Terroir

Gut restoration, your inner galaxy, global connectedness and two dueling scientists.

My first FMT procedure was complete. I was shaky and clammy getting dressed, tempted to use the gorgeously appointed bathroom. I was determined to make it home without… ahem, parting with my first microbial gift. It took me some time to get down the hall, not straying from the wall as I was weak and still shaky. Resting in the waiting room, catching my breath and steeling myself to walk to the idling taxi. The process of getting back to my flat from the clinic was surprisingly slow and exhausting. I laid down to rest and immediately fell into a deep sleep.

Hours later, I powerfully awakened. My eyes blinked wide open like they were bionic. Strong, rapid, focused. I was literally seeing through new eyes. Everything was in technicolor. I’d never seen colors so bright and beautiful and detailed before. The vibrant green intensity of the English countryside was almost too much to absorb. My head was so clear, energetic and boundless.

I jumped up with the energy of a person half my age. I felt like I had a jolt of electricity to my brain. I was rocked by the dramatic shift that occurred only hours after my first implant.

In the days and procedures that followed, I had incredible digestive reorganization happening, along with crazy food cravings and aversions. Other changes were almost instant and surprising. I had intense energy and the clearest mind, but I also had incredible stamina, walking many miles through the English countryside with massive energy unflagging through the day. While that was positive, my mental health shifted immediately as well. I was overcome by grief and sadness, giddy highs and lows, feeling a lot of emotional intensity. There was a clear correlation between the FMT and my shifting moods and emotions. My Gut/Brain Axis was lit up and fully invigorated.

Another interesting immediate change. Within 48 hours of my first treatment, my skin was glowing and soft. Skin disruptions were very common for me. Bumpy skin on the back of my arms and thighs, eczema and rosacea. My skin was always sensitive and inflamed. Eczema resolved when I removed gluten, but keratosis pilaris, rosacea and random rashes, hives and extreme sensitivity remained. After two days of FMT therapy, my rosacea and bumpy skin was gone. My skin inflammation receded and hasn’t returned since. My Gut/Skin Axis was coming back online.

As my microbiome evolved to become my own, the shifts in my health swayed and settled between 6 months to a year. The changes that year in my health were dramatic and permanent.

My MS symptoms faded far into the background (though they rebounded time and again on my healing path, alluding to future posts). However, I never got sick anymore with yearly colds, flu and stomach bugs and likely because inflammation diminished, I shed about 10 pounds. Digestively speaking - candida, yeast infections, SIBO and digestive distress resolved. Excitingly, my food sensitivities diminished considerably as well. I was able to freely eat corn, sheep, goat and A2 dairy, nuts, seeds, fermented foods, legumes, yeast, and soy.

Intriguingly, prior to FMT, I also had a condition called MCS or Multiple Chemical Sensitivity which meant I was allergic to all common soaps, detergents, creams, lotions, shampoos, etc etc, causing asthma, hives and rashes all over my body. I took my own shampoo to get my haircut and traveled with my own towels and sheets. I was also allergic to all metals other than real gold and silver, causing rashes and swollen earlobes, curbing my ability to buy cute fashion jewelry. Both those conditions resolved within days of receiving a new microbiome (I will write more about MCS in a post on environmental sensitivities and the microbiome).

Unequivocally, FMT therapy provided me with a huge immune system upgrade.

These profound changes affected my whole life for the better. During this process I began to deeply connect with how profound this treatment was. It was truly a metamorphosis, integrating the microbiomes of 10 supremely healthy humans into my own.

This mystical experience deepened my connection to the beauty and complexity of our inner Terroir. Connecting deeply to the capacity of our inner terrain to power our birthright to live in the fullness of our innate health. I became obsessed with protecting my new terrain and everyone else's, including my family and my customer community. I continued to research everything published about the microbiome and its mutualistic healing capacity, both within us and our environment. I romanced the idea of landscape restoration (internally and externally) being a huge part of our collective healing process.

Eventually, as I observed how powerful and lasting these changes were, I began to question what makes us sick actually? Like wow, I had such sensitive skin, changed my microbiome and now my skin is soft and smooth? As my inner terrain changed, so too did my view of our reliance on pharmaceuticals and over the counter interventions for all manner of dis-ease. Interventions for digestive malaise, skin conditions, and mental health conditions taken without (until recently) regard or appreciation that these conditions signal an imbalanced microbiome and impaired communication system within.

Recognizing the diversity of our microbiome and how they communicate instantaneously across our entire body, creating health and homeostasis is crucial. We should all be in tune with these interrelated body systems, recognizing the signs when they are not in alignment. That should be a first line of remedy in illness and not blind reliance on pharmaceutical and over the counter remedies that compound the assault on our already weakened biome, further exacerbating the problem and creating a negative feedback loop.

As fascinating as that story is, this post isn’t actually about the power of our microbiome to heal (it does) or Fecal Transplant Therapy to treat MS (it can). This post is about an old power struggle back in the late 1800’s between two dueling scientists. I think it’s time to revisit their power struggle, and in keeping with my lastest posts - allow ourselves to open to a new paradigm. Let's revisit an old argument with a new lens today, over 125 years later with the benefit of hindsight. This is about the Germ and Terrain Theory of Illness. The disagreement tipped in favor of the Germ Theory back in the late 1800’s, becoming the foundation of our modern medical, agricultural and animal husbandry system and is in full use almost exclusively and globally today. Given the magnitude of the discovery of the microbiome, I think it's worthy to revisit these theories.

So, there were these two scientists, Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) and Antoine Béchamp (1816–1908). The first to quibble over what initiated the fermentation process in the 1890’s. While their achievements and collective contributions to science were invaluable, they differed fundamentally on the mechanism that initiated fermentation, and also by extension, illness and decay.

Germ Theory

Pasteur theorized the mechanism was bacteria and viruses (or “animalcules” as first coined in the 1700s by Antoinie van Leeuwenhoek, inventor of the microscope), spontaneously arising in the environment that initiated fermentation, illness and decay. Coined the Germ Theory, wherein all external microorganisms were seen as pathogenic and the cause of illness. Illness prevention and eradication of these “pathogens” via antibiotics, vaccines and sanitation became our world view of health. This framework is the foundational system modern medicine, agricultural practices and livestock management is built on.

Before the microbiome was discovered in 2014, the inside of the human body was believed to be sterile. Any germ or virus entering this sterile environment was responsible for illness. So, “germs” were invasive, our body is “sterile”, thus creating illness and should be eradicated to preserve our pristine, sterile state. To that end, Pasteur's discoveries, as we all know, was the precursor to both pasteurization and immunization.

Terrain Theory

Béchamps theory of what initiated fermentation, illness, decay differed. He believed it was the underlying environment that allowed the proliferation of harmful bacteria that would otherwise be held in a healthy balance or nonexistent altogether. Hence the Terrain Theory. This very small but fundamental disagreement went on to shape our entire world today actually.

Prior to 2014, while scientists were able to isolate bacteria in the environment, the microbes that reside within us are anaerobic, meaning they die in the presence of oxygen, making their discovery difficult and their magnitude a challenge to discern. The advent of genetic sequencing vis a vis the Human Genome Project allowed for the ability to begin to understand the magnitude of the microbial world, everywhere. Actually, to the extent that we are only 10% human. 90% of who we are is a vast community of microbes. Let that sink in.

While the discovery of the microbiome is fairly recent, and it’s corresponding implications still evolving, we can now see the consequences of Western medicine’s germ theory in action for the last 125 years with the benefit of hindsight. The Germ Theory, which aims to kill all bacteria and virus’ has served to decimate our external and internal world. We see this all around us in nature. Coral reefs dying, African savannas devoid of life, food deserts in resource deprived communities, CAFO’s (Confined animal feeding operations) that breed illness. We see this with pesticide dependent monoculture, the need for ever more concentrated and toxic weed killers and super strength antibiotics. Making our food and environment more toxic and killing all microbial life has not lead to better health outcomes anywhere.

See, we can’t stamp out nature. Nature, is an energy that sustains all life, including us. WE ARE NATURE. The destruction we see in landscapes all around us is a mirror to the disordered microbiome, lack of resilience and proliferation of illness and disease within us. We see this mirror to our damaged microbiome all around us in landscape degradation starved of biodiversity, resulting in superweeds and superbugs. Evolved because as we kill all bacteria and virus, so nature reponds by creating stronger ones, because we can’t live without them. Our very existence depends on microbial cohesion, even in places as seemingly unrelated and distant as your nose and your toes. We see the results and ramifications of medicating every illness and disorder without curing anything.

We can now appreciate how fundamentally incorrect the foundations of the Germ Theory are. We now know there are “biome” communities of microorganisms all over our body, inside and outside. In the uterus of an expectant mother and so too, her unborn child, ready to have their microbiome seeded by their mother’s breastmilk. So, the bacterial community that thrives between your toes, is different from the community that thrives in your nose. Yet, they all communicate instantly (quorem sensing, et al) and live in ideal cohesion and balance for the benefit of all communities within and outside you.

What if nature is telling us something? What if Béchamp was right? What if degradation of our Terrior inside and out has created our ill health? Famously, the feud between these two scientists has a twist of vindication for Béchamp, ostracized for his beliefs in the fundamental power of our terrain to create the capacity to thrive. On Pastuers deathbed, it is recorded, he confessed - “The Germ is Nothing, the Terrain is Everything.”

Why is it important to revisit this now? Because the cultural zeitgeist around health, and our innate capacity to heal is shifting. More and more people have been at the receiving end of a diagnosis that has no positive resolution outside becoming part of the pharma // medical funnel with no regard to the environment that facilitated the diagnosis. We are on the precipice of massive changes to our sick care system, environmental degredation and animal caretaking. Back to my harp about Radical Self Responsibility. That biome is yours, the one inside you. But so is the one outside you, between your toes and your nose. Same in your home, in your car, in your office, in your childrens classroom, park and ballfield. In your yoga studio, on your favorite hiking trail, river and lake. On the trees and the shfting sand of the beach.

This magnificent intelligence is an energy we can all tap into, as it is us. We can shift our energy from a mindset of fear, destruction, and eradication to one of communication, communion and respect for one-ness of everything, desiring only to build the strength of these microbial communities and understand the language they speak for the mutual benefit of all.

Just allow yourself to sink into this. Really sink in. What if it’s been the terrain all along? Does that perspective shift how you show up for yourself? Does this shift your feeling of empowerment? Does this shift how you see our global connectedness? Does it challenge or trigger your beliefs? That’s a good sign actually. Its an invitation to look further into what exactly has stirred you.

This is important for everyone regardless of your perceived state of health. The future of our children depend on us learning we can’t thrive by living in a vibration of fear, destruction and eradication. The inner belief we need to destroy what is not us. What is happening in the war torn regions of the earth is exactly the same as you hitting the antibacterial goo every time you leave a public place. What would the world look like if we embraced Béchamps view instead? If we chose to tend and love and cultivate and understand our terrain as a means to achieve wellness? What if we begin now to love our infinite garden within and become fiercely protective of the one outside us, embracing all of it’s timeless beauty and wisdom?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and opinions. And if you’re interested in learning more about FMT Therapy hit me up. You’ll see resources coming your way to deepen your relationship with your inner galaxy.

With love and microbial abundance,

Christine