And yet, without the right good bacteria in your gut, you’ll never be healthy.
For example, do you have any of these symptoms?
– bloating after eating
– diarrhea or constipation
– excessive gas
– skin problems such as acne, dermatitis or psoriasis
– fatigue
– cravings for sugar, carbs or other foods you know aren’t healthy for you
If so, the chances are good that you have an imbalance in your gut bacteria. What happens if there are too few good bacteria in your gut? What does it mean to have a healthy balance of good bacteria in your gut? What should you do to fix it?
Let’s find out.
Over 99% of the cells and other material in your body aren’t actually human: they’re bacterial cells and organelles, which we call microbiota . They make up what is also called your microbiome . So, if you think about this for a moment, there’s more non-human biomass inside of you than there is human! In fact, even though they’re tiny compared to us, the number of microbial cells living inside an average 70 kg adult male makes up about as much mass as 26 kg (57 lbs) of bone tissue. This does not include many single cell eukaryotes such as yeast or protists.
The reason why this is really important is that the health of your gut microbiota has a significant impact on your overall health, affecting digestion, metabolism, mood, immunity, and much more. What happens if you don’t have enough good bacteria in your gut? Well, it can lead to very serious problems including autoimmune disease, IBS , IBD , skin conditions such as acne or dermatitis , allergies , diabetes, obesity and even cancer . What are some warning signs that there are too few good bacteria in your gut? Besides the things mentioned above (bloating after eating, diarrhea or constipation…), they include pretty much any digestive disorder you can think of: heartburn , acid reflux or GERD , ulcers… And these are just the problems that we know about! What else might there be? What happens if you don’t have enough good bacteria in your gut?
The microbiota and their genes make up what’s called our microbiome , and they perform many vital functions:
– They allow us to digest and absorb food. For example, we can’t digest complex carbohydrates without enzymes made by bacteria. These enzymes break starches down into simple sugars which we can then absorb through the wall of our small intestine. What happens if you don’t have enough good bacteria in your gut?
You get a lot of gas, bloating and pain after eating foods like beans because those complex carbs aren’t absorbed properly; instead, they’re fermented by bacteria in your large intestine (which is why you get gas and bloating). What’s more, some people don’t actually produce any of these enzymes. What happens if you don’t have enough good bacteria in your gut? They can’t digest complex carbohydrates at all, so they get IBS , diarrhea, constipation…
– They generate certain vitamins . What happens if you don’t have enough good bacteria in your gut? This one’s really important: more than 20 different metabolites made by the microbiota are essential for various biochemical reactions inside of our cells! These include several B vitamins (thiamine, riboflavin, niacin), vitamin K and folate. What happens if you don’t have enough good bacteria in your gut? You’ll end up deficient and it might lead to serious health consequences. What’s more, your vitamins won’t be as effective if your microbiota aren’t doing their job properly. What happens if you don’t have enough good bacteria in your gut? It can cause various deficiencies and reduce the effectiveness of any vitamins you’re taking .
– They regulate our immune system . What happens if you don’t have enough good bacteria in your gut? The best known result is probably allergies: If we weren’t exposed to certain bacteria when we were young, our immune system will overreact to things like pollen and peanuts because it doesn’t know what they are and thinks they’re a threat (not because “peanuts are legumes” – that’s just old myth). What’s more, our microbiota can protect us against infections by preventing bad bacteria from taking over.
What happens if you don’t have enough good bacteria in your gut? You’re more likely to experience colds, flus and other infections, not just because of the reduced immunity – there’s also some evidence that pathogenic bacteria will produce toxins which reduce blood flow to the lining of your intestines. What happens if you don’t have enough good bIBS). What’s more, just having one strain less of bacteria can result in inflammation What happens if you don’t have enough good bacteria in your gut? This is caused by an inflammatory cytokine called interleukin-6 What’s more this inflammation increases your risk of so many diseases including cancer What happens if you don’t have enough good bacteria in your gut? Youacteria in your gut? This causes inflammation, resulting in IBD , IBS…
– Bowel Syndrome ( They help with food digestion . What happens if you don’t have enough good bacteria in your gut? If they’re not doing their job properly, certain foods might end up staying inside your small intestine too long (causing SIBO , gas and bloating) or being fermented by bacteria in your large intestine, generating a lot of gas. What happens if you don’t have enough good bacteria in your gut? You might get IBS, IBD, Crohn’s disease, GERD… What’s more, if any food your body can’t digest ends up reaching your colon … What happens if you don’t have enough good bacteria in your gut? They’re going to feed off it and create a ton of gas as their waste product. In short: What happens if you don’t have enough good bacteria in your gut? You’lablel be bloated after eating cruciferous veggies (like cabbage or broccoli) for a staritrt!
The problem is that we’ve been doing everything we can to kill all the bacteria in ou Irr body… What happens if you don’t have enough good bacteria in your gut? Our kids immediately get antibiotics when they’re ill, even though it’d be better to leave them at home. What’s more, most of us are on proton pump inhibit getors (PIs) like omeprazole which reduce stomach acid – but this stuff is essential for killing bad bacteria! What happens if you don’t have enough good bacteria in you’llr gut? You’ll be too sick to treat yourself with anything else and at worst , you migh Yout develop C. difficile infection. What’s more, studies show that taking PIs increases your risk of many serious diseases including pneumonia, stroke and heart attack .
What happens if you don’t have enough good bacteria in your gut? You’re going to be at a much higher risk of those diseases as well! What’s worse, the number one source of our intestinal microbiota is from other people naturally – but these days, we now give antibiotics to livestock and try to prevent sick animals from spreading their disease by giving them extra antibiotics.
What happens if you don’t have enough good bacteria in your gut?
These animals’ microbiota aren’t going to be very helpful because they’ll contain antibiotic resistant bacteria that can kill us . What’s more, these microbiota end up getting into our food so there might not even be enough healthy flora left for us… What happens if you don’t have enough good bacteria in your gut? We’ll all be sicker because of it. What’s more, to make matters worse, when you give people antibiotics they kill off their normal microbiota and if they don’t replace them fast enough with good bacteria , What happens if you don’t have enough good bacteria in your gut? Other harmful bacteria will take over instead! What’s more your immune system becomes confused and can no longer control the microbiota in your gut.
What happens if you don’t have enough good bacteria in your gut? This ends up causing inflammation which exacerbates an incredible range of problems to include IBD, IBS… What’s more, even just having small changes in the microbiota can cause misery – for example, what happens if you don’t have enough good bacteria in your gut?
– The heavy use of antibiotics and other drugs What happens if you don’t have enough good bacteria in your gut? Antibiotics kill everything inside us not just bad or unnecessary