Balanced Existence

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Penicillin and other antibiotics are in fact mycotoxins. At the time I found out I was surprised to learn that alcohol is also a mycotoxin. You may be wondering what a mycotoxin is and where does it come from? Penicillium is actually a mold found commonly in soil and many fruits. It is fungi such as molds and yeast that excrete substances called mucotoxins. They are chemicals fungi produce to kill or limit the growth of other organisms, such as bacteria, that compete with fungi for nutrients.

So why would a doctor give you a mycotoxin when you’re sick? The mycotoxin that we know as an antibiotic kills off the bad bacteria infection that is the cause of your illness. However, antibiotics also indiscriminately kill off the good bacteria in your digestive tract.

A certain amount of good bacteria in your digestive system is necessary for good health. We actually live in a symbiotic relationship with this good bacteria. They do a lot that helps keep us alive and we in turn provide them with a nice place to live. You don’t need to be a genius to understand that upsetting a delicate natural balance is going to have consequences. Bad ones.

What the Good Bacteria Does for You
The question really should be what doesn’t good bacteria do? For starters it helps you digest and absorb food. It goes without saying that absorption of nutrition is pretty damn important. I often like to point out that 2 million red blood cells alone die and must be replaced each and every second. The quality of the new cells depends on the quality of the nutrition your putting in your mouth and only then if your body is capable of absorbing that nutrition.

Friendly bacteria are vital to proper development of the immune system. Even in nature it is in a sense a nasty world out there. There is a host of critters just waiting to break you down for recycling. Without a properly developed and functioning immune system you my friend are toast. There are of course the many wonders of invasive horrendous side effect causing modern medicine that can prop you up and keep you going like a walking talking zombie. I’d much rather do it the old fashioned way personally.

“The ultimate attainment is great balance as a human being.”

– Author Unknown, Ming dynasty

A Loss of Balance
Balanced Existence is all about balance. Balance is a delicate and ever shifting thing. This is because life is not static. Environmental forces exert novel pressures on us and we must sway to the music. Don’t bend and you’ll break. Microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi are at constant war with each other. In a healthy human body they each work to keep each other in check. Homeostasis (balance) is thus achieved.

Taking an antibiotic without taking a quality probiotic afterward will kill all the bacteria leaving a host body (that means you!) free of competition. The fungi spread unchecked. In the wilds of nature when there is no competition to keep numbers down things tend to get out of hand. When they do, and they have if you’ve taken antibiotics without taking a quality probiotic afterward, you’re going to have health problems.

It Gets Worse Before it Gets Better
There are other things that kill the good bacteria in your gut besides antibiotics. The chlorine in your drinking water has been put there to kill bacteria. Just like antibiotics this is simultaneously both a good and bad thing. Good because you don’t get sick from drinking bad water out of the tap. Bad because you’ll get sick from drinking water out of the tap. This is why I recommend you use an effective water filter for your tap water.

Regular commercial farming administers antibiotics to animals such as chickens and cows to keep disease down. When you eat these animals and drink their milk there is a chance that you’re also taking in these antibiotics.

Even more stunning are the findings of a study carried out in 1968 by a man named Bock. It was found that fresh cut tobacco leaves did not induce cancer, but cured tobacco did induce cancer! The tobacco curing process while proprietary to the tobacco companies is purported to add yeast and sugars to the tobacco.

Finally, health conscious people using enemas and colonics for detoxification purposes are likely washing some of the good bacteria out of their system. For those who enjoy alcohol you should know that alcohol directly kills good bacteria. In the case of beer and wine there is the double whammy of yeast (a type of fungi) coming in with the alcohol while the bacteria that will help keep it in check is killed off.

What You Can Do About It
There is a lot you can do and I know from personal experience that it works. This is really a whole article in itself. I personally only drink filtered water, take a good probiotic, suggest you moderate your alcohol consumption and daily eat food that naturally contains good bacteria such as organic sugar free yogurt.

You can read an article I wrote detailing my experience with overcoming a long term fungus infection that caused years of debilitating migraines and poor health. The solution beyond what I’ve mentioned above is primarily a period of restricted diet. I talk about exactly what the diet is in the article here.

Also if there is interest over the course of the coming weeks we will take a look at how rampant fungi has been implicated in a broad range of health problems including arthritis, migraines, chronic fatigue, intestinal disorders, inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn’s disease, asthma, depression, skin disorders, heart disease, allergies and even cancer.

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