Microbes and Health

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In the January 2020 edition of National Geographic Magazine, there are many beautiful pictures of microbes — the small, naked to the eye bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa that live within each of us. Most of us don’t think of these living things as beautiful, though, and we may even understandably fear them. Nonetheless, we live in harmony with these non-human DNA creatures, and their presence in our eyes, ears, nose, throat, digestive tract, womb, and every other body part is part of our mental and physical being. What we do and eat affects them and, as a result, affects us. Understanding our connection with the colony inside us will help us to heal better and make better choices on our quest to be healthier and happier. Ask your chiropractic physician about what types of foods you should include in your diet to support a healthy digestive tract.  

Keeping Your Child Healthy

We encounter our first strains of bacteria within the birth canal. This rich source of different colonies keeps our immune system healthy and our minds happy. From birth on, we co-exist with these creatures, and they perform necessary tasks for us. Some responsibilities include making lipopolysaccharides that prime our immune system, or transforming our immune response to peanuts and other allergens. Certain bacteria present in a child’s gut at six months can predict a happy personality, whereas different strains can predict a proclivity to specific allergies or even diabetes. The bacteria present at birth affects many aspects of our being from the onset of life and beyond. Your alternative medicine provider can suggest ways to keep your family’s microbes healthy.

Microbes and Allergies

During adolescence, many children develop allergies, which may be linked to their circulating internal milieu. Called the “microbiome,” this stomach, large intestine, and small intestine collection of microbes affects each person’s response to the outside world. A protective set of bacteria is a diverse set fed on a healthy and varied food source. Unfortunately, many children lack this protective array inside because of sterile births by c section, the overuse of antibiotics, or the consumption of a diet that promotes the overgrowth of candida albicans and other less helpful colonizers. While we are all grateful for life-saving antibiotics, there may be different options than medicines for many situations. Ask your health care provider about those options today.

Fighting Bacteria and Viruses

Our body’s ability to fight off invading bacteria and viruses depends in part on our internal milieu. Streptococcus pneumoniae, E. Coli, and C. acnes are some of the less desirable bacteria strains that our good bacteria keep at bay. We may be able to get antibiotic treatment for invaders like these when our natural defenses fail. Still, antibiotics increasingly fail as bacteria mutate, impacting medicine’s ability to help us with antibiotics. Also, when we get sick with something like MRSA for which no good antibiotic works, we may be able to get help from external sources such as probiotic pills or even fecal transplants to shore up our body’s lagging microbial resources.  

Studies show that our microbiome affects how we think and feel. It even predicts certain diseases and how old we look, feel, and act. Support your internal milieu when possible, to stay healthy. For more information, contact a chiropractor or acupuncturist, like an acupuncturist in Chapel Hill, NC. 

Thanks to Acupractic Natural Healing Center for their insight into how microbes affect health.