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Today I am continuing my series on gut health and candida.
I honestly didn’t even plan for this to be a series. I just started writing about something that I’m passionate about–and look what’s happened.
In What is Candida? and Why I Went Sugar Free and 5 Causes of Gut Dysbiosis and My Childhood, I talked about how the following affect gut health:
1. Insufficient Breastfeeding
2. Fake Food
3. Toxins
4. Stress
5. Antibiotics
Today I am sharing one more cause of dysbiosis, and am also busting a common myth about gut health.
The other cause that I forgot to mention in my other post is–The Pill.
Yes, it’s true. Birth control pills cause irritation of the gut lining and can set one up for digestive ailments, including leaky gut and even Chron’s Disease. According to US News, ”If you took oral contraceptives for more than five years, you have a threefold increased risk of Crohn’s disease.”
That’s a big increase.
I’m not a fan of drugs when you can do things naturally.
Looking at the above list, I think the overall lesson here is this: Why mess with what God gave us?
Mess with food and you get problems.
Mess with your hormones and you get problems.
Mess with too many pharmaceuticals and you get problems.
Don’t feed your baby naturally and you get problems.
Now, don’t get me wrong–I know that there are some unavoidable circumstances, and we all need grace for making bad decisions, but I think that, overall, we live in an “I want it now” and “I want it easy” society. People want a pill to fix them and they don’t want to work hard for things, including their health.
I think God set it up so that we have to work hard for some things and we need to learn to rest, and let things work naturally before jumping the gun and getting involved with things that damage our health in the long run.
Now–for the Big Myth About Gut Health:
I always cringe when I hear people say, “I ate Oreos and bologna my whole life and I turned out just fine.”
This typically comes in response to someone saying that it is important to feed kids whole food.
Yes, that adult may have turned out fine.
At least, it seems so.
But hold on for one more cause of dysbiosis:
6. Time.
Problems don’t always show up right away.
And they are passed down through generations.
Those Oreos and Ho Ho’s may not hurt you, but they will likely affect your children.
My grandparents ate some processed foods, but they had a long family history of eating high quality, whole foods to build on.
Then my parents ate more processed food.
A lot more.
Health issues different than what their parents had faced started to surface.
My generation ate TONS of processed foods. White breads, toaster pastries, boxed crackers.
More and more toxins filled our environment.
Our fast-paced society got even faster.
Folks leaned more and more on antibiotics, and “quick fix” meds.
More health issues started showing up. I had horrible allergies, and later, candida and adrenal fatigue.
My sons’ generation faces a whole new challenge. Autism, cancer, and auto-immune diseases are rampant.
With each generation, the onslaughts have been greater and greater.
When a mother gives birth, she can only pass on what she has to give. You can’t give what you don’t have, right?
Moms try to eat healthier when pregnant, right? But you can’t reverse all the damage with 9 months of good eating.
And the weaknesses of the mother are passed on to the children.
Natasha Campbell-McBride’s book, Gut and Psychology Syndrome, brought this “home” for me. McBride talks about how our weaknesses are passed down through generations and prescribes dietary helps.
If you haven’t read her book yet, it’s a real keeper.
I passed my weaknesses on to my son.
I suspect that the next generation is going to be much worse.
What are your thoughts? Have you seen generations worsen in your family?
This post is not meant to diagnose or give medical advise, but it strictly for entertainment. Contact your medical provider before making any changes to your health routine. This post contains affiliate links. Please read my disclaimer.
Yes… I just discovered The Pill was what sent me over the edge. Oh how I wish I had known earlier, but would I have believed it? Possibly no. Now the long road back to health.
I know what you mean. Some of us don’t change until we’re really sick.
Adrienne, I can’t even begin to tell you how much your articles have informed me about gut health. Thank you for writing about candida. You’ve helped me so much. Moreover, the Pill info explains a lot for me. I’ve been on it for 30 years without a break. Yep, I have gut issues. Your blog is the most informative and helpful I’ve subscribed to reading. I have ordered the soap nuts and will also be making my own body wash this weekend. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Thanks for sharing. Means a ton. There is so much more I’d like to write so I feel humbled you’d say that about me. Did you read my post about probiotics? That might be of interest. Hope you like the body wash
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So, do you have SIBO Adrienne? My son has that and it’s been such a heart wrenching ordeal! Just God awful for him trying to treat himself naturally and horrible as a mom to watch him suffer and not be able to make it go away! He’s finally getting a handle on it with all natural healing. Lots of it has been trial and error, but, he’s having more good days than bad days now. If this is what you have, I feel sooooo bad for you!
I don’t know, Linda. Never heard of that. Interesting that I haven’t, I don’t think, with all of the docs we’ve seen. I have adrenal issues and candida. And heavy metals. Not sure about that. How did you get him diagnosed and what are the symptoms?
I’m really enjoying this series Adrienne. I’m going through some disbiosis issues at the moment and I just love how you addressed the issue of the pill (something I was on for years) and the issue of time and your problems affecting your kids. It’s such a good point that my parents and all the generations before at good food so as a generation in general we are blessed with strong digestive and immunity systems (although I don’t think I lucked out!) but we are making poor decisions that are going to set our kids up for life long problems.
I am definitely going to check out that book!
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Hi Gabby! So good to hear from you. It’s all a shame, isn’t it? The book is good. I don’t know about all the points in there but it really make me think. And there was one other thing that was really interesting about iron and bad bacteria.
