What is Biofilm?
Biofilms are protective coatings that bacteria and fungus form to protect themselves from antibiotics and herbal treatment. They are likely at the root of infections that won’t go away such as candida, H. pylori, SIBO, and other bacterial infections.
Biofilm is technically defined as a thin, slimy film that bacteria, yeast & other microorganisms secrete and hide within as a protective matrix, whenever they are in hostile environments. Biofilms are anywhere and everywhere microorganisms live. Dental plaque is a form of biofilm. The greenish, slippery slime that grows on rocks in rivers and waterways is another form of biofilm.
Biofilm is a necessary component for life to exist. If it weren’t for biofilm, life literally could not exist. It’s estimated that 99% of all microbes exist within biofilm environments.
However, the biofilm that we are most concerned with, is the pathogenic kind that develops within the human body, and is now believed to be the cause of so many long term health conditions and infections around the world.
It is now estimated that 80% of worldwide infections1 are biofilm infections. Ranging from the common urinary tract infection or sinus infection to the complex long term health conditions such as U.C., Lyme or cystic fibrosis.
2 Main Ways Biofilms Make Us Sick:
Problem 1. They are extremely difficult to eradicate because the human immune system is not capable of penetrating mature biofilms. Even the most potent antibiotics we have today aren’t capable of killing the pathogens that are protected within biofilms.
One study2 discovered that bacteria living beneath biofilms are up to 1,000 times more resilient to antibiotics than if they were free-floating or in a planktonic state.
Problem 2. Biofilm is extremely toxic to the human body. Even in very small amounts. It is made up of nearly a half-dozen neurotoxins, called lipopolysaccharides, which are known to cause a multitude of symptoms including headaches, lethargy, all-over body-aches, and mood & digestive disorders.
And research has found that bacteria aren’t the only ones who create and benefit these biofilms. Once a biofilm is formed, other pathogens are known to utilize its protection as well.
A Toxic Threshold is Reached
When left unchecked within the body, these pathogens (bacteria, yeast, molds & parasites) are able to freely multiply within this biofilm. This sets up a dangerous environment inside the body, as eventually a toxic threshold is reached. The waste that is produced by these overgrown colonies reaches a breaking point, and the body can no longer process these toxins quickly enough.
What results is that the body begins to slowly break down. It’s not that pathogens pose a huge problem. Essentially, it’s the toxic waste that they produce and drip-feed the body on a daily basis which causes the “boiling-over” effect, when illness is reached.
These lipopolysaccharide toxins are what end up circulating throughout the body and have been observed in medical studies to sometimes turn-off, or even modify immune cells3.
How Biofilm Toxins Hurt Us:
The 2 main classes of lipopolysaccharide toxins are called endotoxins and exotoxins.
Endotoxin: Secreted by gram positive (offending pathogens) bacteria which helps to form the structure & integrity of the inner cell wall.
It’s often responsible for the Herxheimer reaction or die-off that can often happen during a good protocol like Restore 3, where the cell wall is broken open and the endotoxin is released into the body for disposal via lymph, but can often overwhelm the detox channels if it’s done too quickly.
Exotoxin: Another lipopolysaccharide, but this is secreted outside the cell wall, in order to lyse (break down) biological tissue of the host, such as proteins and fats, in order to provide food for the offending pathogen.
This is known to be a much more potent neurotoxin and is believed to contribute to dozens of neurological symptoms found in long term health conditions such as sleep and mood disorders, lethargy, body aches and general malaise.
In our research, we firmly believe that by removing the offending pathogenic overgrowth that are secreting these potent toxins within the body, that the bulk of symptoms can be lessened or even reversed, especially if the host can effectively disrupt this protective biofilm layer while simultaneously starving them of their food source, for a long enough period of time.
How to Safely Dissolve Biofilm
The safest and most effective method of dissolving biofilm has been discovered by using specialized proteolytic enzymes, on an empty stomach, for a long enough period of time. The length of time for the protocol varies, depending upon how long the illness has persisted for.
But, if illness has persisted for more than 2 years in someone, then generally 3-4 months is the typical range. Often the older the illness, the longer the time required for a biofilm protocol, with some people going a full year of biofilm disruption.
For those of us who have been sick for longer than 5 years, an “onion” layer approach is often helpful. Where multiple biofilm protocols over the course of a 1-3 year period is performed, with each protocol clearing away a deeper level of biofilm growth within the gut microbiome.
For more information on how to effectively dissolve biofilms, follow this page:
www.nativeformulas.com/biofilm-protocol/
REFERENCES:
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3431441/
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC91555/
[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4970444/
