Chances are you’ve heard a lot about your gut microbiome lately. Did you know that our bodies are made up of 10 times more bacteria than human cells? And even more astonishing is that their genes outnumber our genes 150:1. Those genes are producing enzymes, compounds, and messenger molecules that profoundly affect our health. And these bacteria are quite brilliant. They communicate with each other and have all the elements of conscious life.
The microbiome is the complex ecosystem of healing bacteria within your gut that regulates your gastrointestinal system, your brain, your immune system, your endocrine system and more. By understanding bacteria and the microbiome and how they heal, we can harness their power to heal a wide variety of symptoms and actually treat many diseases. We now recognize the important role that the microbiome plays, not just in gut health, but in fatigue, metabolism, anxiety, brain fog, depression, cognitive function, autoimmune disorders such as Hashimoto’s and Parkinson’s, digestion, and more. I have seen the success of this approach in my own clinic – and on the faces of thousands of happy, symptom-free patients I’ve treated.
Quite simply, the power of the microbiome is the greatest discovery in modern medicine. Because it’s so complex, it’s become a field unto itself which I coined “Microbiome Medicine.”
The amazing thing about “Microbiome Medicine” is that we’re now able to treat the countless millions who have ambiguous diagnoses, people who just don’t “feel right” or who have been to doctors who have told them that they’re fine – but know that something is off. When we heal the microbiome, suddenly everything improves. It doesn’t really matter what the original diagnosis was or wasn’t. This is true healing, at the deepest level.
Microbiome Medicine Protocol
Microbiome medicine is not just about adding probiotics. In fact, there are many steps needed to truly heal your microbiome.
- Add targeted probiotics (specific bacterial strains that your microbiome needs to flourish)
- Add pre-biotics (both in diet, through fermented and other kinds of foods)
- Add certain compounds that bacteria produce
- Remove the many microbiome disruptors from our diets
- Eliminate as many microbiome disruptors from our environment as possible (including certain medications, chemicals, etc.)
- Incorporate technology-based treatment therapies to significantly improve your compromised electromagnetic fields
- Understand your stressors, particularly “Adverse Childhood Experiences” (ACE’s) and how to manage stress.
The concept of epigenetics, or a genetic doomsday (how to bypass your genetic weaknesses – a concept that’s very much in vogue), is now completely dispelled by Microbiome Medicine. In fact, just the opposite is true. Because of Microbiome Medicine we actually have genetic freedom. We have the ability to turn certain genes on and off with certain nutrients, compounds, even our state of being. Bacteria in the microbiome are like keys on a piano – anyone can play a few notes, but knowing which keys turn on certain anti-inflammatory genes (and which keys turn off those inflammatory ones) – that’s Microbiome Medicine. With that knowledge, we can reverse cellular organ dysfunction, system dysfunction and disease.
Yours in Health,
Raphael Kellman MD
Founder of Microbiome Medicine
Author, The Microbiome Breakthrough
Medical Director, Kellman Center for Integrative and Functional Medicine