Hang in there. Are you taking a good probiotic and enzymes and/or HCl? Take care.
I couldn’t agree more with this post. Yes, many people seem to be “fine” eating their processed foods, but *time* will definitely tell as the unhealthy momentum grows. I started reading the book “Deep Nutrition,” which talks about this very thing.
I’d like to read that book. Exactly what I am talking about. Thanks for reminding me.
I simply hate the pill because it can cause abortions and you don’t even know it.
Good article!
A lot of grain can make gut issues worse. Because of the mold and fungus in them. Check out KNOW THE CAUSE!
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I agree with you on that point as well. I’ve heard that grains are an issue b/c of the starch, not the mold, but that’s interesting. There can be mold in all kinds of things.
Yay! I’m clapping and cheering for you! Love this post. You SO nailed it.
Another fascinating book:
Autoimmune: The Cause and the Cure (Annesee Brockley and Kristin Urdiales) It chronicles Brockley’s fight with lupus, how she became symptom-free (I think completely) and how we can do the same with other autoimmune diseases and depression. It has to do with how/what we eat.
Thank you. Sorry it took awhile to respond. I got bogged down. I made a note of this book to read – thanks!
Twitter: rickiheller
says:
This is so true, Adrienne. I’d say I’m the one in our family who represents the deterioration of the “next” generation–my parents didn’t have any of the health issues from which I suffer, and time certainly played a factor with me. It felt like I went to sleep one day in my early 40s and woke up the next with multiple health issues. Of course, they’d been brewing all along as a result of my poor food choices when younger. It takes years to reverse or reduce the damage. So much better just to ensure it never sets hold to begin with.
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Thanks for sharing, Ricki. My siblings have issues as well, but not as bad as mine. And you are so right about the “waking up one day” thing. Now, looking back, I can see what was happening, but when it hits like a truck it isn’t pretty. And I am not sure it can be reversed. Reduced, yes. But I think we are weak forever. Or perhaps we always were. Take care.
we went from WAP..very clean WAP to GAPS around Christmas. My youngest has always eaten GAPS and can now have anything! My oldest is now covered head to toe with a staph/yeast rash. both were home birthed, not vaccinated, and are breastfed. I have MS controlled with diet. so I very much so believe in food as a cure and fear what these children may face.
Hi Leah. Have you looked at the candida diet and my heavy metals post? I have heard quite a bit about MS being linked to both. Thx for sharing.
I’m healing rheumatoid arthritis through the Gaps Diet, and the multi-generational issue breaks my heart. I had a hard time reading it, because I love my parents so much, and I don’t believe in blaming them for my troubles (mental or physical). However, when I visit my parents, I see their diet with new eyes: so full of sugar and processed foods. I ate that way growing up, but changed when I became an adult. Too late, though. It’s not too surprising that I developed autoimmune disease. It just seems like such a huge task, to convince people that how they eat affects not only their own health, but generations to come. Blogs like yours give me hope, though. Everyone won’t change, but some people will, and their children and grandchildren will be so blessed!
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Thanks for sharing, Eileen. I know. It is sooo sad. I try to talk to folks but they mainly won’t listen. But here, some do
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Hi Adrienne! I love what you do and am so thankful for all of your posts. I was especially intrigued by this one. I have been on birth control pills for 15+ years. I want to get off them, but my obgyn doesnt want me to. I have migraines (hormone related) and many gut issues. What kind of birth control do you recommend. My obgyn thinks visectomy for my husband is the only option. But he is terrified!!! Please help!
Why doesn’t your OB/GYN want you off them? We used NFP and it was great. This is the book that we used, but it’s a new edition (this is an affiliate link).
I believe you pass on what you have to give (so true Adrienne). I feel so blessed my mother ate well and taught us to eat well. I am blessed to be so healthy and have very few issue.
Most of what I deal with are probably from taking the pill when I was younger (I didn’t have a mother or lady figure to talk to so I trusted the doctors:( )and other antibiotics that I didn’t really need like shots ect.
Thanks for sharing Adrienne.
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You really are blessed. So you grew up without your mother after a time? That must have been very tough. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Adrienne! I was diagnosed with SIBO and was treated with Xifaxan and SCD. The results were amazing! I was the typical child raised in the 80′s on low fat (ie. high sugar) food combined with years of antibiotics to treat acne. By the time I was 30, my gut was a mess. I’ve had some relapses since treatment, but it has allowed me to figure out my triggers (coffee is a big one) and recommit to the SCD for awhile. This article was spot on!
Thanks, Amy! And “Hi!”
. So I am new to the SIBO thing. Is that really rare? I find it interesting that you were w/ a practitioner who recommended a pharmaceutical and a diet that I don’t believe is well-known by mainstream medicine. And do you know what it is about coffee that is a trigger? Is it the stimulant quality by chance? Thanks! We’ve contemplated SCD for my son. We did grain free for awhile but aside from an apparent detox rash, nothing seemed to change. How long was it until you noticed changes? I apologize for all of my questions 
.
Excellent post! So, so good! I’ve already Pinned it and I think I’ll be sharing it on FB as well.
(Stopping by via Fight Back Friday!)
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Thanks so much!
Very interesting article! I am going to go back and read all your others. I am coming here from Far Above Rubies linkup.
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Welcome!
It does take patience and time to heal ailments that take years to develop. You are right, we want a quick fix, which isn’t realistic. Support is such an important aspect too. Thanks for sharing on Hearth & Soul Hop.
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