Page 71 - Special Issue: Healthy Baby

They had a course of antibiotics or something else any tissue and organ in the body and causing Clostridia
has happened to disrupt the gut flora and that is absolute havoc and devastation.
where it all starts. All allergies and auto-immune What is the principal thing these yeasts do? produce
conditions stem from abnormalities in the gut They produce alcohol. They like eating glucose important
flora. Other physical conditions connected to ab- and carbohydrates. The only thing they know neurotoxins,
normalities in the gut flora include multiple scle- what to do with a piece of bread or a spoonful of
rosis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, sugar is engage in alcoholic fermentation. Can- substances
rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and type-1 diabetes. dida converts sugars into alcohol. And this can that are toxic
When we test the GAPS patients, we always happen in babies and children, with devastating to our
find that they do not have normal gut flora. The consequences for the child’s development.
beneficial bacteria in these patients have been The clostridia species is another pathogen nervous
replaced by all sorts of pathogens. In a healthy found in the gut of GAPS patients. It is a large systems.
individual with normal gut flora, we find about family of bacteria, with about 100 species known.
500 different species of downright disease-caus- The most commonly known member in this fam-
ing, bad pathogenic bacteria and fungi happily ily is Clostridium tetani which causes tetanus.
existing next door to our beneficial bacteria. As Clostridia are spore-forming bacteria that are
long as the beneficial bacteria predominate, they pretty much impossible to eradicate because the
control those creatures; they do not allow them spores can survive almost anything—freezing,
to do us any harm. However, when we wipe out boiling, pasteurizing. They are strict anaerobes.
the beneficial bacteria—and they are extremely They are difficult to test for because you need
vulnerable to broad spectrum antibiotics, to specific equipment to detect them. Clostridia pro-
the contraceptive pill, to steroid medications duce important neurotoxins, substances that are
prescribed on a long-term basis, in fact to the toxic to our nervous systems. All the soils on our
majority of modern drugs that are used on a repeat planet test positive for Clostridium tetani. If you
prescription basis—we end up with what is called get a wound or a scratch contaminated by soil,
gut dysbiosis (damaged gut flora). and the clostridia proliferate and start producing
Drug-induced dysbiosis is the most difficult this neurotoxin, it can cause death in a matter of
to treat. However, there are other factors in our hours.
modern world that can damage gut flora including Yet we all have them in our digestive sys-
the modern junk food diet, prolonged periods of tems. Healthy people have plenty of clostridia
stress, infections, travel diarrhea, salmonella, living in their digestive tracts, but as long as they
typhoid, cholera, radiation and other environ- are kept in check by the beneficial flora, they do
mental influences. In all those situations it is very us no harm. Only when the beneficial flora get
important to take good quality probiotics in order wiped out do these creatures start causing trouble,
to replace the beneficial bacteria in the digestive damaging the digestive tract and producing their
tract. neurotoxins.
Sulfate-reducing bacteria comprise another
WHEN GUT BACTERIA GO BAD very large group of bacteria. These bacteria like
In patients with gut dysbiosis, the most to eat sulfur, a ubiquitous mineral in our bodies.
commonly present pathogenic type of microbe Sulfur is essential for hundreds and hundreds
is the ubiquitous candida species. This is a large of biochemical reactions, the most important of
family of yeast with about 200 different species which is detoxification. In order for your liver
known to science. As long as your body is pro- to deal with any toxin that gets in your body, it
tected by beneficial microbes, candida and other needs lots of sulfur. However, an overgrowth of
yeasts remain in the single-cell form and cannot sulfate reducing bacteria will eat all the sulfur
cause harm. But if your body is not protected and leave the body deficient.
by beneficial flora, these yeasts can settle on Autistic children are commonly severe-
your mucous membranes and change into their ly deficient in sulfur, not only because the
secondary state, which is a long stringy micelle. sulfate-reducing bacteria consume it but also
These can be several feet long, growing through because the body overuses it in dealing with all

Wise Traditions 69