Do you know what biofilm is?
If you’ve ever had plaque on your teeth or slipped on a slimy river rock, you’ve seen it before.
But inside the body, biofilm gets our gut health into, quite literally, a sticky situation.
If you’re eating the standard American diet of refined sugar, processed oils and carbs, chances are you’ve created a nice little environment for biofilm to develop.
You see, this diet that is has zero nutrients and is chock-full of inflammatory ingredients wreaks havoc on the delicate mucus layer of our stomach and intestines. This creates the ideal setting for different types of bacteria, fungi and even parasites to set up shop. Think of biofilm as the “brick-and-mortar” that’s needed to build homes, stores, communities- a fortress! That’s exactly what these bad bugs create in a wet environment.
Harmful microorganisms excrete a sticky, mucous like substance that is made up of sugars, proteins, and genetic material (nerd term: extracellular polymeric substance or EPS) that is resistant to anti-microbials. Biofilm also serves as a protective environment that steals nutrients, minerals, and heavy metals from our system, and allows these little jerks to communicate and proliferate within it to spread. Smart little suckers, aren’t they?
But don’t worry, there are powerful enzymes out there that are able to penetrate biofilm and disrupt their function. If you are struggling with digestive issues, you may need to look into biofilm disruptors before you try to eliminate bacterial or fungal overgrowth. It's also important to know that when these biofilms are being disrupted, heavy metals and other die-off effects can cause detox reactions, so it’s important to properly escort this material out of your system during elimination. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was biofilm, so slow and steady wins the race.
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