Eat Clean, Play Dirty. How to have a thriving microbiome*

It is my mission to help you achieve your best state of health, wellness and performance.  It took me 15 years however I want to help you do it in 1 year or less using methods that work. The combination of applied clinical nutrition, applied kinesiology, nutritional counseling, working with the right practitioners, doing the right tests, state training, herbal medicine and lifestyle modifications is used to facilitate this process. Our bodies are composed of billions upon billions of bacterial cultures. In fact, the number of bacteria cells in our bodies outnumbers the cells 10 to 1. Our microbiome serves as a foundation for our overall health, dictating how we digest and absorb our nutrition, how are hormones are regulated, how our immune systems function and millions of other vital processes which have an impact on our overall health and well-being.

As a matter of fact it is proven now that the health of your microbiome controls your genetic expression and how every organ system in the body functions. So, by optimizing your flora, you are actually controlling how your genes are expressed. Isn’t it empowering to be able to take control of your health with a few simple applications?

Often times the number of bad bacteria outweighs the number of good bacteria in our bodies.

So, how do we culture this garden for superior health? There are several techniques which can be used to improve your biochemistry on a bacterial level to help you live your live full of vitality and energy. This includes culturing with the best probiotics for your body, introducing prebiotics into your diet, reducing bad bacteria by in taking natural microbials when needed, taking Restore to tighten gap junctions in the cellular membrane of the intestinal walls thereby eliminating leaky gut, then saturating your body with superior nutrition. The product Restore does a number of things including feeding your body with humic acid salts to increase overall voltage, prevent damage from pathogens and strengthen overall gut health among many other benefits. 

Everything from the food we eat, where we live, our ancestry, our health history and our genetic makeup influences the quantity and quality of bacteria in our bodies. Our bodies hold lineages of bacterial information that scientists have found influence our health more than even our lifestyle choices. Imagine if you could shift your microbiome and be healthier from the inside out with simply taking the right kind of probiotic for your system. There are thousands of different probiotic formulas on the market. How do you know which one suits your biochemical makeup? This is where applied kinesiology comes in. We place a product or food next to your body and muscle test the compatibility it has with your system. As a recap, applied kinesiology is a strength resistance test based on the physical connection between muscles, glands and organs. You can read more about applied kinesiology on the blog post about AK testing.

Our bacterial environment plays such a huge role on our overall functioning. I can remember the first time I worked at a clinic with a nauropathic doctor, applied clinical nutritionist, dentist and cranio-sacral therapist. He introduced me to a standard process product called Congaplex. It tested stronger than anything. He could literally dangle from my arm it made me so strong! His diagnosis was that my bad bacterial levels were off the charts and that some people need natural antimicrobials like congaplex to help keep it down on a periodic basis. Over the course of a few days, I took 3 capsules every hour. Everything in my body became better. My GI, respiratory system, endocrine system, muscular system, and other systems were in harmony more than ever. I had to learn more about these products and incorporate them into my practice. Thus began the love relationship with standard process and mediherb products.  Even then however, it did not take care of the root but it did give tremendous relief for the time being. 

