Recently I got a half rotten piece of onion and the soil it grew in, lodged under my thumbnail, and into my bloodstream. 

The next day I had a fever and my thumb was throbbing and swollen. Theday after it was oozing pus. 

Enter antibiotics (BTW you need to look up what a pharmacist’s “GAG ORDER” is - once you mention insurance, the pharmacist is not allowed to tell you about a cheaper rate - it’s against the law). 

“These clauses prohibit pharmacists from voluntarily informing patients that their prescription medication may cost less if paid for directly by them instead of through their insurance.”(Gabay)

Once you start taking antibiotics, (at least usually for me…) the digestion seems to stop dead in it’ tracks. The pill bottle tells me to take with  food to avoid stomach ache, but the antibiotic killing the stomach bacteria is making digestion problematic. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful that this onion isn't going to kill me, though 150 years prior that was totally a possibility, I just think the gut rebuilding process is lacking presently. 

Wouldn’t it stand to reason, that in a culture where antibiotics are so commonly used, that every time you kill off the flora (bacteria) in the body, you should have to do something to replenish or repair?

Shouldn’t antibiotics come with probiotics for when you’re finished with the antibiotics? Pros and Anti’s, pick them up at the same time! 

If you have no idea what I’m talking about  - consider this… you have more cells of bacteria (not you) in your body, than you have cells in your body that ARE your ACTUAL body (you). 

Ursula barth writes: “Bacteria slightly outnumber human cells

To calculate the number of human cells, the team of researchers again used an average man weighing 70 kg. With reference to a recent study from 2013, the researchers calculated that he contains about 3.0 × 1013 (30 trillion) cells.

Hence the number of bacteria only slightly exceeds the number of human cells. Since on average, microorganisms are much smaller than human cells, they make up only a fraction of the body's volume. Overall, in the match between human cells and microorganisms, we therefore have at least a tie.” (Barth)

However Allison Abbot writes: 

“Those numbers are approximate — another person might have half as many or twice as many bacteria, for example” (Abbot)

So there is some disagreement in amounts, but both sides of this conversation acknowledge a massive population of bacteria in the body. 

If you kill off large populations who digest your food for you, what are you supposed to do?

Are meant to have diverse microbiome (gut bacteria) flora? 

Boer Deng writes:

“An isolated American Indian group in the Venezuelan Amazon hosts the most-diverse constellation of microbes ever discovered in humans, researchers reported on 17 April in Science Advances” (Deng)

Antibiotics cuts down on the biodiversity of the digestive tract: 

“The wide adoption of antibiotics, rigorous hygiene and processed diets is thought to have have cut down the genetic diversity of microbiomes in the developed world.” (Deng)

Were there more diverse microbiomes in indigenous/ancient civilization and medical paradigms?

“says Mazmanian[...] “Many people have speculated that ancient microbiomes were much more diverse, [...] With this sequencing, it’s like we have a snapshot going back in microbial time to show it.” (Deng)

Looks like it’s possible. So, anyway, I’m on antibiotics, and my stomach still hurts, now what? While I was on the antibiotics, I would drink kombucha with each meal. What is kombucha? 

“The basic ingredients in kombucha are yeast, sugar, and black tea. The mix is set aside for a week or more” [author note: often with a “starter” or “SCOBY”added to begin the fermentation] “During that time, bacteria and acids form in the drink, as well as a small amount of alcohol. This process is known as fermentation, and it’s similar to how cabbage is preserved as sauerkraut or kimchi, or how milk is turned into yogurt.

“…These bacteria and acids form a film on top of the liquid called a SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast). You can use a SCOBY to ferment more kombucha[...]” (Smith)

So I would drink about 8 oz with each meal, and the little monsters in the glass would digest my meal for me. 
It was like drinking a temporary, rental stomach while mine was dying. 

Believe it or not, it actually made a massive difference. The meals i ate without it were rather nauseating and stagnated. Meals I had with it tended not to stagnate, and make me feel as sick. 

Once I finished the course of anti’s aka antibiotics, I took the pros aka probiotics. 

Within about 2 weeks, it felt like my gut was back to (and a little better) than it was before the antibiotics. 

How about that?! If you’re open to it, being sick is a great (albeit forced) opportunity to learn about the miracle of our bodies and life itself. 

Thanks for reading, please share this with someone who’s help may benefit, if you feel called to do so. 

Works Cited

Abbot, Allison. “Scientists bust myth that our bodies have more bacteria than human cell.” nature.com, 16 June 2023, https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2016.19136. Accessed 5 December 2023.

Barth, Ursula. “Do our bodies contain far more bacteria than human cells?” Eppendorf Handling Solutions, 10 January 2022, https://handling-solutions.eppendorf.com/cell-handling/about-cells-and-culture/detailview/news/do-our-bodies-contain-far-more-bacteria-than-human-cells/. Accessed 5 December 2023.

Deng, Boer. “Bacteria bonanza found in remote Amazon village.” https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2015.17348#citeas, 16 June 2023, https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2015.17348#citeas. Accessed 5 December 2023.

Gabay, Michael. “RxLegal: Pharmacist Gag Clauses - PMC.” NCBI, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6293384/. Accessed 5 December 2023.

Smith, Matt. “Kombucha - Ingredients, Health Benefits, and Risks.” WebMD, https://www.webmd.com/diet/the-truth-about-kombucha. Accessed 5 December 2023.