We are more entangled with our environment than we think. We all carry 10 times more bacterial and fungal cells than human cells. We are a complex ecosystem or a social network of microbial and human genes that interact with each other. These microbes, known as the human microbiome, are helping us with feeling satiated and not overeat and to regulate our immune response to outside threats.
By being too clean and overusing antibiotics we are destroying these helpful microbes and contributing to the rise of allergies, auto-immune disorders and obesity.
One of my surgery teacher would arrive to the hospital on Saturday mornings, when we had to perform an emergency surgery, wearing his ridding boots and claim it would be beneficial if he wore them in the operating room. He claimed that the good bacteria would keep the bad bacteria in check. Well how are you certain that you carry only good bacteria from the horse barn? Fortunately my teacher had the good sense to take his boots of and shower before the surgery. But his theory is getting redeemed. Nowadays some gastroenterologists perform via colonoscopy healthy stool transplants in people who can’t get rid of disease causing bacteria. The good bacteria from donor stools re-colonize the gut and the bad bacteria get crowded out.
I would first suggest to try probiotics, its using the same principle.