Foundational Medicine: If the fish is sick, change the water
In contrast to the Germ Theory that we’ve all been taught, Terrain Theory focuses less on the germs as the cause of disease and more on our body’s reaction to them. The terrain, or environment, of our bodies, plays a huge role in how healthy we are and how susceptible we are to illness.
If we are going to embrace the Foundational Medicine model, understanding this concept of terrain is vitally important. I want to introduce you to a new term that helps this whole theory come to life: pleomorphism. Once this concept makes sense to you, you’ll never look at the human body the same way again.
Why is it that so many people with dysbiosis and more complex gut issues like Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO), or Clostridium difficile (C. diff) really struggle to “eradicate” the bugs and get over these conditions?
SIBO was a very common issue that I saw in my private practice. My clients and I worked together, in conjunction with their provider, to provide a multifaceted approach with targeted antibiotics, supportive supplementation, and super restrictive dietary protocols to “kill” the bad bugs that migrated up from the colon to the small intestine, where they don’t belong. Even with the most compliant person following the protocols to the letter, it was very common to retest and still see little improvement. So they’d go through another round, and another round. It was frustrating, isolating, and kind of depressing after a while.
Why are SIBO and some of these other bugs so hard to get rid of? What are we missing in conventional and even most functional treatment?
I believe that it has to do with pleomorphism. Pleomorphism is defined as the ability of some bacteria to alter their shape or size in response to environmental conditions, and the key to understanding true healing lies in this concept–that bacteria can morph or change their shape, form, biological functions, or reproductive modes based on the TERRAIN in which they reside.
Are you following?
In our modern world, we are bombarded with environmental toxins. From the glyphosate and other pesticides on our foods to the chemicals in our personal care products, to the industrial pollutants in our air and water supply, and so many more. Our bodies are working overtime just trying to keep us safe from toxicities that hit us from every side, and this is the biggest reason why we see bacteria pleomorph into pathogenic forms and grow out of control, making them super difficult to overcome. The other reason has to do with the presence of parasites in our bodies, which also thrive in a “polluted” host. There are poisons in the body that don’t belong, things that the body identifies as toxic, and the pathogenic bacteria pleomorph in an attempt to break them down and get rid of them.
Think about a healthy gut microbiome, where we ideally should see about an 80/20 ratio of good and bad bacteria. What are some of the “bad bacteria” that should reside in a normal, healthy gut? H. pylori, C. diff, E. coli… these strains that we tend to think of as pathogenic and extremely troublesome when they overgrow or migrate into the small intestine where they don’t belong. These are perfectly normal strains of bacteria in a healthy person and they don’t simply pleomorph into a harmful variety for the fun of it. These bacteria shift and change functions in response to the terrain in which they reside. Poisons like glyphosate, pesticides, radio-active elements, etc. build up in the body and the bacteria change into a more pathogenic form in an effort to boost detoxification and clean house.
It’s truly fascinating when you start to think about Foundational Medicine from this perspective because you begin to understand that if you remove the toxins that are polluting the environment or terrain, get rid of the parasites that are feeding on and storing up these toxins, and you begin to see the pathogenic forms of bacteria subside. You see healing on a whole different level.
You begin taking care of your body in an entirely different way.