In the last article we covered what the microbiome is, a colony of trillions of bacteria in our colon, and how it affects every aspect of our health, our hormones, our longevity and the ability to build muscle and stay fit.

These bacteria also produce or help to produce neurotransmitters in our body, such as Serotonin and GABA, which calm and relax us, de-stress us and allow us to fall asleep.

In this article we’re going to cover how the number of toxins coming into our body, which increases every year, affects these bacteria.

We’ve touched on how toxins affect our digestive tract and microbiome, and also how they lead to Leaky Gut and to our immune system mistaking healthy cells for harmful microbes that must be destroyed.

They cause an inflammatory response, both in our digestive tract and throughout our body over time.

They affect our hormones, energy levels, and mental focus. They make losing body fat and building muscle much harder due to increased cortisol levels.

And they speed the aging process, both internally and in our skin and overall appearance.

But now we’re going to dive deeper. And to give a real idea of how this works we're going to look at how one toxin, Glyphosate, affects us.

Glyphosate is the key ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, which is used on most major crops today.

This is a real problem, because it's one of the most toxic substances there is.

And due to its widespread use, it’s in almost all processed foods and non-organic meats.

And it plays a very large roll in the destruction of our digestive tract, microbiome and overall health, leading to Leaky Gut and some of the worst physical conditions there are.

So let’s dive in and see how this actually affects us and what we can do.

Did you know that the official measurement of what is considered to be normal testosterone levels has been lowered? 

It has. And this was done because the majority of men no longer fall into the earlier acceptable ranges. 

Their testosterone levels are too low. 

Why is this? What's happening? And why would they choose to lower the acceptable levels instead of addressing why they are lowering?

In this article we talk about what testosterone does in the body, largely from the view of its anti-aging effects, how lowering testosterone levels, not just in the elderly, speeds up our biological aging, and what is causing this.

Did you know that when Estrogen levels rise too high, it can unbalance other hormones? And this significantly impacts body fat gain and loss?

We've covered several hormones now, from Insulin and Cortisol causing fat gain and preventing fat loss, to Growth Hormone and IGF, the hormones that come out while we sleep and which are largely responsible for fat loss.

We cover all of these because they all work together, each influencing the other, and if we want sustainable fat loss, we need to address each one.

But high Estrogen also plays a large role in all of this in both women and men, building excess body fat and lowering testosterone and growth hormone.

It also lowers thyroid, a hormone that regulates our metabolism, which in turn regulates body fat and energy levels.

And it lowers progesterone in women and men, a calming, fat-burning, testosterone-building hormone.

All of this leads to excess body fat, decreased muscle mass, worsened mood, higher stress levels, slower recoveries, and lower energy.

So let's see what's actually happening here, what causes this, and what we can do about it.

We’ve all heard of candida, also known as a yeast overgrowth or thrush.

It’s a fungus that lives in the mouth, vagina, stomach and skin, and is usually harmless and kept in check with a healthy diet.

But when it becomes unbalanced, it can multiply uncontrollably, affecting many areas of the body and causing:

Stomach bloating, especially right after eating. This can feel like food is swishing around in our stomach instead of moving through.

It can occur in the mouth, causing creamy white patches or sores in the mouth or throat, redness, painful cracks at the corners of the mouth, loss of taste, or pain when eating or swallowing.

It can cause itching, soreness or burning in the vagina, white or yellow discharge, and stinging or burning when urinating.

It can affect our skin, causing a red rash with small, raised bumps (pustules), intense itching, a burning sensation, or a rash in skin folds.

And it can also spread to our heart, brain, eyes, bones, or joints, affecting us in various ways, noticeably in our energy levels or inflammatory response.

In short, it causes us real problems, both now, and even more in the long term. And they can be quite uncomfortable.

And, because of the currently available foods in the US, which are almost tailor-made to feed it, most of us have candida to one degree or another today, often without knowing it and without realizing that certain conditions are caused by it.

So let’s dive in and see what's happening here.

Our body's ability to relax, de-stress, recover, and sleep deeply is heavily determined by one area of our body overlooked more often than almost any other — our Microbiome.

This colony of trillions of bacteria living in our large intestine helps produce the calming, relaxing, cortisol-lowering, and sleep-giving neurotransmitters GABA and serotonin.

