How does the Gut Microbiome really affect our health? ? Ample

How does the Gut Microbiome really affect our health?

When I was in graduate school, I was working 3 teaching positions, running a clinical study, fulfilling my research data collection and analysis, studying for a Qualifying Exam, which would basically determine whether I became a PhD candidate or not, AND on top of that, training intensively for a marathon. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was creating some major fluctuations in my microbiome, and not for the better.

Likely due to a combo of the above stressful events, little sleep, and ironically enough, poor nutrition, I developed an overgrowth of a bacteria called Helicobacter Pylori (it’s actually a common bacteria to have (1), and usually doesn’t show symptoms unless there’s an imbalance in beneficial to unhealthy bacteria). Because of my lack of time, I frequently grabbed food on the go, and these food choices weren’t always the healthiest. Combined with chronic stress, it was the perfect environment for the proliferation of unhealthy bacteria. For this H. Pylori overgrowth, I had to take a strong dose of two different antibiotics for 2 weeks. I did this round TWICE. Needless to…