What are biofilms? Biofilms are naturally-occurring bacterial colonies in both humans and the environment. They are basically slimy, glue-like, protective sheaths that bacterial organisms form around themselves.
There’s good and bad biofilm. By being proactive with your diet, you can make great strides in ensuring gut and immune health by empowering your natural defenses against the bad kind. Pesticides, processed, empty caloric foods along with eating out of season and being disconnected with nature’s cycles may be behind unwanted bacterial biofilm build-up in the intestines.4,6
In addition to eating whole organic foods as much as possible, perhaps the simplest way to balance biofilm is to eat in season. Print my Spring and Summer Grocery Lists and start eating the way Mother Nature intended. Or sign up for my free monthly eating guide, The 3-Season Diet Challenge.
In addition to eating seasonally, there is one herb I specifically recommend for biofilm. For thousands of years, Ayurveda has used this spring- and summer-harvested plant to create the perfect intestinal environment for healthy digestion, elimination, and immunity.1,2 This herb was traditionally dubbed the village pharmacy, acclaimed for its ability to support numerous organs and organ systems.1
In this article, I share science now revealing the mechanism behind the many benefits of this herb.
Neem: The Biofilm Blaster
Neem (Azadirachta indica), literally means the free tree of India. It is a broad leaf tree that is mostly evergreen, except in severe drought conditions. Neem’s use has been recorded back some 4,500 years in the extremely advanced Indus valley civilization.1
While the leaves, bark, branches, flowers, fruits, and seeds of this tree are all used, the leaves and seeds are considered the most powerful.1,2 Neem leaves are loaded with a complex variety of constituents, including nimbin, nimbidin, nimbolide, and limonoids, as well as a host of flavonoids, such as quercetin and ß-sitosterol.2
Neem benefits are widespread throughout the body.
Benefits of Neem1-3
- Supports immunity
- Promotes blood sugar levels already within a normal range
- Maintains healthy bile flow
- Promotes natural liver-protecting mechanisms
- Supports integrity of external skin and skin that lines arteries, intestines, lungs, and more
- Contains antioxidant-forming constituents
- Supports healthy stomach acid production
- Supports normal kidney function
- Promotes healthy complexion
- Maintains beneficial oral bacteria
- Boosts natural glutathione production necessary to clear unwanted biofilms out of small intestine1-6
How Does Neem Support So Many Systems?
To play such a global role in human health for so long, neem must work on a very deep level. Ayurveda emphasizes that the most powerful effects are usually the most subtle. We also see this in modern science.
We now know that gut bacteria, which Ayurveda refers to as krimi, play a role in all realms of human health. Neem has always been considered to create an environment detrimental to bad bacterial residents of the microbiome while supporting populations of good bacteria.
The newest science is beginning to understand the mechanism of how this works. It turns out neem is antagonistic to biofilms that create safe havens for bacteria to flourish, take root on the intestinal wall, and negatively impact gut microbiology.4-6
Inhibiting unwanted biofilm accumulation allows natural gut immunity—driven by beneficial bacteria—to maintain a healthy balance of good and bad intestinal bacteria.4-6
Neem is well-documented to be unsupportive to the proliferation of undesirable bacteria.1-3 To accomplish this, it was traditional to harvest and eat leaves of the neem tree to support overall health, well-being, and immunity. It is said that eating leaves just before spring (January and February) jump starts immunity and offers benefits for a full year.
Queen of Skin
One of neem’s greatest claims to fame is supporting a healthy complexion.
Generally, the leaves, fruit, and seeds are eaten all spring and summer to support appearance of healthy, radiant skin, earning neem the nickname Queen of the Skin. The little-known truth is that neem supports outer skin by supporting inner skin.
Skin that lines your gut wall is the most important skin. It is here that neem’s benefits are the most dramatic.
Incredibly, perhaps as a spring cleaning backup plan, neem leaves have the ability to perform many of the actions that bitter roots, greens, and berries accomplish each spring—scrubbing, cleansing, and fertilizing the intestinal wall.
By promoting a healthy intestinal environment each spring and summer, neem allows for proliferation of beneficial gut microbes. The more we bolster a healthy microbial environment in spring and summer, the better the gut can perform as your first defense.
One could say that optimal health is all about skin—inner and outer. Skin on both our inside and outside is home to trillions of microbes that support optimal health.
Neem may be the original prebiotic, as it seems to encourage the environment the gut requires to unleash the body’s most powerful immune response: gut immunity.
