Every single one of the 8 foundational natural healers—nutrition, exercise, water, sunlight, moderation, fresh air, rest, and trust in divine power—are laser-focused on the elimination of toxins from the body. Toxicity—physical, emotional, or spiritual toxicity—is the #1 enemy of a healthy you and me. This isn’t only because it poisons our organs, tissues, and cells. It is also, even more importantly, because it poisons our symbiots—the microbes in our microbiome.
Let me explain.
What Is the Microbiome?
Once upon a time we believed that the human body was sterile, that the goal of good health was to keep the bugs and germs away. Yet we have been stunned by how mistaken we were as the truth of the human microbiome has emerged since the beginning of the century. The human body is teeming with life, occupied by trillions of microbes that have even been found in what we thought were the most sterile of places, like the brain.
Sayer Ji paints a picture of just how extensive our microbiome is:
“The human genome, after all, contains approximately 23,000 protein-coding genes, while the human microbiome contributes about 4,200,000 such genes. And this, of course, is still using the outdated metric of comparing the number of protein-coding genes to protein-coding genes; the vast swaths of information-containing nucleotides, such as non-coding RNA molecules, and transposable genetic elements, contributed by the trillions of bacteria and viruses, together exert far more influence via epigenetic mechanisms than the primary sequences in our DNA…The point, of course, is to humble ourselves to the realization that we are more “germ” than “human” as far as both the number, and genetic capabilities, of these microbes.”
Though it only weighs 3-5 pounds, the microbiome encompasses an incomprehensible host of microbial microorganisms that make up 99.9 percent of our genetic material and is significantly responsible for our health and survival.
The Amazing Task of a Microbiome and Its Microbes
We couldn’t survive without the microbes in our microbiome. These bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa are synergistically niched throughout our bodies and dramatically enhance our metabolism, detoxification, and immunity. They help us, among other things, synthesize vitamins, inhibit pathogens, build neurotransmitters, and maintain the critical balance between containment and absorption in our gut.
Here is just one example of how much we rely on our microbiome from Sayer Ji’s book, Regenerate:
“The human genome contains an informational blueprint capable of producing a mere 17 carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAzymes), a small armament developed…to help us digest terrestrial plants. The average human microbiome far outpaces our own carbohydrate-digesting ability, containing as many as 16,000 different CAzymes. In other words, our microbiome is a treasure trove of carbohydrate-digesting enzymes, allowing us additional biosynthetic pathways to process new food supplies.”
Our microbiome not only helps us to survive, but also to thrive by giving us the indispensable ability to adapt to the demands and changes in our environment.
What Threatens Our Microbiome Threatens Us
Stress, chemicals, manmade toxins, pharmaceutical drugs, antibiotics, poor nutrition, and EMF pollution destroy this diverse community that was designed to protect us, throwing the door wide-open to sickness. Though drugs have their place, often saving a person with a ravaged microbiome, it still remains that true foundational health can only be realized and maintained by nurturing good microbial soil.
A Sauerkraut Object Lesson
One of the best ways to understand what is happening inside of us is to make sauerkraut. Once the friendly bacteria take over in the process no “harmful” bacteria can get a foothold. I have had sauerkraut sitting at room temperature on my kitchen deck for months and months without going bad. If you transpose this to our gut, then the only way “harmful” microbes can hurt us is if we neglect and poison the friendly microbes that maintain our homeostasis.
Yet, even then, it’s not about keeping the “harmful” microbes out, because they are always with us. Truth is, even “harmful” microbes have an important job to do in our world: scavenging, decomposing, and recycling. We coexist with these “harmful” organisms all the time. Without their contribution our world would become an uninhabitable sewer.
Drain the Swamp!
Our only safety, then, is living in such a way that our body habitat—our soil—is kept non-toxic and balanced. This supports the organisms in our microbiome that are critically responsible for homeostasis in our body terrain, enabling them to sustain dynamic health without any outside help from the likes of antibiotics or vaccines. When our microbial communities are happy and healthy, then our body won’t become a toxic swamp. A swamp is only thing that would attract the “harmful” microbes, who would naturally think they have a job to do: scavenging and decomposing our bodies. Drain the swamp and—voilà!—those virulent, pathogenic microbes that we’ve always imagined only existed to destroy us will leave us alone.
It is not wise, then, to malign any microorganism, fearing and eradicating some while venerating others. Antibiotics, antimicrobials, prescription drugs, and chemicals such as chlorine and fluorine weaken our system by indiscriminately targeting both commensal and hostile microbes. A healthy world needs both.
The 8 Foundational Natural Healers to the Rescue
So we come back to the beginning: a large part of the reason why the 8 foundational natural healers are so effective at supporting us and our microbiome is because they do such a great job of eliminating toxicity:
1) Nutrition: what we ingest is a big player in keeping the toxins low in our microbiome. Eat whole foods grown in healthy soil and stay away from processed foods, drugs, and antibiotics.
2) Exercise increases the body’s ability to eliminate toxins while also boosting the distribution of life-staining oxygen and nutrition.
3) Water: internal and external use of pure water washes toxins from the body and supports optimal metabolism.
4) Sunlight: the heat of the sun makes us sweat out toxins and elevates our mood, cleansing us from emotional toxicity.
5) Balance decreases emotional toxicity by reducing stress and increasing harmony and peace.
6) Fresh air is one of the biggest eliminators of toxins in the body. It does this by revitalizing cell metabolism, enhancing immune function, purifying the blood, promoting deep sleep, improving lung function, and decreasing anxiety.
7) Rest increases the cells ability to function and throw off toxins as well as decreasing emotional toxicity.
8) Trust in divine power decreases spiritual and emotional toxicity in a big way.
Vibrant, foundational health does not need to be propped up, even in this dangerous world. It’s the real deal and can only be built from the ground up. There are no shortcuts. Transformative health is built—cell by cell—in the soil of our microbiome by engaging time-honored organic healers in a primal, nontoxic dance of life.