I’ve been researching a lot around gut bacteria lately, and its connection with modern illness – mainly digestive disorders and autoimmune disorders.

I’ve met a great number of people over the years who are experiencing these symptoms, but there is so little understanding in the medical community about what causes them.

Life On Us: Gut Bacteria Documentary

I was lucky enough to stumble upon the Life On Us documentary on ABC, and so here is a rundown on what was covered;

• The human body is home to over 100 trillion microbes (bacteria/worms) which live on and inside of our bodies
• The general consensus in western society is that germs are bad, when in fact, when they are in balance they are responsible for keeping us alive and healthy, and are as vital to us as our organs
• If you don’t have a good balance of microbes you are more susceptible to digestive and immune diseases
• Babies receive their microbes from their mother’s body, so any deficiencies of the mother will likely be passed onto the baby. A child develops its ‘full set’ of microbes by the age of 2.5 years.
• The more species of microbes you have, the healthier you tend to be
• You develop different species and balances of microbes depending on the type of environment you live in

Western people have the highest incidence of modern diseases, both digestive and immune/auto-immune. This includes Crones disease, MS, Lupus, Arthritis, Celiac disease, leaky Gut, IBS, and bowel cancer (to name a few). Our bodies develop certain bacteria based firstly on our mother’s microbes at birth, and secondly on the world we live in.

The Western world is too sterilised – our food, water and the home. This prevents our bodies from developing the microbes they need in order to stay healthy and fight off illness. As a result, our immune systems are left unbalanced, and attacks itself (and an immune system that attacks itself is one which leads to autoimmunity).

Poor diet, including alcohol, processed foods, particularly sugar and flour, leaves the stomach acidic. This creates an environment that only ‘bad’ bacteria can survive in. If you have an overgrowth of bad bacteria in your digestive tract, then you can expect to find yourself with a digestive or immune-based illness. Even our mouths have more tooth decay and more gum disease than our ancestors had.

Current studies are being undertaken where they are actually infecting people with certain worms. This is either through injection, or healthy ‘poo transplants’ (which sounds so gross but this is where most of our good bacteria are found), and this has actually been successful in helping alleviate immune conditions or in some cases even remove the condition entirely.

So, this shows if you correct the balance of the bacteria, you can suppress the illness.

The impact of cutting out food groups

On a more specific level, the bacteria in our stomachs are extremely adaptive. So if you cut out certain foods or food groups for long periods of time, you can expect to find yourself intolerant when you try and introduce them back in, as you may not have the bacteria required to digest them anymore.

Whole food groups are most often cut out of modern weight loss/fad diets. Before you embark on cutting a heap of foods out make sure you are prepared for the side effects later down the track.

Food intolerances lead to inflammation, and inflammation leads to digestive or immune illness. Some people are actually intolerant or allergic, and this can be diagnosed with a doctor.

The best thing to do here to prevent these imbalances as much as possible is by eating a balanced diet with a little of every food group where possible. The amounts of these depends on your own personal lifestyle preferences.

Fresh, healthy food choices (that aren’t found in packets) are the best choices. So if you want to cut a food group out, cut out processed foods. That is is seemingly one of the leading causes of these disorders

Jen X