Neem in Review
Neem is a scrub for intestinal villi, an antagonist to bacterial biofilm accumulation,4-6 and is naturally cleansing and detoxing for the blood, skin, and liver. 1-3
It supports proliferation of good intestinal bacteria without supporting growth of bad intestinal bacteria. Neem seems to acts so powerfully by addressing the subtle, microscopic environment of the microbiome.1-6
Consider neem a whole-body immune booster, spring-summer cleanser, and herbal support for your precious microbiome.
>>> Learn more about krimi here
>>> Learn more about neem here
Shelina says
How would you take neem powder for intestinal parasites like threadworms??
LifeSpa Staff says
Hi Shelina,
You should check with your local doctor if you have been diagnosed with parasites.
That said, a dose of neem can be as high as 3 caps 3x/day after each meal.
Be Well,
Dr. John
James says
It’s amazing whaaoh! Much educative. Feel much blessed friends.
Joseph Stanski says
I have Peripheral neuropathy in my feet and have been extensively tested in a vets hospital with no reasons found – MRI – Blood Tests, Electric Testing of musceles – and vitimum deficiencies. How can neem help me? I live in Fairfiled. (77 year old male)
LifeSpa Staff says
Hi Joseph,
Please read my articles on our Lymph Vein HP with Diosmin and Hesperidin which are extracts from the pith of oranges.
When I was studying in India I used to scrape dried orange pith to be used as a heart medicine. Now the science is quite amazing.
Here is just one study of many: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5031820/
Be Well,
Dr. John
Mila Vazquez says
Hi I’m using need mixed in with my regular toothpaste and sweetened with a few drops of Stevie. My gums and tongue look great and it helps me with my halitosis problem.
I originally was told to take 1/4 tsp. Mixed in warm water, but I just couldn’t do it. The smell and taste of need make me feel nauseous.
What could I mix it with to take internally without having to purchase capsules/ tablets? Does it have to be dissolved in warm liquid? Thanks
Vacheslav says
I just add it to salads..with water it tastes very bitter, capsules evade this problem..
Vacheslav says
Well, it is nice to be environmentally friendly but the priority must be to people. So a good deed would be to send the newsletter in a black background with green or soothing color letters. Ideally, the video background would be black. People who care for their health use high contrast themes!
Vacheslav says
Wow I thought, an extravagant herb, at least 20$ and some month wait for it to arrive, Luckily I decided to search for it locally and sure enough it’s available and relatively cheap and even a neem toothpaste is sold, which I ordered much, thank you for the revelation!
Meg says
Could neem be used in oil-pulling? Would it be able to break the biofilm deep in the pockets of the teeth? How would I add it to the oil?
C says
Hey Meg! Neem can certainly be used during oil pulling, but keep in mind that this practice is intended to be unctuous – to nourish teeth. High concentrations of strong herbs (even neem) may somewhat counteract the nourishing aspect of the oil. It will have good effects of its own, but shouldn’t be considered a replacement, as per ancient ayurvedic wisdom.
However, for infections deep in the jaw, sinuses, glands (salivary, etc), lymphatics around the mouth, and the roots and nerves of the teeth, neem comes highly recommended. For this, it’s best to use the whole herb; you can purchase powder or loose herb and chew it, or empty a capsule that contains 100% neem powder and do the same.
Another great way to achieve the above if you’re not having pitta problems, and what I’d prefer from experience, is the following. First, mix ceylon cinnamon powder and clove bud powder. Before using this, take a very small piece of guggul (or similar resin) and let this dissolve in the mouth while “swishing” the juices between your teeth. After 15-20 minutes, spit this out, and then do the same thing with the cinnamon-clove powder combination. You may have to chew it a little to get it to juice with your saliva. Swish this between your teeth, and keep in the mouth for 10-20 minutes. This can also be done stand-alone – without the resins – though it won’t be as effective. Using the above method once or twice per week, and using the cinnamon-clove combo just after meals (no long rinse for that; maybe 1-2 minutes), infections located in and above the neck are often subdued quickly.
Hope that helps! 🙂
Alan says
Neem seems to shut down my stomach. Using a weak tea of neem leaf powder, (very bitter), it shut down my stomach acid for most of the day. A bit of research and I found out that it has been studied for reducing gastric hyperacidity, but no mention of this is evident in the article, although Dr Douillard does mention elsewhere that it balances acidity.