I'd like to share with you a story of my own health and wellness victory and its a big reason why I do what I do. I spent 15 years of my life sick with mysterious auto-immune symptoms even though tests could not find auto-immune markers. I spent close to 200,000 dollars, went to countless doctors and practitioners and did many many tests to find out what was going on. Finding "the spike" in tests was a long search. Finally, one day, I was working with an integrative MD, Julie Reardon, in Austin, Texas and we did a functional GI effects test panel and found 20 different bad bacteria strains hiding in my gut. Instead of just feeding myself with all of the great nutrition etc, I was feeding billions of bad guys. It was effecting every organ system in my body. We concluded that the cause of this bacterial infection, lack of absorption and leaky gut was caused by me traveling to 25 different countries including India, Mexico, etc over the last 10 years. I cried with relief knowing I had finally found a way to feel better. I wasn't auto-immune, I wasn't broken, I was a host. And bugs love a yummy host. And one of the first actions I took was pointing my finger at my belly and telling them they were getting the fuck out. Zooming out, I recognized it as an energetic representation of lack of boundaries in my life. I let go of a lot of people in my life, created a new life, and implemented new skills in relationship and honoring what I needed. I made a commitment to trusting myself and taking action on that. There are other emotional, mental and even spiritual aspects to this but they can be covered in another post, We bombed them with antibiotics (bactrim) which the tests indicated they were the most sensitive to. Knowing what I do now with my naturopath I may have chosen a different route but I think using antibiotics in rare cases can be helpful and that is where I was at at the time. I followed 10 days of bactrim with medical grade probiotics to further balance my gut. I was feeling better. I did 3 more GI effects tests to measure progress and my gut became stronger more diversified and healthier with each one. I shifted into working with another medical genius, Lauren Colletti, a practitioner at Wiseman. She looked at my tests and recommended we take a natural apporach to clear the remaining bad bacteria from my system and strengthen gut membranes, etc. I took GI Synergy and grapefruit seed extract for 9 months (I know that's a long time but it was needed). I started taking T3 for about a year which I recently stopped taking because its better to heal the gut and liver and produce it on your own, I started working with a naturopath/chiropractor/muscle tester/clinical nutritionist and had the best results I've seen thus far. I found away to hone in specifically on what I needed through working wiht this practitioner. I came along way however the last 6 months or so have been exponential. I have healed my gut. I have normal gut function now and my diversity has increased and I am thriving. I am absorbing 100 times better. I'm off of liothyronine (T3), producing it on my own and slowly decreasing synthroid. I should be off it in the next few weeks or months. I dropped almost 30 pounds. Inflammation and pain has reduced substantially. My brain works now. I am retaining information, have fabulous recall and my confidence has skyrocketed in my ability to perform. My cycles start on time every month whereas before they were all over the place or non-existent. There are many more improvements. I am living proof that it is possible to heal from a mysterious condition.

You can do this too with using the right tools, superior nutrition and lifestyle modifications to create a high definition, high quality of life for my clients, myself and others.

I’d like to mention here that its important you recognize the strength of your body. Please do not look at your system as a weak functioning organism. The goal here is to be the healthiest version of yourself by giving it what it needs. Once given the right nutrition and other support it needs, it has a way of organically thriving in so many ways. Eat Clean and play dirty is how to play the game. Your system is meant to be exposed to bacteria of all kinds. The key is strengthening it from within.

There are many other ways to hack your bacterial biochemistry. The first step in balancing your microbiome is to stop feeding the bad bacteria with sugar and processed foods. Bad bacteria, fungi and other energy draining parasites feed off of sugar. Sugar includes anything white, including white sugar, white bread, and anything processed. It’s wise to do this slowly if your diet has been comprised of mostly processed foods. Even if it hasn’t, do make slow changes with which the body can adapt to and create long lasting shifts in your lifestyle. Making slower changes has been proven to have longer lasting effects.

The next step in balancing your microbiome is reducing the bad bacteria by testing different antimicrobials. One of my favorites is Soveriegn silver Colloidal silver. Silver has been used for hundreds of years as a powerful antimicrobial. You can look at it as a natural antibiotic. This brand has the best PPM for most body types out of all silver brands, meaning its more absorbable and recognized by the body. There are several ways to introduce it to your system. The most efficient way is by nebulizing with it. With this method, the silver is distributed into your blood via the lungs. This provides a higher concentration and more efficient use of the silver as more of it is being absorbed this way. You can also take silver sublingually which is helpful if the bacteria are more present in your gastrointestinal tract. Silver has saved thousands of lives, including mine. The first time I was introduced to silver was when I had bacterial bronchitis and viral pneumonia one winter. I nebulized with silver and zapped with a zapper and my fever went from 104 down to 99 in an hour.

There are also a variety of foods which act as natural antibiotics you can incorporate into your diet. These include ginger, garlic, apple cider vinegar, oregano oil, cayenne pepper, grapefruit seed extract, turmeric, olive leaf extract, Manuka honey and pau d’arco. I would caution to not go overboard and try to treat yourself with these items before testing yourself. Its best to keep things simple and give your body what it needs instead of overwhelming it with too many different elements.

There are three more steps to this process in creating a thriving microbiome which will be introduced through an initial consultation or as a part of the membership program. For more details please contact me through email or phone. Cheers to your health* ; )