Adam’s Journal
A friend’s toddler recently had some long-lasting gastrointestinal trouble. His pediatrician ordered a stool sample to rule out foodborne illness.
Although he didn’t have a bacterial infection, the results showed that some of the beneficial bacteria in his gut were either missing or significantly reduced. How does this happen? And how do you fix it?
Dr. Scofield Prescribes
We each generally think of ourselves as an “I.” But in reality, everyone is a “we.”
Although our bodies are made up of 10 trillion or so human cells, we play host to roughly 10 times that number of microbes. These 100 trillion microorganisms live on our skin, in our mouths and deep within our digestive tracts.
Although we often conceive of microorganisms – germs – as bad, the vast majority of them are not. Most fall into two categories: harmless freeloaders and symbiotic organisms that derive some benefit from us but also do something helpful in return.
But when a third category of microbes – pathogens like viruses or certain bacteria – enter our body, they reproduce quickly. When they do, a sort of housing crisis occurs, with the new arrivals pushing the current residents out.
So, one hypothesis would be that your friend’s toddler got sick, and those invaders killed off a lot of his beneficial gut microbes.
It’s also worth noting that antibiotics can kill off gut microbes, which is why it’s important to use them only when they’re absolutely needed. If, for instance, you use them when you have a viral infection, not only do they do no good, but they end up stripping your digestive system of microbes that help you do important things like digest food.
Fortunately, the beneficial microbes that live within our bodies are quite resilient. Studies have found that they tend to repopulate following illness or antibiotic use; it just takes time.
Consuming yogurt with live and active cultures can help repopulate beneficial gut microbes, but these gains are only temporary. While the probiotic bacteria introduced by eating Greek or other yogurt with live and active cultures are unlikely to become permanent residents, they can boost levels of good bacteria until enough time has passed for those gut colonies to recover naturally.
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Dr. Hal Scofield is a physician-scientist at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, and he also serves as Associate Chief of Staff for Research at the Oklahoma City VA Medical Center. Adam Cohen is OMRF’s senior vice president and general counsel. Send your health questions to contact@omrf.org.
