Jump Start Your Battery!

We all know about the bad bacteria that cause different infections in our body that are often treated by prescription antibiotics. However, did you know that each of us has trillions of bacteria in our body and the majority of the bacteria are harmless or good. This is known as your normal flora. Most of this flora finds a home in the optimal environment of your intestinal system or "gut." Having a healthy gut flora is very important to maintaining good overall health.

I often tell my patients that your gut is like your car battery. If your car battery starts to lose some power, the rest of the car starts to malfunction. So, if you have an imbalance in your normal gut flora (too much bad bacteria or too little good bacteria) then your immune system and the rest of your systems start to get run down. You might start to notice bloating, diarrhea, constipation, irritable bowel, upset stomach, fatigue, headaches, and others. Unfortunately, more and more people are having imbalances in the gut flora. I believe this is due to 2 main reasons. Bad diets and the over-prescribing of antibiotics.

1. Bad bacteria love sugar and white flour! So the more sugar and white flour we have in our diets, the more bad bacteria we will have in our gut and the weaker our immune system will be.

2. Antibiotics are no doubt beneficial for BACTERIAL infections. However, too many antibiotics are being prescribed for viral and fungal infections that are not caused by bacteria. So, not only does this not help fight the infection, it creates an imbalance in your body's normal, healthy gut flora. Antibiotics not only attack the bad bacteria, but they also attack the good, healthy bacteria, so again decreases our healthy immune system.

So, if you think you have a sinus, ear, or other infection, be sure to find out first from your doctor if it is caused by bacteria before automatically going on an antibiotic. If it is bacterial, then be sure to stay away from sugar and white flour especially until the infection is gone. If you have chronic bacterial infections, you should consider completely taking sugar and white flour out of your diet.

Finally, along with a good diet, a great way to help impove the healthy gut flora is with probiotics, especially if you have been on a lot of antibiotics. Probiotics are made up of the good bacteria that are in your normal flora. I will talk next time about how you can get these probiotics into your diet!

Many of you have asked that I send an e-mail out when I update the blog. So, if you send your e-mail to me at drmcgowan@acucarechiropractic.com, I will include you in the update e-mail. Don't worry, I'll only sell your e-mail to a couple mass marketers! Just kidding, your e-mail will only be used for the update purposes!!

One final note to my patients... We have started our 5th annual toy drive for the Walter Payton Foundation for abused and neglected kids. Last year with your help we were able to collect over 100 toys! We will be collecting toys until Friday, December 5th. Please see our website at www.acucarechiropractic.com for more information about this year's toy drive. Thanks!!

Live Well.