6 Tips to Spring Clean Your Pantry
(Health Secrets) Why do you need gut detox? The ratio between beneficial and pathogenic bacteria in a healthy gut is about 80 to 20 in favor of the friendly microbes. But even the healthiest of guts harbor some pathogens. When these pathogens get the upper hand, a gut detox is the only way to reestablish equilibrium.
This ratio is normal for a human body that houses an estimated 100,000 billion bacterial microbes. It’s only when that ratio begins going the other way that diseases strike with impunity.
That’s because in addition to helping with proper digestion, which alone is essential to good health, those friendly bacteria work in harmony with our overall immune system throughout the body. It’s estimated that 60 to 80 percent of our immune system depends on friendly or probiotic bacteria.
So how do the pathogens gain the upper hand? The standard American diet and our pharmaceutical oriented mainstream medical system bear the majority of the burden for tilting the balance of probiotic and pathogenic bacteria in favor of the pathogens. This disharmony creates small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO).
Fungal yeast infections may come to mind for most. But SIBO manifests a myriad of diseases ranging from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) to Type 2 diabetes and other maladies, usually treated with pharmaceuticals that perpetuate the problem.
Mal-absorption is a more subtle and overlooked expression of SIBO. The more you eat, the less your small intestines absorb the nutrients from food, and some can even find their way into your blood stream. Low energy, fatigue, and obesity are the obvious symptoms, but the impulsive energy solutions of consuming more processed carbs and caffeine worsens the condition. Life threatening diseases can be the result.
Antibiotics destroy all types of bacteria, including the good guys. Vaccinations are destructive also. GMO transfer genes wreak havoc with gut bacteria’s genetic DNA and RNA. Sugar, HFCS, processed carbohydrates, and trans-fatty processed oils comprise the bulk of non-GMO, dietary SIBO causation.
How to reverse a bacterial imbalance with a gut detox
The first step in a gut detox is reversing the diet from the typical American fare to mostly fresh, high fiber, whole organic foods. Minimize processed foods, even those sold at health food stores. Avoid GMOs and anything that contains trans-fatty hydrogenated oils. Stop drinking sodas. Eat more organic raw fruits, nuts, and vegetables, especially greens.
Eating this way promotes a slightly alkaline (pH 7.2 to 7.4) inner terrain that discourages pathogenic bacteria from thriving. The standard American diet promotes an acidic inner terrain that invites pathogens. Get to know the difference between which foods and beverages are alkaline forming and acid forming.
Probiotic supplements, and probiotic foods and beverages should be consumed on a regular basis to provide the gut with more probiotic bacteria. Probiotic supplements are pricey but convenient for immediate SIBO imbalance reversals. Fermented foods and beverages, such as sauerkraut and kefir provide probiotics naturally. You can also make your own.
Other lifestyle aspects of promoting healthy gut bacteria are getting sufficient high quality sleep and stressing less.
Four herbs for gut detox
The flip side of retaining the 80/20 balance of beneficial bacteria to pathogens is using natural herbs and that can distinguish the difference and remove or destroy only the pathogenic bacteria. This helps the remaining or added beneficial bacteria thrive and do what they do to help our immunity and digestion.
Garlic is an excellent choice. After chewing a clove and ingesting it, a series of metabolic events results in the release of allicin in the small intestine. Allicin leaves the beneficial bacteria alone while eliminating pathogens. In other words, garlic has to be crushed and eaten to realize its benefits.
A spoonful of raw honey makes this process more palatable. Honey is often used as a delivery system for medicinal herbs by Ayurvedic doctors. Tests have found raw garlic more powerful than even penicillin and tetracycline, and without destroying the digestive intestinal flora and while enhancing the immune system.
Peppermint oil contained in enteric capsules has been used successfully to eliminate pathogenic bacteria without collateral damage to probiotic intestinal flora. Enteric coatings allow capsules to pass through the stomach intact and release their contents into the small intestines.
Mainstream medicine has traditionally touted peppermint oil for promoting gastric motility to relieve IBS, while ignoring its ability to destroy only harmful pathogens. Nevertheless, peppermint oil has been tested and found to curb or kill several strains of pathogenic bacteria, including E. coli.
Pau d’ Arco is one of nature’s most powerful remedies for all sorts of diseases and ailments, even cancer. One must make sure to purchase Pau d’ Arco extracted from the inner barks of South American rain forest trees.
Pau d’ Arco is a powerful anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, and anti-viral natural medicine that won’t interfere with friendly bacteria or intestinal flora.
Oregano oil is also a powerful anti-bacterial and anti-viral that leaves beneficial bacteria alone. Make sure your choice of oregano oil is organic or wild. Seek the highest level of carvacrol, oregano’s active ingredient, to make sure you get the most potent oregano oil.
As a bonus detox method, try activated charcoal.
For more information:
http://www.altmedrev.com/publications/7/5/410.pdf
http://www.jeffreywarber.com/hc%20pages/irritablebowel.html#anchor3
Published with permission from Alignlife. Original article link is here.
