In case it needs saying, I’ll say it early. Your gut biome IS your immune system. At least the biggest and most important part of it anyway.
So, have you ever heard of the idea that antibiotics strip your immune system down to the bedrock?
That antibiotics and napalm have about the same effect on your gut biome?
And without your biome, you don’t really have much of an immune function until you’re already infected with something that you through antibiotics at after already catching something. Such as the old ‘Rona (so I don’t have to use the dreaded C word…)
But, how do we ensure that this biome mess is as good as it can be to deal with Rona? Thanks Kevin, I’m glad you asked.
Well, its like this. As much as I kind of dumped on antibiotics just then, it kind of does matter.
Superficially, antibiotics are great! They do their job in killing what bacteria needs to be “puts ta sleep” (imagine that in a new jersey gangster accent please, it sounds more sinister and legit that way). The problem is, they don’t discriminate. Hence the napalm metaphor from before. And because this is your first line of genuinely effective defence against pirate scum virus’ and pathogens, it renders our pillow fort gut less and less capable of repelling these rum swilling boarders.
If you are constantly sick, and having antibiotics every time, it makes it harder to protect yourself next time. The IS plenty you can do about this, but its not always as widely known as we’d like.
Which leads into conversations about dirt, vaccinations, diet and cotton wool. Or helicopters. And those choppers have napalm.
When you were a kid, did you eat dirt? Maybe not literally, casually sprinkling a smattering across your filet mignon to add bit of extra texture and earthy flavour, but just getting dirty playing outside that would inevitably result in things getting on hands and into mouths and into guts and into blood and just generally everywhere. This is a HUGE part of how you get used to stuff that might make you sick.
The same can be said of natural births. When you’re born, your mum…. schmears (yes, I know, that really isn’t the word I would have liked to use either, but I was stuck for inspiration, okay… moving on, please) her vaginal biome all over you as you exit the birth canal. And this is how you start growing your immune system.
Then we get more biome from breastfeeding, colostrum and all that cool stuff, which just adds to the epic mix.
Then we start eating food. Which, frankly, is riddled with bacteria, but is so unlikely to do anything but add to your awesomeness that it doesn’t seem to matter to nearly anyone. And while this food is going in, the dirt gets added to the mix as well. Like a rich smoothie of small little bugs with a smattering of food mixed in. “Would sir like some vegetables with his bacteria?” is not an unreasonable way to phrase it, I think.
Kevin, dude, you really need to calm down. In no uncertain terms, if you don’t like bacteria, you are on the wrong damned planet. Mercury might be more your speed, or Pluto in a pinch. I’m quietly confident the only bacteria you’ll find there is what you bring yourself, but good luck with that. Let me know how you’re getting there, I’d like to see that.
Anyway, we eat what we eat and that improves our biome’s ability to populate and regulate the defence system, by “sampling” more bacteria and building the pillow fort from the ground up.
Now, before I start this next bit, it will most definitely NOT be about the existence of side-effects of vaccinations, and how legitimate and provable or not that argument on either side really is. Honestly, I vaccinated my boy, because I think there’s value in it, but I’m not prepared to engage in confirmation bias on either side of that particular can of flaming troll worms…
This is what vaccinations are based around really. Small introductions of nasty shit to your immune system so that the biome knows what is and isn’t pirate boarders and begin repelling immediately. The more experience your biome has with a particular brand of enemy, the more likely you are to prevent your ship from being sunk because their dirty tricks and cheap tactics are already well known.
However, the typical diet, sleep and reliance on pharmaceutical care kind of hamstrings us well before the fight even happens.
I mentioned antibiotics before. Well, they can napalm your system directly, or they can napalm it indirectly. “Indirectly!!!” you cry, “But how? Thats not fair! How am I supposed to listen and act on your weird metaphors about pirates if I don’t know where this indirect stuff is coming from?” Now now, no need to get snarky about my odd use of seemingly irrelevant examples. Trust me, if you’d met me, you’d be used to it by now. But that’s not what’s important right now. What is important is what indirectly actually looks like.
How do you think animal farming works these days? How are those animals cared for? How are they kept alive and growing until they are eventually “put to sleep” (do the voice!!!)?
From what I’ve been able to discover, most, but not all farming practices, use hormones for faster growth of their animals to be able to make them market ready sooner. Make sense right? More animals, faster growth, more money. But how does that affect the animal, really?
Well, if the animal is so busy growing and getting thick, it doesn’t have much energy to divert into in self-preservation. So, they get given antibiotics too. Can’t grow if your sick, can’t get sold if you might make the all-important consumer sick either.
