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The infected tooth was pulled and the hole it left in my lower jaw is healing up well now. That is a good thing. It predominated my focus on the external world and caused all sorts of problems such that I didn't know that the other things going on in my life were because of the bad tooth or something else. Now that the tooth cavity is stabilized I realize other physical events were going on in my body that were associated with the probiotics and kefir I've been taking.
I might not have realized this if I hadn't been reading a lot about what happened to other people. That is why I subscribed to the e-mail discussion groups. People with different problems have different responses to the gut bacteria they put in their bodies. I don't know what makes the difference in my case because I don't have the live cultures working for me yet.
The probiotic capsules I'm taking has been affecting my lips and my lower legs. Both of them feel like how chapped lips feel, even my lower legs with my shins and the calves of my legs feel chapped. I thought my lips felt that way due to the problems I was having associated with the bad tooth. But, now that the tooth is gone and the infection treated with the antibiotics I was prescribed, my lips are still irritated. It's a surface problem, but they look and feel normal.
The fact that my shins and calves feel the same way is an enigma. It's not a threatening feeling. They tingle and cause me to focus on them and wonder what's going on. I put lip balm on my lips, but it doesn't seem to affect the tingling and buzzing on the surface. I run my fingers over my lips and they feel okay. They're not dry or tender to my touch. I suspect it's the affect of the probiotics on my GI tract. I hope it's positive. I think it's positive. It's different.
Last night after I went to bed I suddenly thought to put some distilled water in one of my sprouting jars and mix some inulin powder with the contents of one of the probiotic capsules I've been taking to see what would happen. I got very excited about the idea of seeing for myself what happens inside my body when I take these pills.
The chicory inulin I used to feed the bacteria in the capsules readily dissolved in the distilled water. So did the contents of the capsule I dumped into it. I anticipated what I might find this morning when I got up. When I went down to brew my morning coffee I checked it out.
Sure enough, there were tiny little bubbles on the bottom of the jar where the bacteria was eating the inulin. The people using the kefir grains wait twenty four hours for this fermentation to take place. I'll have to wait until tomorrow morning or longer to see what happens. I don't have my hopes up too high. All I can do is wait.
The subject of constipation has come up several times on the discussion lists. When some people start using the kefir they report that they get constipated. Some to the point where they stop using the kefir. One older guy described how using kefir was like declaring war on the unfriendly bacteria in the gut. He thinks the constipation problem is dead unfriendly bacteria. I read weeks ago that 80% of one's stools is dead bacteria.
I couldn't believe it at first, but now I'm not so sure. According to what I've read and what I'm reading there is always a war in between the various strains of gut bacteria. They fight for the food they need to survive. If the "friendly bacteria" wins, the body stays healthy. If the unfriendly bacteria (like e coli) win, you get sick and eventually die. The object of eating probiotics is to help the friendly bacteria win the war.
Previous to my exposure the probiotics angle I never thought about how and why food got digested after I ate it. Digestion is apparently the result of the gut bacteria fighting over it to get food for their own survival. I never heard or even thought of such a thing.
Now, I'm sorta going for the hype. There is hardly any scientific studies on the specificity of what happens, but lots of acknowledgement that it is happening. Nobody knows. The only information available is old wive's tales and myth, but it appears to be fairly valid.
The point of my following this fad is to get out of taking so many pills. The prescribed medicines I'm putting in my body is certainly more dangerous than anything that has to do with vitamin supplements and gut bacteria. Besides, I've lived for 72 years so far in pretty much total ignorance. It's a good thing, I suppose, that I came from a family tree with hardy, long-surviving genes.
I've watched a lotta people die at a fairly early age because of bad genes. That's what the medicos say. I don't know myself. I'm a romantic. I write poetry and delude myself into thinking I'm something special to boost my weary ego. I have to. Nobody else knows who-I-think-I-am is. No blame.
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