These bacteria have more to do with our overall health, calmness of mind, nerve function, ability to sleep, ability to burn fat and build muscle, and even our hormones than you might think.

This colony, made up of about 500 different species of bacteria, is called the Microbiome.

But these bacteria, while being fully separate from us, act as if they were an organ unto themselves within our bodies. And what they do, amongst each other and in coordination with the cells in the lining of our colon, is truly extraordinary.

Aging is a natural process.

Over time, as the stem cells we're born with become used up, our body is less and less able to regenerate itself.

But then there is premature aging, where this process happens years or decades before it should. And while this is definitely not natural, unfortunately, it’s becoming more and more common.

In this article we're going to cover exactly what is happening to our cells, what is doing this, how this affects aging and what we can do to prevent it.

There is something that accelerates aging by destroying our cells so that our stem cells are needed to produce new cells more often than they should, thus accelerating our biological aging process and making us “old” before our time.

And Leaky Gut is one of the largest causes behind it.

There is an idea that if we have GERD, Heartburn or Acid Reflux, this means we have too much stomach acid.

Due to this, many people take stomach acid neutralizers or acid blockers, known as PPIs, to make their stomach less acidic and calm it down.

However, these only give a temporary solution, and in the long term actually make the problem worse.

This is because it’s not high levels of stomach acid that cause acid reflux and GERD, but the exact opposite — too little stomach acid.

This is an example of only addressing the symptom instead of the cause, allowing the cause to continue on, slowly worsening over time.

This lessened stomach acid leads to foods, especially proteins, not being fully broken down into a form our bodies can use. So we don’t get the nutrients we need, no matter how much we eat.

And, harmful bacteria are allowed to take root in our stomach and intestines, raising cortisol levels, lowering energy levels, stealing nutrients needed by the cells, preventing muscle gain, causing sugar cravings and more.

And, of course, we get GERD, Acid Reflux, Gas and Bloating.

So lets see what’s happening here.

In another article we covered what SIBO is, how it comes about, what feeds it, and how it creates cravings for sugar and other junk foods, preventing fat loss and causing low energy levels.

But there is another aspect to SIBO which has more destructive and far-reaching effects.

There is something called Leaky Gut, where there are actual microscopic perforations in the intestinal lining that is meant to protect our internal organs from the harmful bacteria, parasites and toxins coming in through our digestive tract.

And it's behind a significant number of physical conditions common today, from hormonal imbalances, stress and poor sleep, to liver and kidney trouble, heart trouble, skin issues and even premature aging.

So let's see what it is and what SIBO has to do with it.

Welcome to the Gut Health Guide, Protocol & 30-Day Challenge!

Our gut is one of the most important aspects of our health.

If our gut is generally healthy, so are we. If our gut is not healthy, then neither are we. It really is that simple.

But about two thirds of Americans are living with gut issues.

Acid reflux, heart burn, and Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Gas and bloating, causing a protruding stomach that can’t be “exercised off.”

Leaky Gut, SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth), Candida, H. Pylori and C. Diff.

Gluten reactions.

An imbalanced microbiome causing higher stress levels, poor energy, and much more.

If we want the healthiest body we can have, with high energy levels, an easy time maintaining our figure, healthier skin, a calmer mood, hormonal balance, lean muscle, and good sleep — then we need to take control of our gut.

This is the second article in the Autoimmune Series.

In the last article we covered what autoimmune conditions are and what they’re actually doing in the body. But in this article we’re going to cover how they come about.

What actually causes them.

And it starts in the gut, our first defense against illness.

Inside every cell of your body, millions of biochemical reactions are happening every second.

And one of the most important — and least understood by most people — is a process called methylation.

It’s not something we always feel directly if it’s happening properly. But it quietly governs almost every aspect of health, from energy creation to hormones, mood, cortisol levels, detoxification, DNA repair and even how efficiently we burn or store fat.

And if it’s not functioning properly, then we do feel it, often not knowing what it is.

When methylation runs smoothly, we feel alert, resilient, and focused.

When it falters, everything from mood to metabolism can begin to break down.

So understanding exactly what this system is and how it works — and supporting it properly — is very important.

Let’s dive in.