Chronic Infections

Hi there.  I think I have exhausted sleep even though we haven’t quite completed the month.  I wanted to spend some time talking about Chronic Infections.

I have referred to chronic infections as a trigger for autoimmune.  Usually when I talk about chronic infections I am speaking about pathogens.

What are Pathogens you might ask?

Pathogens are parasites, bacteria, viruses, fungus.  Does it give you the heebie jeebies to think that you might have some nasty little bugs or even fungus hanging around your innards?  It should.  Some of them are nasty.

As you know, because I have said it at least 100 times, we have over a trillion bacteria inside our wonderful little bodies.  And they have huge responsibilities.  All of the bacteria isn’t the same.  They have different jobs that they do for us and the majority of them live in our gut which is the area from where food enters the body to where food exits the body.  I know, it is the nicest way I can say it.

Ok, so the bacteria is happy when we treat our bodies well but when we eat crappy food, take antibiotics, have significant stress, are exposed to chemical and environmental toxins, etc. the balance of the bacteria in the gut starts to get out of whack.  When this happens, the environment or microbiome (where the bacteria live) changes and becomes ripe for other things to grow.  Yuk!!

Parasites are little bugs and some of them are buggers.  They can be very difficult to eliminate cause they like to dig in.  Some of them like H. Pylori like to hide in our gallbladder making them really tough to get rid of without doing liver and gallbladder flushes as well.  And H. Pylori can travel through a family.

I said bacteria can be part of a chronic infection to didn’t I?  How is that possible when we have a trillion bacteria in our body.  Well, when the microbiome gets out of whack, so does the balance of bacteria.  It becomes easy for opportunistic bacteria to grow or for seemingly good bacteria to become bad because it can try to take over.  And with that, other good bacteria lose their numbers and so they aren’t doing as good of a job for us.  The balance is really important.

Viruses can also be nasty.  If we don’t have the bacteria to fight them, they also take over.  Herpes is a virus.  So is Chicken pox.  And I’m sure you have heard of Epstein Barr virus but you have probably heard it called mono.  And they can lie hidden in your nervous system, just waiting for your body to weaken and come back.  Shingles is the chicken pox virus attacking adults.  No fun.   My son actually had shingles at 12 years of age.  Very rare but his system was triggered and there they were.

Fungus is hard for me to think about but it is real. 

Yeast infections are fungus.  Otherwise known as Candida and it can travel through your whole body.  It is extremely opportunistic.  It likes to live on other parasites and bacteria.  So trying to eliminate Candida without really addressing what else might be going on in your gut could be very difficult.

Here is the reality. 

They are hard to detect and even harder to eliminate if you don’t understand the hierarchy for elimination.  And they have become resistant to medication.  And the medication that you take, also wreaks havoc on the good bacteria, making the environment that it lives in more suitable for the bad stuff to grow.

And there is more.  These little buggers, literally and figuratively, live in biofilm.  They create it to hide themselves within, to communicate, and to make it harder to get rid of them.  You have to break down the biofilm prior to taking anything to kill them.  If you don’t, your chances of being successful is greatly reduced.

How do I work with clients to determine what type of chronic infections they might be dealing with? 

It isn’t pretty.  I use stool tests.  You have to collect some of your stool to be sent in for evaluation.  Some of the tests require looking for the actual bugs.  Some look for the DNA of bugs.  I prefer the bug DNA test.  Gross but effective.

From there, we determine what is going on and what you might have.  There is a hierarchy for treating the invaders.  Parasites first.  Always.  They require at least 60 days of treatment for sure.  Then we go after the bad bacteria.  And lastly the fungus.  Fungus as I said is opportunistic and can be a bear to get rid of.  We need to eliminate its host and its food.  So it is always the last to treat.

Do I use medication for my clients? 

No. It is up to my clients however if they would prefer the medication route or a more herbal supplement route.  If a client chooses medication, they would need to work with their MD.  I have found the supplements to be more powerful in that the pathogens don’t seem to have a tolerance to them.  And we make sure the biofilm is broken down before we get started.

Many times, they aren’t resolved with the first round. So we test again.  Sometimes their numbers are improved and just need another round.  Sometimes, new ones that were hiding on the last test show up.  And another treatment is very likely required.

I had to do three rounds to get them all.

And while you are killing the buggers, you have to support your body in the right way. 

It is also important not just jump right in to a full-on attack.  If your system is not strong enough to handle the toxins that are release during the elimination of the pathogens, it can make you very, very sick.  Work has to be done to support your body properly with food, sleep, exercise and stress management, otherwise you are wasting your time and money.

Don’t kid yourselves by trying to convince yourselves that you don’t have an imbalance going on.  85% of you have leaky gut.  If you have leaky gut, the environment in your gut is ripe for pathogens.  You can’t get healthy if you have pathogens.  Just sayin’.

Are you sorry you read my blog this week?

I hope not.  I hope it is more of an education and another reason to get your health together.  How many more reasons do you need?  Haha.

Have a great rest of your week.

Photo by Drew Hays on Unsplash