Do fermented and non-fermented dairy products have an impact on gut health?
I often get Youtube comments labeling fermented dairy products as bad for your health. In my opinion, many people want to believe things that just aren’t true.
I read a study out of France that looked at 539 women and the impact of fermented dairy products on the gut. The researchers split the group into two, with the control group eating a non-fermented dairy product and the other group getting 125 grams of a fermented dairy product containing probiotics. Both groups were given the food twice a day for between two and four weeks.
Compared to the subjects who had non-fermented dairy products, the women who ate the fermented dairy product had a significant improvement in their digestive system in terms of bloating, gas, and other mild symptoms.
Adding a good quality, sour, organic yogurt to your diet can have a significant and positive impact on your gut.
If you find that your gut reacts to eating yogurt or kefir with bloating, gas, and abdominal discomfort, take a break from eating fermented dairy products. Work on improving the health of your gut and then re-challenge yourself with those foods. You don’t have to write them off forever.
Parasites are one of my favorite topics. I think it’s worth knowing something about both Dientamoeba fragilis and Blastocystis hominis.
Blastocystis is very common. With air travel being so cheap, it’s probably one of the most common parasites in the Western world. Up to 23% of people in the USA have got Blastocystis.
Where does the “hominis” part come from? Several years ago, it was discovered that this protozoan was found a lot in humans, hence the term “hominis.”
However, since that time, they found similar Blastocystis in the intestines of snacks, amphibians, rats, and gorillas. All sorts of creatures can have Blastocystis. In fact, there are over ten RNA variants of Blastocystis.
One of the reasons Blasto is so hard to treat effectively is because of the number of strains. Interestingly, in some people, Blasto causes significant problems, and in others, it’s basically benign. In other words, some people who are infected by Blasto, don’t get sick at all, others get mildly ill, and others get quite sick. People who are immunocompromised are the most likely to be severely impacted by Blasto.
That’s why if you have an impaired immune system, it’s not a great idea to handle animals or travel widely. You also need to be much more careful with handwashing because the main route of Blastocystis transmission is fecal-oral.
There is a high chance that you have Blasto if you have irritable bowel syndrome that you can’t shake. The possibility of a Blastocystis infection is one of the main reasons I so strongly recommend having a comprehensive stool analysis.
As for Dientamoeba fragilis, note the word “fragilis” on the end, which refers to the organism’s inability to last very long outside of the body. Dientamoeba dies very quickly, which is one reason I find it much easier to treat than Blasto. Dientamoeba is also linked to irritable bowel syndrome, but it is nowhere near as prevalent as Blastocystis.
Dientamoeba tends to be more common in affluent communities for some reason. It also impacts younger people most commonly, particularly those under the age of 8.
I have seen Dientamoeba in adults, and nearly every time, it disappears in four to six weeks while the Blasto persists.
In both cases, you don’t have to fear these parasites. Improve your health and gut, and over time, your parasite levels should drop.
How do you restore your gut flora after taking a course of antibiotics? Here are ten tips I’ve provided my clients over the years.
1. Finish the antibiotic treatment as prescribed: It doesn’t make sense to take the antibiotics for a day or two and then stop. If you need the treatment, finish the course. If you are getting side effects or an allergic reaction from the antibiotics, you need to let your doctor know right away. Stop taking the medication if signs of an allergy surface.
2. Don’t let your next step be more antibiotics: If the first round of antibiotics didn’t work, don’t take another round unless it is absolutely necessary. Some of the sickest clients I had during my career as a naturopath, took antibiotics repeatedly and severely damaged their gut function as a result.
3. Eat well for several weeks: You’re not going to get your gut right unless you eat good food. A critical step in restoring your gut health is to make sure you’re eating well.
4. If you get sick again, see a naturopath or a functional medicine doctor: You may want to get a comprehensive stool analysis to see what needs to be cleared up. It will help you decide what you need to do next to clear up your gut. It may be that you have a yeast infection that needs to be addressed.
5. You need to rest up: Rest is best, as they say. If you can take time off work, do. If you push through instead of resting, you can end up with adrenal problems, thyroid problems, and fatigue. Cancel your social functions and spend time relaxing.
6. Engage in light exercise: You’re not going to get your gut in high spec, if you overexercise. Do some light exercise, but don’t push your stress hormone axis by training for three hours a day.
7. Get to bed on time: You need a lot of sleep to facilitate gut recovery. Better sleep patterns will help you recuperate faster.
8. No alcohol: Alcohol and soda drinks are not a good idea when you are trying to restore gut function after antibiotics. It worries me if people find it hard to take a break from alcohol – it may mean that they have a problem with drinking that is also harming the gut.
