Chronic Bacteria, Is it affecting you? How you can heal.

A messy subject, for sure! But one worth considering if you are suffering any form of chronic illness. Those who are suffering chronic fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome, recurrent sinusitis or infections (UTIs, ear infections, etc) most likely are harbouring a reservoir of chronic bacteria in their bodies. You may feel like you’ve tried everything to heal, and for some reason keep having relapses. You may notice that you are suffering the same type of illness / infection recurrently, especially when you are stressed or run down. To understand why this is happening, we need to look at how bacteria works.

Bacteria can be planktonic (swimming freely as single cell entities) or can be grouped together in a protective layer called a ‘biofilm’. This biofilm protects those cells from injury or death, helps it to hide from our immune system, and responds only transiently to antibiotics. The remaining cells that survive in the biofilm layer contain subpopulations of bacteria in different stages of their life cycle. Already this can make them more illusive to antibiotics.

When those remaining biofilm bacteria regroup (and often when you are stressed or run down), they can come back 1000 times stronger and express a different set of genes. Amazingly, those bacteria form a ‘collective’ biofilm and develop the ability to work together to protect themselves. This leads to antibiotic resistance, stealth behaviour (can evade blood tests), and the bacteria cells all the while becoming smarter and smarter.

So, this isn’t a horror story and there is no need to be scared. It does, however, highlight the essential role that natural medicine plays in the management and prevention of recurrent infection.

What can be done to heal chronic infection? Repeat antibiotics may reduce the infection, but as we can see the bacteria will return smarter each time. There are strategic healing plans your Naturopath can administer which utilise natural medicines to:

Weaken this biofilm layer prior to administering antibiotics / herbal antibiotics.

Clean up the debris and toxins that result from the dying bacteria

Nourish the gut and strengthen mucous membranes to make your body resistant to the return of this bacteria

I certainly am not ‘anti’ antibiotics, and there is a time and place for these modern drugs. However there is so much more that can be, and must be done in order to heal properly. Herbal medicines have a number of essential healing abilities as we can see, whereas the only function of antibiotics is to kill susceptible bacteria.

I strongly recommend anyone who suffers repeat infections such as sinusitis, urinary tract infections, unexplained bloating or bowel issues, or autoimmune / chronic fatigue conditions to come in for treatment prior to the cooler months. As someone who has recovered from chronic illness, I can assist in many ways to navigate your road to health.