You can exercise a little during the day, to keep you and your prostate gland in shape. Or you can exercise at night, as you run to the bathroom to pee.

The number of bacteria  in you, exceeds the number of  YOU cells, by a factor of 10 to 1.  Exactly who is there matters,  your gut flora impacts your body chemistry……

But what determines who is there ?

Understanding this is imperative if you want to cultivate the “RIGHT” microflora.

So what do we know ?

Knock, knock…

Who is there ?

By peering into the faecal samples of lots and lots of individuals, both human and animal,  scientists have compiled a long list of factors which influence who takes up residence.

The current list includes

• your genes   
• your first friends
• who you feed i.e. your diet
• who is exterminated along the way
• your overall stress levels

PLUS ?  ?  ?  ?

So if we want to summarize the finding……………..EVERYTHING.

But what happens over time ?

This is the question a group of MIT researchers explored.

Diving deep into the gut

The research team persuaded, two very methodical gentlemen, to allow them to spy on the goings on of their gut flora, for a period of a year.

Each day, the men provided the team with a faecal and saliva sample, which was used to analyse which bacteria were present.   This was the EASY part, in addition to providing the biological sample, the men documented the minute details of their lives via an iOS app.

The app required inputs on

• overall health/ailments
• bowel movements
• diet
• exercise
• fitness
• location
• medication
• mood
• oral hygiene
• sleep
• urination
• vitamin intake

Now you know why they had to pick methodical individuals…..

So what did they find ?

The ups and downs of gut living

10 124 measurements later…. two big findings emerged

Finding # 1

Who you are, determines who shows up.  The two gentlemen had completely different sets of bugs living in their guts.

Finding # 2

Who shows up, doesn’t change much from day to day.

The small changes that happen from day to day, mirror how much fibre has been munched in the preceding 24 hours.  So eat those vegetables.

Sleep, exercise and mood – don’t stir things up much.

But, significant events MATTER.

A significant event or two..

Both gentlemen experienced a significant event.

Gentlemen A moved from an American city to a South East Asian city, for a period of 51 days slap bang in the middle of his year. This move saw a big change in his gut flora.  It seems, he acquired a whole bunch of local residents, but when he returned back home, his new friends chose not to join him.  His gut flora returned to NORMAL.

Gentlemen B was not quite so lucky.

He stayed home and ate a meal that was “contaminated”, this unfortunate meal caused him to suffer a serious bout of FOOD POISONING.  The pathogen that caused all the trouble, was identified as Salmonella.

The unpleasantness lasted…

10 days on the outside.   Forever, on the inside.

The team found that the gut flora never quite went back to NORMAL.  A new NORMAL emerged.

NOTE : No antibiotics were used during the entire unfortunate process.

The state of NORMAL

Is what ultimately impacts your health.

Good NORMAL sees you thrive.  Bad NORMAL, can pack on the pounds and contribute to metabolic upsets.

Something as “insignificant” as a seriously upset stomach – can shift the balance.   So, you want to do what you can to keep the GOOD guys alive and kicking in your gut.

Further reading

Interested in learning more about how your bugs impact your health ?

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