile one, antibiotic intake as an infant, nutritional intake, time of weaning, exposure to other humans and animals etc. After this age, we have to work to increase the diversity and abundance of bacteria through nutritiotnal intake. And if we stop that – the micorbiome status will just go back after several weeks – to the way it was before. These two things are key:
Diversity – we still don’t know how many types of species of bacteria reside within us – but we do know its a lot – like A LOT – and we need these different species and strains to help with a whole host of different biochemical functions and reaction in the body. Some bacteria produce specific hormones in the gut, some help generate new neural pathways, some bind to toxins, some mediate allergic responses – the list goes on!
Abundance – we’ve got billions and billions of bacteria living in our system – up to 10,000 in our stomach, up to 100 million in our small intestine, and up to 1000 billion in our large intestine! That’s mega! The more bacteria we have – the more support we have to digest food, regenerate new cells, create now hormones etc… all all this quicker too!
At the end of last year, I was away in Mauritius for 5 weeks and over this time I developed an extreme bout of constipation – mainly due to too much refined carbs in the diet and also holding onto emotional baggage and stress. Well, it was a MASSIVE initiation – to learn to let go of the residual sludge from the year before and to be able to keep working on my inner peace and not letting others around me break that. And I was in a lot of pain, to really feel it and notice it.
I worked through it emotionally and energetically, with lots of self-healing, inner emotional work through Internal Family Systems (IFS) to release this stuff… Then with massage and prayer to help it go. Of course I also used nutrition and used this to try out 3 methods to clear this deep obstruction. Activated charcoal from coconuts was used, as was large quantities of pure green juices (kale, moringa, basil, coriander, spinach, apple, rocket, tulsi) and inulin doses of 2tbsp a couple times per day.
Inulin came out on top! It cleared things very easily, quickly and was a more sustainable method because it wasn’t replacing anything or doing the job of anything either – it was simply enabling my gastrointestinal flora to become more abundant and do the job it should be doing, itself.
How does Inulin work? It’s a type of fibre (fructooligosaccharide – FOS) that feeds beneficial bacteria in the gut – or probiotics – love to feast on – its their favourite food! And the FOS can be extracted from many things – the one I use is from chicory root (which I didn’t realise looks just like a parsnip!) – that seems to be popular. But you can also get it from Agave plant and jerusalem artichoke.
I’m now raving about it all the time – I always know Inulin was great – but having had this literally gut wrenching experience and seeing how my whole body now feels everyday on this medicine – I want to spread the love.
Inulin is great taken alongside probiotics or on its own. I do both, plus eat lots of yummy fermented foods like saurkraut, kimchi and home brewed kombucha.
