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Welcome to my blog about health, nursing, caring, kindness and positive change. Our world is full of such negative influences and bad choices, today is the day to make a positive change both physically and mentally in your life.
ERNursesCare is a blog incorporating my nearly 30 years of experience in the healthcare field with my passion for helping others, I want it to encourage others with injury prevention, healthy living, hard hitting choices, hot topics and various ramblings from my unique sense of humor. Come along and enjoy your journey......

Monday, July 6, 2015

The Guide To Good Bacteria: Trillions of Friends

 

Good bacteria you ask? How can bacteria be good? You have trillions of good bacteria living inside right now, they help keep you well.

With over 100 trillion bacteria in our bodies we need all the good bacteria we can get. 80% of our immune system is in our gut, we need to have a healthy balance of good bacteria for it to fight off the bad.

 

I recently had a first hand experience that taught me a most valuable lesson about the relationship between my immune system and the good bacteria that lives within me.
Back in January of 2015 I developed a stubborn dental infection that required a stronger antibiotic by mouth for 10 days. After taking this medication I developed some gastrointestinal distress and general feelings of "something was just not right". As a nurse I am very in-tuned to my own body and health so I realized that the antibiotics I had been taking most likely had just wiped out the good bacteria in my gut and the bad bacteria were possibly taking over.
Several weeks went by and my GI issues just got worse, diarrhea, weight loss (15 pounds) nausea, dizziness and just feeling bad all the time. So finally I went to the doctor (nurses are so stubborn), I was diagnosed with C-diff (Clostridium Difficile) a very serious infection of the gi tract that is very difficult to get rid of.

After weeks/months of medications, diet changes and finally a natural medicine/essential oils regimen I was able to get rid of the nasty bug and get well again. Now I tell every patient that I give an antibiotic prescription to get a probiotic and take it every single day. Probiotics will keep the good bacteria in check and healthy, so that your gut can help keep you well.

 

 

 

13 comments:

  1. Love the infographic, Leslie! I take probiotics every day and increase them if I ever have to be on antibiotics. Yogurt is good,too, but I'm not a fan.

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  2. I take probiotics daily. Loved infographic and reading your post. It reminds me of an image I always get when sick, mostly with an upper respiratory. I feel like I have 2 armies inside fighting and it really feels that way. First few days the bad bacteria is winning but then I can feel the good ones rallying and fighting back. I never talk about this for fear, someone will think I'm 'crazy' but I suspect you will know what I mean.

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  3. C-diff doesn't sound like the best way to lose weight. I'm glad you fought it off in the end Leslie. It makes complete sense to use probiotics, but I must admit, I find the whole idea about eating bacteria a little gross. Still, if you think too much about a lot of things - penicillin, even cheese - it can be a bit nasty. Sometimes the more I learn the less I want to know. ;)

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  4. I've taken probiotics for many years now and know all about the importance of good gut health. In fact the gut is really the place where most dis-ease begins. Glad to hear you found your way back to health, as without health, life is indeed much more challenging! As a big believer in fermented foods, it's always great to see people sharing how good yogurt and kefir are to improve gut health too! Thanks for the info graphics too!

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  5. Thanks for the informative article, I knew about bad bacteria, but not the need to get probiotics.

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  6. Very informative post. Love that infographic! Thanks for sharing.

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  7. Great graphic post! So much research being done on the critical need for probiotics for gut health. Also enzymes to break down the hard shell of Candida to eliminate. Thanks for the very visual post!

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  8. Great read and glad you are feeling better. Crazy how we are carrying what we need and stuff we don't want/need all in us. Stubborn nurse, glad you went to the doc! ;)

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  9. I am very sensitive to antibiotics and try not to take them but sometimes there just isn't a choice. I am a huge believer in probiotics and know what a difference they make. Great info...thanks for sharing!

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  10. Good bacteria...yes! So important for great gut health. And I'm especially that dark chocolate makes the "good for you" list. I'm a huge fan!

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