9. If you’re not getting better, get more testing: If you are having allergies and gut problems despite a healthy stool test, do some further testing. Take a look at your adrenal function through a salivary cortisol test. You may also need to look at your iodine levels and thyroid function. If you have hormonal problems, it sets you up for recurrent infections.
10. Don’t come off probiotics in a hurry: It’s crucial to stay on probiotics for the long haul to recover fully. For every week you were on antibiotics, you can easily stay on probiotics for four to eight weeks. Make sure you have a healthy gut long before you discontinue your probiotics.
When people ask me about how best to use CanXida to treat a Candida infection, I always want to confirm that the diagnosis is correct. Many times I have had people swear up and down that they are struggling with a yeast infection, only to have their comprehensive stool analysis (CSA) come back completely negative for Candida.
I think it’s a good idea to do a CSA before starting, or at least early in, treatment with CanXida. That way, you know what you’re dealing with and can monitor treatment response over time.
One of the nice things about the CanXida products is that you don’t have to take 10, 20, or 30 supplements to get everything you need. I’ve designed CanXida to contain all that you need in a few pills.
I’ve had clients take CanXida, who still needed a bit more customized treatment for vaginal thrush. In those cases, I suggest watching my videos on boric acid for vaginal Candida. If you still have a cycle, the best time to do the boric acid treatment is as you’re coming into having that cycle. Apply the boric acid solution when the period starts or when the irritation starts.
But if there’s no irritation there and you’re postmenopausal, I would say treat it probably one week out of four. The best time to undertake boric acid treatment is when you are taking CanXida. CanXida provides an excellent boost to your immune response. It makes sense to address the vaginal area when you’re cleaning up your gut.
If you aren’t able to get the CSA done, find the Symptom Tracker page in my Candida Crusher pdf. Print off that page and start rating your symptoms from 1 (mild) to 10 (severe) while remembering to record the date. Next, start on the CanXida line of products. Every two weeks after beginning CanXida, rate your symptoms again. That way, you can see how you’re progressing in response to treatment.
My standard recommendation is to start with one CanXida Remove tablet per day with the main meal. Also, take one CanXida Restore at breakfast or bedtime. Add in one tablet of CanXida Rebuild, but don’t take it with any other the other CanXida products.
Follow that protocol for about a week and then increase to two doses each of Remove and Restore and keep Rebuild at one daily dose. If your symptoms are relatively mild, I’d stick with that plan for the remaining weeks.
Don’t make your dosages too high. It’s better to take the slow and I tend to do a shorter treatment with a high dosage in people who have one or two very strong symptoms, and they’re looking for a breakthrough. Sometimes I do ridiculously high dosages with people for very specific reasons. Other times, I recommend a very long, slow road – break a tablet in half and maybe go for six months.
When you’re taking CanXida, make sure your diet is impeccable. Monitor your bowel movements, digestive comfort, your bloating, and any other sites of infection. Tweak your doses as required.
If you had a course of antibiotics, it’s essential to do what you can to restore your gut health.
1. Firstly, if at all possible, avoid doing another round. One course of antibiotics is bad enough, taking another round is like going back into the ring with the world heavyweight boxing champion. I’ve had clients who have been on antibiotics almost continuously for six months, and it destroys their gut. I look at it as the medical equivalent of napalming your garden time and time again.
2. Next, it’s crucial that you focus on eating the kinds of foods that will help build your but back up again. If you’ve just finished a week of ciprofloxacin, now is not the time to be feasting on take-out pizza while drinking a liter of pop. You’re better off cooking yourself some bok choy and brown rice at home. If you jump into eating high-sugar food right after finishing antibiotics, there is a very good chance that the yeast population in your gut is going to increase significantly. If you have a burning desire to eat sweets after using antibiotics, it’s a sure-fire sign that you’ve developed SIBO or a yeast problem.
3. Make sure that you take a probiotic long enough to make a difference. Some people think that seven to ten days of probiotics is enough to reverse all the damage that has been done by antibiotic treatment. Not true. I recommend staying on the probiotic until your gut function is excellent again. Even then, if you stop the probiotics and your gut problems resurface, you need to go back on the probiotic.
4. Make sure you get adequate rest and avoid living a high-stress lifestyle. Some people who get sick, unfortunately, stay sick because they live an unhealthy lifestyle. It may be their relationship, it may be their job, or it could be the family dynamics. Something needs to change because if the person continues to expose themselves to significant stress, their gut isn’t going to bounce back and recover.
5. Please don’t take too many dietary supplements in the hopes that it will speed up your return to gut health. I’ve seen people take 30 or more pills a day. When your gut is recovering from antibiotics, I strongly recommend keeping things simple. Eat a basic, healthy diet and reduce your life stress. Now is not the time to pepper your digestive system with B vitamins, magnesium supplements, zinc supplements, and so on. Try and back off a lot of these supplements and give your gut some space to recover.