Well, that shit stays in its system. Where does it go from there? To you, happy customer! To your burgers and your biome. Quite the double punch there too. All that quality stuff in the burger, so much winning. So, start paying attention to what kind of meat you eat. Those pesticides aren’t much chop for you either, but those are usually on the poorly defined, unpopular amongst “real” men and usually green, non-meat stuff…
Ironically, even through my hopefully well interpreted sarcasm, those “non-meat stuffs” are instrumental in improving the quality of your biome. Fibre, micronutrients and this handy stuff called vitamin C are really good at maintaining the pillow fort that is your biome.
Vitamin D is instrumental in its epic-ness too, because very little else happens with out that to make all the gut magic happens. Yes, I am aware that that didn’t sound great either. “Gut magic”… ugh.
The cotton wool and helicopters comes into it when we describe a certain amount of modern parenting too. If we wrap kids in cotton wool, they don’t develop the resilience they need to by eating tasty dirt and building their tolerance. Then covering the kids in “sanny”, to quote the newly acquire slang in the wake of Rona, which further impedes the biome development. Helicopter parenting, while understandable from a short-term survival mode and mass media hysteria inducement standpoint, doesn’t do much for the long term development of that gut/kid/family/community/planet/intergalactic “rehoming of the humans” transport armada.
Karen, like I said to Kevin earlier, bacteria is kind of a big deal on this planet. Better to get on with working with it, getting it to work for you, rather than fighting against something that you simply can’t escape from. Deal, Magpie….
Okay, so it’s finally time get on with what we can do about reinforcing the pillow fort with dining room chairs and couches.
Firstly, eat dirt.
(Sorry, couldn’t resist)
REAL firstly, start paying attention to how much antibiotics you actually consume. Do you take them more regularly than you’d like? What kind of meat quality do you have in your diet? Does it say anything about free range/grass fed and finished/hormone and antibiotic free/organic on the label? Because that’s a hell of a good start to making sure you’re eating decent stuff that won’t cause accidental scorched earth policy in your immune system.
Secondly, repopulate your gut with The Good Stuff™. The Good Stuff™ is my sad attempt to categorise anything that will actively contribute to improving your volume of good-for-you gut bacteria. Fermented foods like kombucha, kimchi (definitely an acquired taste), sauerkraut, apple cider vinegar with the mother, all carry the more essential bacteria strains that make you gurgle-y bits run smoother. You CAN supplement with probiotics, but if you aren’t taking care of the other stuff on this list, or the things I’m about to mention, they get kind of… lost in the wash, so to speak.
Thirdly, trying eating some decent fruits, veggies and even some nuts and oils here and there. NOT vegetable oils (olive oil and avocado oil are the exceptions, but that is a whole other blog topic). Even bone broth is on this list too. The handy to have around gut bacteria really seems to enjoy that stuff (and no, they don’t look vaguely rabbit shaped when viewed under a microscope) and it’s easy to make into stuff that’s digestible for the bacteria. This, and these foods, are affectionately known as PRE-biotics. You can supplement these too, but again, building out bigger lifestyle habits is going to help you waaaay more than a couple of tablets here and there.
Lastly, some fasting to initiate some handy autophagy (sorry, another, earlier blog post, but it works super well for gut biomes too) prunes out the wussy bacteria to leave your pillow fort defended by the most elite, pirate virus repelling forces you have.
If you wanted to go down the supplemental route though, some high-quality vitamin D, some lipo-spheric vitamin C (because its much MUCH more absorbable than normal vitamin c supps) and some trusted pro and pre biotics would be a great start. Honestly, trying to make recommendations based on “best brands” is a wildly ambitious goal for a 7minute blog post read, so do a little research and see what comes up. I’ve found some great quality stuff at HealthPost.com.au, but vitamin C is pretty cheap in oranges, and vitamin D is even cheaper by going outside. So, you know, pick and choose your battles
Not matter which version you decide to work with, keep the stress down (because that hurts EVERY bodily function you have), do a bit of exercise (because this means the systems work a bit more efficiently) and get some sleep (because, frankly, everything is shitter without sleep. Gut, brain, body, tolerance for food and TP hoarders).
If you can pick these battles, and win them, then you are giving yourself the best chance to stay out of the Rona, let alone anything else.
Be kind, be smart, be your best you. No bar (or grocery store) fights.
“Immune systems at this level can be defined a priori as embodied expectations of injury and the corresponding programmes of protection and repair.” Peter Sloterdijk
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