As much as I wish it were differently, the outlook regarding the quick resolution of the viral pandemic in 2020 is looking highly unlikely to put it mildly. I had a two hour conference last week with some professional groups who have been providing valuable information to small health care businesses like ours on infection mitigation protocols. The most optimistic estimate is that we will continue with the current sanitization for at least 8 months.

While necessary in the short and medium term, some of the sanitation practices are also clearly suboptimal for some aspects of our long term immune function, and I think it may be overdue to talk about good strategies to mitigate some of those side effects. The rapid acting COVID disinfectants recognized by the EPA for health care use are not the friendly natural cleaners I have historically used at my house. The office is currently using a quaternary ammonium cleaner with a 2 min kill time on COVID. It is effective, but it is also harsh. The addition of the three medical grade HEPA machine in the office have helped decreasing the gassing off. However, I know that some residues are still getting into our bodies, and that the staff and I are exposed to some quac residues no matter how careful we try to be.

This may also be true for many of you who work outside the home in environments that do a good job at keeping surfaces free of viral contamination. If so, I wanted to share some thoughts on what you can do to limit the adverse effects of the cleaners, and more specifically, on your gut flora (later referred to as your microbiome, or the totality of your GI bacterial ecology).

The health of your gut bacteria depends upon factors that either improve or damage those bacteria. Right now, you are exposed to cleaners that are antibacterial in nature regardless if it is a good bacteria like a Lactobacillus, or a bad bacteria like Salmonella. So you are dealing with a new and heightened damaging factor.

Your strategy to support your gut bacteria in times of increased challenges can be two fold:

• Limit other factors that damage the gut bacterial ecology-

  • Drink non-chlorinated water by using a simple filtering system like a good quality water filtering pitcher.

  • Focus on unprocessed foods. Processed foods and even some appearing fresh food that has a long shelf life, contain high levels of preservatives that are anti-bacterial in nature. The more you eat, the more you kill off your good bugs.

  • Avoid all artificial sweeteners. The worst offenders for the gut bacteria is the sucralose (Splenda)family and all of the sugar alcohols. Even one serving a day can drop your gut bacteria number by as much as 50% in a week. They are prevalent in drinks, “sugar-free” and “low calorie” sweets.

  • Limit straight sugar and refined flour products to a minimum. They tend to selectively favor the growth of microbe strains that compete with the good bugs.

• Enhance the practices that tend to improve the health and variety of your existing gut bacteria-

  • Increase food based fiber, both in quantity, but mostly in diversity. Supplemental fiber such as psyllium does very little for your gut ecology. The best way is to incorporate at least 8 different fruit, veggies, root starches, legumes, nuts in your diet every day. Variety is the key.

  • Get some exercise, especially aerobic activity. This is a huge boost to your gut health.

  • Avoid grazing throughout the day. Your gut microbe colonies expand when you have a 12 hour fast at night and about 5 hours between meals.

  • Probiotic foods and supplements is the second tier approach, but definitely a good strategy when it may be difficult to control some of the exposure to other things like antibacterial cleaners, chlorinated water, or some medications (antibiotics, steroids, immunomodulators, NSAIDs). Emphasize foods over supplements when possible since their delivery method to the lower GI is better.