Beneficial Becterials Can Decline

Fitness | Today's Daily Health
Unfortunately, the levels of beneficial bacteria decline dramatically as the human body ages. Some of the reasons for this decline include:

• Over time, the colonies of friendly bacteria naturally age and lose their vitality.
   
• Disruptions and changes in the acid/alkaline balance of the bowels can play a major role in reducing the growth of beneficial bacteria. In addition, these changes tend to favor the growth of harmful viral and fungal organisms as well as putrefactive, disease-causing bacteria.
   
• Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such Advil, Motrin, Midol, etc., are destructive to intestinal flora.
   
• Chlorine in the drinking water not only serves to kill bacteria in the water, it is equally devastating to the colonies of beneficial bacteria living in the intestines. In fact, drinking even one glass of chlorinated water can destroy much of your intestinal flora.
   
• Radiation and chemotherapy are particularly harmful to your inner bacterial environment.
   
• Virtually all meat, chicken, and dairy that you eat (other than organic) is loaded with antibiotics, which destroy all of the beneficial bacteria in your gastrointestinal tract.
   
• A diet high in meats and fats—because they take so long to break down in the human body—promotes the growth of the harmful, putrefying bacteria.
   
• Constipation, of course, allows harmful bacteria to hang around longer, which allows them to proliferate.
   
• Cigarettes, alcohol, and stress are also major culprits.
   
• Some antibiotic herbs, such as goldenseal, are detrimental if taken in sufficient quantity and/or used too frequently. And colloidal silver presents the same problems.
   
• And if you’ve ever been subjected to a round of "medicinal" antibiotics, you can kiss your beneficial bacteria goodbye. The problem is that antibiotics indiscriminately destroy both bad and good bacteria, allowing virulent, mutant strains of harmful microorganisms to emerge and run rampant inside the body. Antibiotics (both medicinal and in our food supply) are the number one culprit in the overgrowth of harmful pathogens in the gastrointestinal tract (a condition called dysbiosis). And for the same reasons, it is no coincidence that women suffer so many yeast infections after taking any antibiotics.