Intestinal dysbiosis, the term for an imbalance
of gut bacteria, has until recently and only in limited circles ever been
seriously considered as a cause of any chronic illness, much less a situation
associated with shortening your lifespan. To prove this point, here’s a Blue Cross memo
denying insurance reimbursement for any testing of your microbiome status. To
save reading time, scroll down on the link to #4 where it’s quite specific.
For me, it was working in Functional Medicine
alongside chiropractors, naturopaths, and nutritionists, using tests like
Comprehensive Stool Analyses that brought me up to speed microbiome-wise. The
Naturopathic mantra, “All illness begins in the gut”, really began to have
meaning.
Unless you (inadvertently) go out of the way
to really muck up your microbiome with an unhealthy diet or an overuse of
antibiotics, your one trillion intestinal bacteria undergo some normal changes
from childhood to middle age, then settles back and does a lot more good than
you imagine, like manufacturing vitamins and neurotransmitters.
Here’s a list of illnesses we now know for
certain are associated with intestinal dysbiosis. Can they be totally “cured”
by gut restoration? Not really. But virtually all of them will be considerably
improved when you manage to get your microbiome back in balance and the lining
of your gut healed again.
First,
here’s a list of the usual suspects directly associated with your GI tract and
your microbiome...