Does this mean that I should avoid neem? I’ve known for a while that I produce less stomach acid than is optimal to begin with and regularly assist with Betaine HCL or apple cider vinegar before some meals, but I don’t want to be increasing the use of them just to get some neem into my system. It’s effect seems to be so long-lasting that it would be difficult to use it at all without some counter-balancing herbs.
Marinko says
Neem is killing parasites in liver ducts(Guardia?). No parasites/ lower imflamation/heat in liver.I also observed that is slowing liver funkcion (Phase 1 or Phase 2?). So carefully when taking in night when liver is working most( detox).
If it is slowing liver bile production,so it is slowing also acid production in stomak, because bile is neutralizer for stomak acid.
C says
Alan, there are many things that could be going on, and it would be difficult to pin point one particular thing on the web. It would be best to get with an experienced physician. An example of differences: it could be that your stomach secretions are poor, and that your body has adjusted to this by allowing microbes to do much more of your digestion than normal. In that case, neem would appear to shut down the stomach’s acid production, as it’s inhibiting the ability of microbes to produce acids through fermentation. In another scenario, you may be low on a nutrient – any number of vitamins or minerals needed to help produce stomach acid or its other secretions (even gastric hormones that trigger HCl release). For this, neem, being somewhat “reducing” in nature, could simply be furthering depletion of one or more nutrients, leading indirectly to lowered digestive ability.
Between the above two situations, the fixes to the problem are pretty different, with one requiring discontinuation of neem, and the other allowing for its use with some adjustments. Those are two examples out of a very large number of possible scenarios. So it might only be sheer luck and guess work leading to appropriate advice for your case from a distance.
Two things for sure though: you don’t need neem to be healthy, and it’s not likely to cause any long term problems when used at a reasonable dose. Maybe experiment with it a little, or consider giving it a longer period of time to determine effects. If it’s not working out, there are plenty of great herbs out there to try besides neem.
Hope that helps! 🙂
Alan says
Thank you Marinko and C both for your illuminating replies.
I believe that I made an assumption about my case that is unfounded, that being that the neem tea shut down my stomach acid for a long period. All that I can really say is that it seemed to inhibit my desire to put any solid food in my stomach, as I was very aware of not being able to eat without forcing myself to do so. The lack of stomach acid would not seem to be responsible for this as the many people taking acid reducing or acid blocking drugs do not report having such sensations, or lack of appetite, and I also don’t have any similar sensation when on occasion I’ve tried used dilute baking soda in water (although I’ve never tried any of the acid blocking medications to find out if they have that affect on me). So, yes, it interfered with my digestion, but probably via a different way than by acid suppression. A sense of temporary paralysis or blockage does come to mind, with the lack of appetite being a protective mechanism to avoid overburdening some part of the digestive track.
The idea of it inhibiting/killing parasites in the liver is interesting (and reminds me of Dr Hulda Clark who spoke of liver flukes). Marinko, are your observations of this affect on liver function of your own personal experiences?
C says
No prob Alan! Some additional info from sources other than Ayurveda for you: Dr. Bernard Jensen noted the same types of digestive/appetite disturbance due to sodium and magnesium deficiencies. (He has a lot of information on sodium as an organized element, not pertaining to ‘sodium chloride,’ which he says will not act like animal- or plant-derived sodium. Anyway, neem itself would likely be hard on sodium reserves.) For more info on that, see “The Chemistry of Man.”
Also, what you describe has been noted in traditional Chinese medicine in a couple different ways. Don’t quote me, but I think “rebellious” or “rising” stomach qi would apply best. Regardless, they note that some people’s digestive systems lack downward motion, leading to feelings of fullness or lump-like sensations in the stomach, or “shrunken” sensations of the stomach, accompanied by loss of appetite and/or food stagnation in the stomach or small intestine, with our without regurgitation. If I remember right, it can be cause by overuse of bitter and astringent things. This could be worth looking into. TCM is similar to ayurveda, and I find they make a useful pair. For more on TCM stuff, you could search “ITM online spleen/stomach network.” It’s not really for beginners, but you sound pretty capable to me!
Even if the problem only occurs sometimes, or just with use of certain herbs, I’d figure it’s a sign that health of your digestive system could be improved. But I think everyone has at least a couple little things they could improve upon health-wise. Take care! 🙂
Marinko says
Yes. I mentioned in some detox summits how Neem is lowering my liver ducts imflamation.
