balancing your five essential biomes

› By Michael Roizen, M.D., and Mehmet Oz, M.D.

The human microbiome: It’s a big world for the complex groups of microorganisms that reside in or on your body. Together, these microorganisms and special blends of bacteria outnumber the cells of your body 100 trillion to 10 trillion. Their total weight is around five pounds. But if you’re thinking about shedding some heft, that’s not the place to lose it! You want to keep those biomes, which contain so-called good and bad bacteria, in a healthy balance.

Gut Biome

Your gastrointestinal biome is essential for healthy digestive processes, stable glucose levels and a strong immune system. If it’s out of balance, you risk irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, some autoimmune diseases and even cancer.

The main gut biome disruptors are antibiotics (which kill o good and bad bacteria) as well as excess alcohol, lack of sleep, stress, even oral antibacterials. A lifestyle upgrade is the best way to make sure it stays in balance. Improve a poor diet by eating five to nine servings of produce daily and getting in 10,000 steps a day.

Skin Biome

A healthy skin biome is made up of bacteria, fungi, viruses, even mites. They reside on open skin and in hair follicles and sebaceous, eccrine and apocrine glands. This biome protects you from infection, acne, wrinkles and many diseases, including skin cancer. Use of antibacterial soaps and household products or poor hygiene can throw this biome out of balance, as can disturbances in other biomes.

Nasal/Lung Biome

Your nasal/lung biome needs to be strong to protect the moist mucosal environment that runs from your nasal cavities into your lungs. When it is, it can help prevent sinusitis, allergies, staph infection and more. But overuse of medicated nasal sprays—and many other meds—can dehydrate the nasal passages, damaging the biome and making you vulnerable to infections. Use saline sprays and well-maintained humidifiers to keep your nasal environment healthy and respect your respiratory biome by never smoking.

Oral Biome

Your oral biome defends the health of your teeth, gums, tongue, cheeks, hard and soft palates, throat and tonsils—plus the rest of your body that could be assaulted by invaders that come in through the mouth. That’s why a healthy oral biome can protect you from everything from oral cancer to diabetes and heart attack.

Regular dental care and preventing gum inflammation and periodontal disease are the best ways to keep your oral biome healthy and on the job!

Urogenital Biome

The vaginal and penile biomes attempt to protect you from sexually transmitted diseases. But each gender’s biome changes with time and activity. The penile biome’s biggest game-changer is circumcision, which protects against infection of the glans and foreskin, plus penile cancer and cervical cancer for female partners. The second biggest is the HPV vaccine; it prevents HPVrelated cancers. Mom and Dad, get it for your kids ages 10 to 12. Adults to age 26: Get it if you didn’t receive that vaccine as a child. Older? Ask your doc.

In women, sexual activity can change the vaginal biome, as do hormones and overall immune health. Alert: The Zika virus also can suppress the vaginal biome. This not only puts women at a heightened risk for contracting sexually transmitted diseases (besides Zika), it threatens the health of a fetus, even when Zika has not damaged it in utero, as the virus changes the vaginal biome.

You might think you’re home free after the first few months of pregnancy and your wife is no longer dealing with morning sickness. Not so fast. Most first-time dads don’t know what to expect as the pregnancy continues and birth looms closer.

When dads accompany their partners to prenatal appointments, midwife Alice Carlisle, CNM, Ph.D., tries to impart more information with every visit. She also encourages men to take the free classes that hospitals o er in order to understand what is happening to a woman’s body during the birth process and how fathers can be supportive.

“During the third trimester, the last 12 weeks of pregnancy, a lot of things are going on, including many hormone changes,” says Carlisle. “A woman can be really happy one minute and crying the next. Men want to know what’s going on, but when they ask their partner, she says, ‘I don’t know!’

“The baby’s movements are also stronger,” adds Carlisle. “A woman can be irritable because she’s not getting enough sleep, as the baby’s movements are waking her up and she’s also getting up to pee. She may complain more because she’s uncomfortable; her joints are starting to relax in preparation for birth, so there is hip and pelvic pain.”

Ah yes, sex. It’s what got you here in the first place, but, as Carlisle points out, men always want to know when they can have it.

“Unless the woman has a medical condition like bleeding, placenta previa or a history of pre-term labor and birth, or unless your health care provider advises you not to, you can have sex throughout the whole pregnancy if the woman is comfortable with it,” she notes.

And so you know, if your wife breastfeeds your child, this may decrease her sex drive. Just realize this is hormonal and won’t last forever.

BY CYNTHIA MCFARLAND

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN JERNIGAN

There’s no other way to put it: Labor and birth are painful and messy. This, however, is also normal and natural. Women’s bodies are designed to give birth.

Most first-time dads don’t realize how long and messy the whole process can be. (Watch a few YouTube videos if you want a reality check.) And don’t take o ense if your wife says something mean about you during labor; this too is normal.

Television shows present a false idea of what labor entails and how long it lasts. For a first baby, 12 to 14 hours is the norm (but it can be much longer), and for second and third babies, six to eight hours is the average time in labor.

