The Garden Within: Digestive Health

I know that candida can be a huge problem for both women and men of all ages.  My son was diagnosed with a systemic candida infection at age 20,  exacerbated by his diabetes.  Using an excellent probiotic and digestive enzymes have helped him regain digestive health. 

The following is an excerpt from a newsletter by Dr. Ray Strand.  http://raystrand.com

The Garden Within

It is estimated that there are between 300 and 1000 different species that live within your GI tract. Bacteria make up the overwhelming majority of microorganisms found in the gut and most of these come from 30 to 40 different species. There are also fungi and protozoa; however, their function is less well understood. These microorganisms are thought to be symbiotic with their host rather than just existing together with no affect on each other. Symbiosis means that there are benefits for both the host and the bacteria. However, the gut also contains some harmful bacteria that if they increase or become out of balance can cause serious problems and even death to the host. Therefore, balance is the key when it comes to the “Garden Within.”

When a child is born, their gut is sterile or contains no flora. However, within one month in a child that was born vaginally their gut micro flora is well established. By two years of age, the micro flora of the gut seems to mimic that of adults. This balance seems to remain relatively normal and healthy as long as our diet is healthy and use of antibiotics does not occur. However, with today’s modern medicine it is very unusual to find anyone who has not taken some course of antibiotics in the past few months to a year or who is eating a healthy diet. You then add the All-American high-glycemic, high sugar diet to the mix and you begin feeding your fungi-like yeast much more than you do your bacteria. Both the use of antibiotics and our poor diet has been shown to change our “Garden Within” so that it is no longer in balance. This may allow your yeast to overwhelm the GI flora and cause an increase in vaginal yeast infections and even, in some cases, systemic yeast.

Antibiotics will destroy the bad bacteria that are causing your illness; however, they also destroy the good bacteria in your bowel. For example, clostridium is a species that is common in the GI tract and usually causes no problems. However, antibiotics can kill off the good bacteria and allow clostridium difficile (or C. Difficile) to grow out of control and create a serious diarrhea for the individual. Even the antibiotics that are found in our meat, milk, and other foods can destroy enough good bacteria to create an antibiotic induced diarrhea because more of the good bacteria are destroyed and the pathogenic bacteria are allowed to flourish.

• Help in the digestion of carbohydrates
• Stimulates the immune system
• Helps in the absorption of vitamin k, calcium and iron
• Stimulates the lymphoid tissue of the gut, which also helps the immune system
• Normally suppresses the growth of the bad or pathogenic bacteria and fungi
• Decreases the risk of allergic reactions
• Has been implicated in weight gain if it becomes out of balance

There are many other benefits of having a healthy, well-balanced GI flora; however, there are also some negatives that can occur from our GI flora. They are able to break down certain protein fragments that can potentially be toxic to the GI tract and to the host. These toxins have been implicated in the increased risk of colon cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, leaky gut syndrome, autoimmune disease, and irritable bowel disease. This is why consuming adequate fiber in your diet is key in removing any of the toxins produced in the GI tract during digestion. Fiber causes our bowels to eliminate these toxins much more quickly and much more effectively.

Healthy for Life -- the Answer

The Healthy for Life Program strongly recommends that you consume a diet that does not contain high-glycemic carbohydrates and sugar. It is also important that you consume 8 to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables and many of these should be raw fruits and vegetables that are considered to be “live foods” because they contain those natural digestive enzymes. Because you will not be spiking your blood sugar, it will also keep your yeast in check and is actually the answer if you have problems with recurrent yeast infections. It will keep your blood sugars lower, which is also critical in keeping your GI flora in balance. We also encourage you to increase the amount of good fat and good protein you are consuming as you decrease the amount of bad fat and bad protein you are eating.

In the Healthy for Life Program, we also recommend that you consume high-quality, complete and balanced nutritional supplements at the optimal levels that have been shown to provide a health benefit in our medical literature. However, even with these healthy lifestyles there are problems that occur that are sometimes out of your control. As we age, it has been shown that the amount of digestive enzymes we produce decreases. When you combine this with a diet of highly processed foods with few or no natural digestive enzymes, many of us end up not having the same capacity to digest our foods and absorb our micronutrients as we once did. You may be suffering from irritable bowel, GI distress, reflux, and chronic fatigue.

I would recommend that you consider adding digestive enzymes to your regime and consume 1 to 3 high-quality digestive enzymes prior to or with each meal. This will allow you to replenish your digestive enzymes and better digest and absorb the nutrients from your food and supplements. The nice thing is that you will usually be able to note improvement in your GI tract and general health within 4 to 6 weeks of starting digestive enzymes. Obviously, you adjust the amount of enzymes you are consuming based on your response. If you seem to respond very well with just one digestive enzyme tablet prior to or with meals, then I would stay at this level. If you respond better to 2 or 3 tablets, then this may be the level you need to take. I also recommend that you consider taking high-quality probiotics at least every other day. This allows you to bring your GI flora back into balance and suppress those bad bacteria and yeast.

If you have to take a course of antibiotics for an infection, then you should take a packet of probiotics daily while you are on the antibiotics and for at least two weeks afterwards. This will help you better avoid many of the terrible GI complications antibiotics can cause and protect your health by bringing this “Garden Within” back into balance as soon as possible. If you are eating a healthy diet and have not had to take antibiotics, then you may find that after a couple of months of consuming probiotics you no longer need to continue them. However, many individuals have such good health benefits or are concerned with the antibiotics that are in our food supply, which cannot be avoided by most of us, that continuing to take probiotics every other day or at least a few times a week is a good idea. Keeping your ‘Garden Within” in balance is a key aspect of general health and an optimal immune system. There have been several positive benefits from having a balanced micro flora in your GI tract. Medical studies have shown the good bacteria in the gut: