The Body's Inner & Outer Surface (and its inhabitants)

I. The Surfaces

The human body has surfaces that are exposed to external material and organisms, which are not a part of your body, but rather touching or existing on a surface of it. Mainly this is the outside, the skin; and the inside, the channel stretching from mouth to anus like the inside of a pipe. To this can be added surfaces of the respiratory organs and the mucous membranes of the body openings.

Everything entering your body, into the blood and the cells, everything becoming a real part of you, has to pass through one of these surfaces; and with a few exceptions, so will most of what is passing out as well.

Let us exemplify with eating. You put food in your mouth, and you swallow. Still this stuff is not a part of you; it is just inside the "pipe". Some of it will just pass through, and out again with the faeces. To become a part of you, it has to be assimilated by the intestinal surface. From there it reaches the blood and various cells of your body. There is a movement of substances in the other direction too, of waste and toxins through the intestinal surface and out (although detoxification takes other routes as well).

The skin and the other surfaces also exchange substances, but in a less obvious and visible way. However, not less important.

II. The Inhabitants

If you look at yourself as a pipe, a very useful illustration, your inner and your outer surface are the home of billions of microorganisms; bacteria, fungi, etc. They are creeping and crawling everywhere. The number of organisms living only on your intestinal surface is higher than the number of cells in your whole body!

Disgusting? Not at all. You need them there. In fact, they are a precondition for your survival. They help you with your digestion, with the production of certain nutrients, and they contribute to the protection against harmful, "bad" organisms. In return you provide a pleasant environment for them, so they can live their lives as they are meant to.

In order to maintain good health, it is essential that all the needed organisms are present in the right place, in the right number and in the correct proportions to one another. If the balance between them is disturbed, your health is instantly negatively affected.

Unfortunately there are many ways for us to disturb, or even destroy their environment, and when we do, things soon begin to happen. What it is that happens, depends on the circumstances, how the environment has been changed. One (or a group of) organism(s) can become totally extinct, while others grow too populous; or the relative balance between existing organisms can be disturbed, too little of one sort, too much of another. Functions covered by the reduced bacteria will not be properly managed, and those covered by the more populous ones can be managed too much. Imbalance can also open up yourself to completely new, intruding and alien organisms, most likely harming you.

Bacterial imbalance can affect your health in a large number of ways, from the relatively harmless - such as getting a bad smell, often associated with sweat - to contributing to serious or even mortal disease, like an ulcer or cancer. We cannot discuss all this at present, so we may take a small selection.

III. Antibiotics

Chemical antibiotics kill a lot of bacteria (too well), destroy the balance of microorganisms and especially they allow fungi to expand. Unfortunately antibiotics are used far too much, and when you are recommended to eat yoghurt to balance your intestinal flora after a treatment, it is sadly insufficient. More or less everyone, who has ever taken antibiotics, has at least some remaining imbalance and some undue dominance of fungi. Toxins produced by fungi, are among the most powerful carcinogens known. [Carcinogen: a substance that can cause cancer.]

IV. Sweat

To almost all "modern" people, imbalance of the skin's micro world manifests itself as a bad smell, commonly but incorrectly attributed to sweat.

Sweat is a liquid without any smell. What smells are substances produced by bacteria. If the skin's micro world were properly in balance, these bacteria would not be there in such amounts, and you would not smell.

This imbalance is often self-caused, mainly by the use of alkaline soap, shampoo, deodorant... and other hygiene products. To keep your skin a pleasant environment for the bacteria you want there, it must be kept slightly acidic. Most people are doing the opposite. The more bad smell, the more they wash with alkaline soap, etc., and the more alkaline the skin becomes, the faster the bad smell returns, and the stronger each time. By making the skin alkaline again and again, you make your skin more and more habitable for the bacteria you do not want there.

Organic acids are excellent against bad smell. They gradually restore a proper environment, allowing the "good" organisms to return and be restored, while the smell-causing ones diminish.

Apple cider vinegar (diluted), ascorbic acid, citric acid, or a product with natural lactic acid, can be used locally on the skin to normalise the environment, and they are all good against "sweat smell". But do not use acids too strongly, use your sound judgement.

Olive oil is another substance that can contribute to restoring the proper balance on the skin.

When you use soap, try to use one with a low pH (acidic) and/or restore the acidity of the skin (or hair) after washing it, by the application of an weak organic acid.

Skin fungi and many other skin ailments often disappear or at least improve by these steps.

If you get the smell of sweat in clothes, the bad bacteria will not disappear unless you wash in close to boiling water or dry the laundry in the sun. Instead they will remain and start to reproduce and form smelling compounds again as soon as the clothes get warm by the body wearing them. This is often the case with dry-cleaned clothes – and also with clothes made of synthetic materials, since they cannot be washed in too hot water.

V. Gastric Ulcer

It took a very long time before it was discovered that the main reason for gastric ulcer is a bacteria, helicobacter pylori. Before that, it was not uncommon for it to be blamed on "too strong (acidic) gastric juice".

If you already have an ulcer, then your natural gastric juice can be sufficient to cause further harm, but for a healthy person a strong gastric juice is an advantage, and often associated with a long life. It can be a problem to have a too weak gastric juice, however, since the result of that would be insufficient digestion and nutritional deficiencies.

Helicobacter pylori would not be able to grow populous enough to cause any harm if the local bacteria were in order. That is, if the environment was proper. When you get an ulcer, this environment has been destroyed. But how can it be destroyed? What you eat and drink is crucial.

It is known that smoking affects it, and alcohol as well. Beer or wine is probably harmless, but anything stronger than that kills off bacteria, the ones you want there too. A quickly gulped whisky, gin or similar is totally devastating. Not if it happens once in a while, but if it is habitual.

Another factor is eating too hot food, or worse, to drink too hot beverages. A cup of HOT coffee, "thrown" into the mouth and swallowed quickly is a catastrophe for the stomach. It kills off friendly bacteria and it harms the mucous membrane.

Refined sugar could be a factor, since it badly harms mucous membranes. From this perspective, drinking beverages containing it is worse than eating it, since a liquid will always quickly and effectively spread out over a whole surface. But here again, once in a while is not dangerous, only if it is habitual and regular.

If you already have a gastric ulcer, or catarrh, an old method that seems to help almost everyone trying it, is to drink juice of common cabbage. Also very difficult cases have been totally cured by this, especially if combined with fasting. A warning here though, a person with a gastric ulcer should never fast, unless being under the supervision of a competent physician. If it is handled wrongly, it can cause more harm instead of curing you. Yet nothing stops you from drinking cabbage juice, or eating (raw) cabbage, on your own. That can safely be done also in combination with other treatments or as prevention.

VI. Intestines

Intestinal bacteria are important for proper nutrition, since they are deeply involved in important bio-chemical processes. For example, they are expected to produce certain nutrients, notably vitamins, like the B-vitamins PABA and Biotin, or to make A-vitamin from beta-carotene, and much, much more. This is a complex and sophisticated biochemical laboratory. If it is not in proper order, the whole body will be affected. Deficiencies will develop and toxins will be produced and further spread in the body, with degenerative disease as a consequence. It is justified to say that death often starts there.

There are special problems related to the intestinal area. Examples are constipation; formations of plaque on the surface, a layer of waste that serves as a hindrance to normal function; tendencies for rotting, which includes certain "bad" bacteria, which are producing extremely harmful toxins, and much more.

VII. How to Affect the Inner Surface - Some General Guidelines

Keep a sound diet. Eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, a minimum of animal food (which causes intestinal rotting), a lot of fibre. Avoid smoking, alcoholic beverages stronger than wine, and avoid eating or drinking too hot stuff.

As always, I mean the habitual diet. Deviations once in a while will not affect your health at all.

If possible, avoid chemical antibiotics. They should be used only sparingly, and only as a life-saving measure, or in other very, very serious cases. Afterwards, try to restore your micro-balance. It will not happen by itself.

VIII. Things That Can Help You Restore a Proper Micro-Balance

This list is in no way exhaustive:

Lactobacilli, and fermented products with natural lactic acid (yoghurt, sauerkraut, etc.. Yoghurt and other similar products should contain living lactobacilli. If they are pasteurised, that should have been done before the fermentation. Most products on the market do not meet this criterion.

Apple cider vinegar, vitamin B complex, vitamin C (ascorbic acid), citric acid, olive oil, all sorts of raw onions, and above everything, garlic.

For vitamin B complex, I recommend Brewer's yeast. It is real superfood, containing (all) B-vitamins, many minerals and nucleic acids, all in perfect proportions for maximal synergism.

For Jerusalem artichoke and psyllium, see appendices.

Appendix I. Jerusalem Artichoke

Jerusalem artichoke is a tuber of Helianthus tuberosus, a species of sunflower. It has nothing to do with Jerusalem and it is no artichoke! "Jerusalem" seems to be a corruption of Italian "girasole", meaning sunflower. The word "artichoke" derives from the Arabic "al-khurshuf", which means thistle. In reality the origin of the Jerusalem artichoke is North America, where it was staple food for the Indians.

Healthwise this is a most interesting foodstuff. We have discussed the immense importance of having a well-balanced microflora. Jerusalem artichoke is the most effective means of restoring and keeping the intestinal microflora in good shape! It feeds the intestinal bacteria we want there.

This is mainly due to the content of "inulin" (do not confuse with "insulin", they are unrelated). Inulin is a starch that is not absorbed by the body (at least not in any significant amount), and thereby not affecting the blood sugar; so Jerusalem artichokes are sometimes recommended to diabetics, especially as a substitute for potatoes.

Appendix II. Fleawort

Fleawort, or Plantago psyllium L., grows on meagre soil in India and around the Mediterranean. The seeds resemble fleas (Greek. psullos), from which the names "fleawort" and "psyllium" are derived.

The husks contain a slime that expands in water. It is very slippery and excellent against constipation. Moreover, it protects and regenerates the intestinal mucous membranes, and it helps to keep the intestinal microflora in good order.

Put 3-4 teaspoons of psyllium seeds in a glass of water and let it stand over the night. In the morning, drink the whole content of the glass, both slime and seeds. If it is too "thick", you can add some more water first.

Alternatively, it can be mixed in food (after a night of swelling), but the seeds can be so hard as to harm the teeth if you bite on them, so it is better to "drink" it.

Taking more, or more often, is not dangerous.

(This article is based on material previously published in Meriondho Leo/TMA and in my e-book “Paradigms of Health”, 2019.)

Related articles:

Constipation, Very Common and Much More Dangerous than People Tend to Believe

Antibiotics & Side-Effects of Antibiotics

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