by Donna Gates, international bestselling author and featured expert in the upcoming telesummit 7 Days with 7 Celebrity Docs. For more info, please visit 7days7docs.com.
Whether it is in our gut or on our teeth, bacteria survive and thrive in a structure that they create around themselves called biofilm.
Biofilm is just what the name implies: A sticky film made by living, microscopic critters. Why do they make it? To ensure their survival.
But there is more to biofilm than just that. It turns out that biofilm makes fighting an infection pretty tricky. Especially when this infection is lodged somewhere in the gut!
Biofilms contribute to conditions such as:
– Chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, which are often thought to have an infectious root.
– Systemic Candida overgrowth.
– Heartburn or GERD (gastroesophageal reflux).
– Small intestine bacterial overgrowth(SIBO), which includes symptoms like heartburn, bloating, gas, abdominal cramping, brain fog, arthritis, acne and other skin conditions.
– Irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn’s disease. (1)
If you run your tongue along your teeth after a long day and feel a slimy coating, this stuff is the beginning of biofilm.
Little bugs, which are found everywhere inside and outside the body, create biological homes using a mixture of sugars and proteins.
These structures are pretty tough. For example, biofilm in the mouth is dental plaque. (2) You know, that hard stuff that the dentist scrapes off your teeth with a special dental tool.
In a healthy gut that is filled with beneficial microflora, the biofilm that they create is a thin mucus. This healthy biofilm allows the passage of nutrients through the intestinal wall. Healthy gut biofilm is moistening, lubricating, and anti-inflammatory.
The anti-inflammatory function of healthy biofilm is a big plus, since these days the gut is so prone to infection and inflammation from outside chemicals, drugs, and processed foods.
An unhealthy gut biofilm, as you might suspect, does all the wrong things. For example, an unhealthy gut biofilm:
– Prevents the full absorption of nutrients across the intestinal wall.
– Protects disease-causing microorganisms from the immune system.
– Protects disease-causing microorganisms from antibiotics and antifungals (this means both herbal and pharmaceutical-grade).
– Promotes inflammation.
– Houses toxins like heavy metals.
The sturdy protection that biofilm provides from pathogenic bugs is one reason why some infections are so troublesome to resolve. Yeasts, parasites, and bacteria find shelter in the biofilm matrix, evading an onslaught of even the strongest of medications.
Unhealthy biofilm allows some infections to persist for years. This means that the body may become more susceptible to other infections, or co-infections, as well as other chronic degenerative diseases.
In short, unhealthy biofilms promote disease and accelerate aging.
To restore the health of your gut, to break down unhealthy biofilms and create healthy biofilms, proper diet is essential.
The Body Ecology Diet was specifically designed after years of research to restore gut health—the root of all illness in the body. Understanding the proper foods to eat and in what combinations to eat them is your best route to achieve optimal health and longevity.
Are you not living to your potential? Do you have health problems that you can’t seem to find the right answers for resolving? Take the Candida quiz as well as learn more about the Body Ecology Diet, download recipes, and receive a FREE Quick Start Guide and audios on detoxification/weight loss, visit www.bodyecology.com
Author Donna Gates’ mission is to change the way the world eats. Over the past 25 years, she has become one of the most beloved and respected authorities in the field of digestive health, diet and nutrition, enjoying a worldwide reputation as an expert in candida, adrenal fatigue, autism, autoimmune diseases, weight loss and anti-aging.
- S. Macfarlane, J.F. Dillon. Microbial biofilms in the human gastrointestinal tract. Journal of Applied Microbiology. 2007 May; 102 (5): 1187 – 1196.
- A H Rogers. Molecular Oral Microbiology. Caister Academic Press. 2008. 65 – 108.