Intestinal dysbacteriosis: what is it, what is harmful, how does it manifest and how to treat it

Dysbacteriosis, or a violation of the intestinal microflora, is perhaps almost a more common ailment than a runny nose. The Russian Academy of Sciences calculated that some manifestations of dysbacteriosis are observed in 9 out of 10 people. For some, these disorders interfere with life, but for others it is practically not so – it all depends on the strength of the imbalance in the body is. In fact, dysbacteriosis is just an imbalance, a violation of the quantitative relationships of various microbes living in us.

Normally, a certain proportion of beneficial microbes live in the intestines. They are involved in the immune system, help digest food, filter toxins, regulate metabolism and perform many other functions. But at the same time, part of the microbes is conditionally pathogenic flora, that is, if there are more than a certain number of them, and the beneficial ones, respectively, are less, the person gets sick . By itself, intestinal dysbacteriosis is not a disease, it is always a secondary condition, signaling that something is wrong with a person, but since the characteristic symptoms of dysbacteriosis significantly worsen the quality of life, symptomatic treatment is also used, that is, one that is aimed at the recovery of the intestinal microflora.

There are many reasons why the good microflora of the large and small intestine can give way to bad microbes. These can be exogenous factors, that is, those that are associated with external influences on the body, and endogenous – some kind of internal disturbances that lead to dysbacteriosis. Exogenous factors include:

The endogenous factors are:

Since the imbalance occurs in the intestinal region, the main outward manifestations of this imbalance are signs of problems in the gastrointestinal tract. Symptoms of dysbacteriosis in adult men and women:

However, when diagnosing intestinal dysbacteriosis by the symptoms described above, difficulties arise: these signs may indicate the presence of completely different diseases or conditions, it is impossible to say unequivocally that a person has problems of microflora. For example, a violation of the intestinal microflora in women can “mask” pain during menstruation. To understand what caused such manifestations, the patient is sent for tests.

In order to tell exactly whether the balance of microflora in a particular patient is disturbed, in our country they are usually asked to take a stool test. At the same time, the biomaterial should be fresh, it should be brought in sterile jars (the easiest way is to buy one in a pharmacy). In the two weeks before the analysis, you should refrain from taking drugs containing live bacterial cultures, do not take antibiotics for 12 hours and a laxative for 3-4 days, otherwise the analysis will be “fuzzy”, it will not be possible to get correct data. In other countries, additional breath tests and bacteriological studies are also carried out, but this is not common in Russia. You can perform an analysis for dysbacteriosis for free in a polyclinic and in a commercial medical center, this is a standard procedure. Verification can take up to a week, sometimes even longer.

Based on the results of the check, it will be clear whether there are violations of the normal intestinal microflora, and if so, how severe they are. There are 4 stages of dysbacteriosis:

Stage 1: slight disturbances, slight imbalance, the patient feels discomfort, but not too much.

2nd stage: violation of the enzyme production process; discomfort intensifies and becomes more frequent, the patient complains of flatulence, bloating, pain.

3rd stage: pathogenic bacteria multiply, more serious symptoms can attach to it.

Stage 4: there is almost no useful microflora, the person feels accordingly – general intoxication of the body, problems with appetite and stool. In particularly severe cases, bacteria enter the bloodstream, sepsis may begin.

At the 1st stage, dysbacteriosis usually does not need to be corrected, everything can return to normal on its own if you follow a diet. In other cases, you need to consult a doctor.

So, the results of the analysis came in – there really is dysbacteriosis in the body. How to treat it, the doctor will tell you. He will develop an individual treatment regimen depending on the degree of imbalance. This diet is 100% likely to include diet: you need to abandon foods that negatively affect microflora and replace them with those that are useful for it, you may need to adjust your diet (alas, for many of us , it’s lame) . From the diet will have to eliminate fatty foods, fast food, ready meals, carbonated water. Add dairy products, fruits and fiber-rich vegetables. Additionally, a doctor may prescribe gut microflora medications in adults, such as probiotics or synbiotics, to help repopulate the gut with beneficial microbes. For children there are also similar drugs.

Violation of the intestinal microflora in women and men is successfully treated. If you suspect that you have dysbacteriosis, you do not need to endure and wait for everything to go away on its own, consult a doctor and enjoy life without flatulence and other unpleasant manifestations of problems with microflora.