Well, it turns out that I had 5 more videos to watch; the last one was yesterday. Almost 10 hours in total.
Today, I want to go over a very crucial point regarding the immune system.
Our hunter-gatherer ancestors did not live in a world in which sanitary conditions prevailed. So, they let trillions of bacteria, which they were continuously exposed to, use their body as a home, and the bacteria, in turn, took on the job of protecting the home from harmful bacteria. Thus was born our immune system.
Think of the immune system as a bunch of soldiers who don’t know who the enemy is. The good bacteria in our body train them.
This is basically our MICROBIOME. Guess how many bacteria live in, or on our bodies, organs, etc.; about 700 trillion.
Given that 75-90 % of our immune system is in our gut, i.e., beneficial bacteria, gut health is of primary importance.
And, so, of course, is our microbiome.
The root of many diseases lies in our microbiome lacking exposure to some of the good bacteria, resulting in one of the problems with gut health.
Let’s look at our microbiome at birth. When a child is born naturally, the exposure to the mother’s microbiome in the birth canal sets her up with a “complete” set of bacteria. I am assuming, of course, that the mother did not take antibiotics or other harmful medication and food during her pregnancy.
If a child is delivered using a C-Section, she misses the very important exposure to the bacteria in the birth canal.
Dr. Perlmutter, gave an excellent example of creativity when he told us about a doctor who had put a sponge in the birth canal of a woman about to have a C-Section, then put the sponge on the baby’s face after birth (inoculation).
As I quoted Dr. Liz Lipsky in last weeks post, “In the old days the immune system had a lot to do, now it is like a bunch of teenagers with lots of time on their hands looking to do mischief”.
Why is our immune system so under-employed these days?
- Anti-bacterial soaps (residue even found in breast milk)
- Hand sanitizers
- No exposure to grass, dirt, nature
- Daily showering and shampooing with harsh, chemical laden soaps and shampoos
Just a few reasons, for your information.
A startling proof of this emerges when one looks at immune system of children living in underdeveloped countries, compared to those living in developed countries. When we look at immunity, starting from well functioning ones, it looks like:
- Children living in an underdeveloped country’s villages
- Rural children in developed countries
- Children living in suburbs
- Children living in cities
Not only are children living in cities not getting any exposure to beneficial bacteria, they are under bombardment from a very large number of very harmful chemicals and foods.
So what should we do to maintain a healthy microbiome?
Please reread “A Short Note on Prebiotics, Probiotics and Our Microbiome”, posted on March 26, 2015. And watch the video by Dr. Chutkan.
Mindbodygreen.com/Dr.Robynne Chutkan
Search in Google.
Briefly, I suggest
- Shower with GOOD soap and shampoo once every 10-15 days; just water on other days. You can, of course, use soap on feet, genitalia and arm pits
- No antibacterial soaps or other chemical crap
- Brush with toothpaste that does not contain harmful chemicals (carefully read the ingredients)
You might be curious about what is NOT a good soap. I’ll give you an example.
In 1949 Dial Soap came up with a product that promised no odor due to perspiration, and immediately became a worldwide success.
The chemical that made this possible was HEXACHLOROPHANE. Well, this was a neurotoxin, and 15 people in the US and 39 people in France died from brain damage caused by this poison. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finally banned this substance in 1972. I wonder what they subsequently substituted for this???
Although we’ll get into a detailed expose of the NOURISHMENT PROBLEM in today’s world and how it leads to autoimmune diseases next week. Let me just give you a simple test you can do at home to see if you have GUT HEALTH PROBLEMS, specifically candida.
First thing in the morning, before eating anything, spit in a class of drinking water and observe for 15 minutes.
If you’re OK, you will not see anything like what is pictured above; the water will be clear.
If you see what is pictured above your gut health has been compromised and YOU HAVE A MAJOR GUT AND AUTOIMMUNE PROBLEM.
I have received comments that some of the posts are too long and that readers lose interest because of this. I am therefore cutting each post as short as possible to continue the following week. Please let me know if this is OK, or if you would prefer that I put the whole thing in one longish post.
See you all next time.