I didn’t mention that i had low stomac acid and that i suspected that eating some raw organic vegies from Ca. is making my liver problems worse. In 2015 Ca permited using sludge for irrigation because of perpetual drougnees. And I also mentined TUDCA for helping clean my liver ducts. And looks like many patients of Dr Jay Davidson tried both, so Dr Jay needed to coment. Now he is having Tudca and Neem in his tool box. When medical establisment is going to aknowledge that to many people can’t degrade and detox COMMON chemicals and heavy metals. But Liver never complain till it’s to late. People are never informiert from doctors how gut works.
Modern Liver test was established in 1952. It’s joke. It’s more proffitable to keep system in which you fix only symptoms. Thank you John Duillard for turning the tide.
B Kessler says
Would it be safe to use dissolve neem in water and use it in a netti pot? The purpose would be to break up the biofilm of mold in the sinuses.
Healing Flavours says
Hi, Dr. Douillard! Thank you for all of the good work that you do. First off, let me say (like so many others) that you look amazing for your age and that for me it is the best proof of your knowledge , integrity and practice.
Secondly, I wanted to confirm what was said in the article – I used organic neem juice – about 2-3 little caps of it a day, diluted in water – and I coudn’t believe the amount of stuff it pushed to the surface. For me it was mostly through my gums (sorry, sensitive types) and those got a whole lot healthier. But I also felt cleaner and more energized all over, I honestly feel way healthier now, almost like an another person, I credit neem juice as a big part of that transformation.
David Clark says
Forgot to ask: I understand what you said about the seasonal aspect of food and neem, but if I am using just an organic powdered neem leaf, can this be cylced into my regimen on occaison without problems, to support my immunity, bowels, etc., and the things you mentioned? In this world today with many seasonal foods and herbs being available year round, it seems hard to resist using these things if we can access them. My question in general is: can we drink neem tea, take whole leaf/bark neem other times of the year other than the spring time to obtain neem’s benefits?
C says
As per ayurveda, neem can usually be used year-round. Prepare it warm or hot during winter, but avoid its use on very cold and very hot days. During spring, it can be mixed with honey, or you can eat neem honey, or simply take it straight or mixed into seasonal food. In autumn, many will combine it with milk-based dishes or sweet foods, but in lighter amounts. Hope this helps, even tho it sounds like you were specifically asking for JD.
David Clark says
Great to hear the anti-biofilm aspects of neem. Would the sugar xylitol be a good synergist with neem, since it too tends to brak up biofilms?
Luphane says
Thank you so much for this information. I truly enjoy your work. I was wondering about how to use NEEM to improve the GALT. Is it possible to consume a bit of pure Neem oil?
Matt says
Hey Luphane: in old ayurveda, something they might have performed was a series of treatments, involving 1- unction, 2- aromatics/permeation/purgatives, 3-astringents. They would do this multiple times. So the idea more specifically: first you use oils and other fats, rich/soft diet (meat soups, milk, etc) in larger quantities to “coat” the gastrointestinal tract. (This allows it to prepare itself for #2.) After a couple days of this, stronger aromatic herbs (neem, spices like long pepper, etc), medicines with a hot or penetrative quality (guggul, camphor, etc), and purgatives (triphala, whole plant aloe vera; and also emetics, etc) are used. Step 2 casts out accumulated doshas and moves/dissolves ama. Step 3 is then performed, if medicines for this weren’t used as part of step 2. Step 3 involves astringents or binding agents, calmatives, etc. For example, mild preparation of goat milk with nutmeg – this gently astringes and calms the intestines, ridding them of diarrhea or nausea; or a diet involving mildly-binding things, bland foods, soft fiberous materials, etc. This all depends on the doshas of the patient, and some will not undergo step 3.
The above is very basic general info; see a vaidya for personalized plan. Neem by itself is good for the intestines. Even though it is sattvic, it’s not recommended for everyone. If you have chronic bowel problems, ayurvedic methods (not Indian folk medicine but ayurveda) are a more complex treatment.
Ashwin Patel says
I have not received an answer to my serious question above. What is the point of a comments /blog section ?
John Douillard says
Hi Ashwin. Given the volume of comments received we do our best to get through all of them, but some do get overlooked. If you’d like a quicker reply and more detailed response, please send and email to [email protected]
anna says
How does one balance Vata whilst getting the benefits of neem?? What foods can i take whilst also taking neem capsules…???? Thank you!!!
John Douillard says
Hi Anna. Thanks for the comment. A good way to balance vata would be by using some of the foods from the vata-balancing diet guide: https://lifespa.com/winter-grocery-list-vata-balancing-diet/ This should be done in combination with a summer diet, which is mostly 70% vegetables. Be well.