Doctors and midwives usually encourage the father to be as involved as he would like, such as cutting the umbilical cord. Even if a Cesarean birth is necessary, the dad can still be actively involved.

and dirty diapers to assess hydration and assure that a newborn is getting enough to eat, especially in breastfed babies where it is hard to quantify how much volume a baby has taken.”

Amazingly, newborns can often recognize their parents’ voices right away, as they’ve been hearing mu ed versions of those voices while in utero. Newborns can only see about eight to 12 inches in front of them, which happens to be the face-to-face distance when you’re holding them.

Mom has done most of the “heavy lifting” to this point, but dads can be involved in many ways once the baby arrives.

Taking time o from work to stay home those first weeks is ideal, if your situation allows. New daddies can change diapers, take a “night shift” and help with feedings (if Mom’s not breastfeeding). Providing extra help around the house is a simple, but huge, way dads can ease the transition of having a newborn at home.

It seems almost criminal that the hospital lets you leave with a brand-new little person and no owner’s manual. Try to relax. If you know the basics, you’ll be less nervous.

For starters, it’s very important to support your baby’s head and neck when holding him or her those first few months. Keep a good grip; as babies get older and more squirmy, they can flail right out of your arms if you aren’t paying attention.

“Newborns sleep a lot! On average, a newborn may sleep 16 hours per day, two to three hours at a time. The safest way for a newborn to sleep is flat on their back with nothing else in the crib or bassinet. Make sure the face is not covered by a blanket or clothing,” says Erin Clymer, ARNP, CPNP, a pediatric nurse practitioner at Pediatric Associates of Ocala with Dr. Stephanie Harrell.

New babies should eat every two to four hours.

“If they’re not waking up on their own in the first few weeks, it is important for parents to wake them to feed in order to assure proper weight gain, hydration and maintain blood sugar levels,” says Clymer, herself a mother of three. “Diaper changes should be just as frequent. We monitor wet

“There’s a learning curve for all of you, including your newborn,” says Clymer. “Be patient with yourself and your family. Take time to enjoy every minute because babies change and grow so quickly.”

For an in-the-trenches perspective, we spoke with three young fathers in Marion County.

Dhruv Patel, 33, and his wife, Alpa, are the parents of 3-year-old Radhika and 2-year-old Ohm and are expecting their third baby in early July.

Brian McElfresh, 31, and his wife, Natalie, are the parents of 2-year-old Lyla Anne and Gunner Charles, who was born on March 8.

Bobby Young, 26, and his wife, Christine, have a 4-year-old daughter, Julissa, and are expecting their second child this fall. (Late in 2014, little Julissa was diagnosed with leukemia and has been undergoing chemotherapy, which is set to end in March 2018. “Thank God, she’s doing well,” says Bobby.)

HL: What was the biggest surprise for you during your wife’s pregnancy?

Dhruv: “She never had any of the crazy food cravings I heard about. I was expecting a lot of mood swings. All my friends told me, ‘Dude, she’s going to go pregosaurus or she-devil on you.’ That never happened. There were a couple times she started crying out of nowhere, and when I asked what was wrong, she said, ‘Leave me alone, I just want to cry.’”

Brian: “I expected the crazy cravings and late-night snacks, but those never came. I was genuinely surprised at how short nine months was; it seems so distant in the beginning of pregnancy.”

Bobby: “You don’t know what to expect and have a lot of di erent emotions. Just watching how my wife carried our baby throughout the pregnancy took me by surprise.”

Dhruv Patel

HL: Did you take classes/read/talk to other dads to help prepare?

Dhruv: “I think it helped that I was 30 when my first child was born. My wife and I agreed we wanted to be a little older and more mature when we started a family. We didn’t want to be kids having kids. When Alpa was pregnant the first time, I read some blogs online, and I read a book about newborns. I listened to advice from people, but every pregnancy and child are di erent, so you can’t know exactly what to expect.”

Brian: “Just prior to Lyla’s birth, I remember walking through the hospital and seeing future first-time moms and dads in a training class for newborns. At that point, I was slightly nervous wondering if I should’ve taken classes or read the books people gave me. I was feeling unprepared, but the ingrained ‘daddy instincts’ do kick in.”

Bobby: “We took the class at Munroe Regional that was recommended by our doctor. I learned about delivery there. A lot of dads I knew were also expecting around the same time, so we were encouraging each other.”

HL: How does reality compare with your expectations/hopes/fears?

Dhruv: “Reality was much better than I was prepared for and not as hard. My wife and I were scared the first time. We ‘overexpected’ everything, so we wouldn’t be surprised. Everybody told us we wouldn’t sleep much anymore, so a month before the birth, I started preparing by setting the alarm several times to wake up during the night. But our firstborn never woke herself up during the night; we actually had to wake her up to feed her. After our son was born, I expected to get peed on when I changed his diaper because people told me that would happen, but it never did.”