Posted on 06/15/2012 8:30:43 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Do you think bacteria, fungi and other microbes are harmful for your body? Discard the thought right away as a recent research has mapped and revealed that 100 trillion good bacteria are living in and on human body at every point of time and are contributing to good health.
The report presented on Wednesday was the result of a five-year, $173 million-worth US government initiative called the Human Microbiome Project which attempted to better examine bacteria, fungi and organisms - while all human bodies harbor trillions of bacteria but what they really are, how they differ from one person's body to another, how they coexist in harmony, play a significant role in digestion, synthesizing certain vitamins, forming immunity against disease-causing bacteria and more.
"Most of the time we live in harmony with them," said Eric Green, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute. But sometimes the harmony breaks down and we fall sick, cautioned Green.
The project, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health, involved 200 scientists at 80 institutions and bacteria taken from 242 healthy people and samples were taken from mouth, nose, skin, intestine and vagina. Researchers studied the DNA-sequencing machines used to map DNA in the Human Genome Project.
"This gives us a reference set of genes and microbes from healthy individuals," said James Servalovic, director of the Texas Children's Microbiome Center at Baylor College of Medicine and one of the researchers.
"This is really a new vista in biology," said Phillip Tarr, director of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis and one of the leaders of the Human Microbiome Project.
With the accomplishment, new avenues to research genetic predisposition will be open, believe scientists.
"It's likely this work will lead to new treatments for [the inflammatory bowel disorder] Crohn's disease, new treatments for diabetes and metabolic diseases, new treatments for even other diseases, like eczema," said Michael Fischbach to Wall Street Journal, a biologist at the University of California, San Francisco. Fischbach, however, was not part of the project.
Going ahead, scientists will do similar research sampling microbiomes of children, elderly and also Africans and South Americans. Diseased people will also be studied to discover how microbes play in maintaining health or causing disease.
The findings are published by Nature and the Public Library of Science.
/johnny
However, it is always that one bad Bacteria that causes all the problems.
There are all sorts of twists and turns to this.
In the GI tract there are typically 300-1000 types of bacteria, of which around 30 occupy almost all the space and prevent blooms of other types. There are also a lot of other microorganisms, and a vast number of viruses, most of which are bacteriophages, because they attack bacteria.
A fetus has a fairly bacteria free GI tract, and they get their first big culture from their mother while being born and through her milk. For about two weeks after birth, they are still using residuals from their mother’s immune system to protect them as well, and this is when they develop their flora.
They keep this collection of microorganisms until they begin solid food, which creates a new intestinal flora very different from their first. This changes once or twice more in adapting to adult food and regional differences.
Importantly for a vast length of time there was another component to this mix: parasites. Our immune system and our flora both adapted to deal with parasites that modern man rarely has.
In turn, this may confuse our immune system which then attacks the body with any number of auto-immune diseases, from asthma to arthritis, Crohn’s disease to IBS.
Some medical researchers are now looking for the chemical signature of parasites, as it could trick a confused immune system like this into returning to normal.
The importance of maintaining a good balance of flora is already known. The Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride(www.gapsdiet.com), Healing the Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschall. It is good to see this information making it to mainstream medicine.
Think of your body like your front lawn. The good bacteria are the grass, and the bad bacteria are the weeds. If you take care of your lawn, cutting and watering it, the grass will mostly choke out the weeds. Same thing with your body, if you are living a healthy lifestyle.
The importance of maintaining a good balance of flora is already known. The Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride(www.gapsdiet.com), Healing the Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschall. It is good to see this information making it to mainstream medicine.
Bwahahhaahahahaha. What? Hangonasecondgottagetabeerandcigarette...
/johnny
That is why so many people die of bacterial infections every day?
So, just so I understand, you are suggesting that we forgo all antibiotics?
Just as an aside ... a short term treatment of antibiotics to get rid of the bad bacteria, then a return to normal living without antibiotics seems to work in most cases. And has been working for all these many years. Better than the alternative.
Well, a beer and a smoke won’t do too much to screw up your guts, I think. I had a problem a few years back because I just wasn’t eating right, not getting enough sleep, that kind of thing.
I tried handling it with a few different over-the-counter meds but after a few days of increasingly painful stomach cramps, I went to the hospital. The doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me for 16 hours, and gave me no solid food, which just caused other problems. I noticed the stuff they gave me in an IV drip, which was just a different OTC med, immediately made my symptoms disappear. Finally some doc came back and told me I had an “irritated small intestine” and they wanted to hold me overnight and do a colonoscopy.
I said “no thanks”, got the same meds they were giving me at the drugstore, went home, and just made sure I ate better, getting a bit more fiber and some yoghurt in me. After a week, I never had the problem again.
Not the fault of antibiotics, just the over subscription. Antibiotics have save more lives then any ‘natural’ remedy.
Penicillin is a great example ... how many lives would have been lost to venereal disease or how many lives would have been lost to bacterial infections during our many wars if it were not for penicillin?
Well, they all most have held one heck of a party in my stomach last week. I felt the dancing all night long.
Bac Teria and his band of reknown performed, featuring a million instruments and voices in disharmony.
I’ve got to condo-out some of these guys in order to get some sleep.
Well, they all must have held one heck of a party in my stomach last week. I felt the dancing all night long.
Bac Teria and his band of reknown performed, featuring a million instruments and voices in disharmony.
I’ve got to condo-out some of these guys in order to get some sleep
typo fixed.
Yes, that’s the key..I don’t rule them out..just that the overuse has destroyed immunity in so many ways.
No argument here. I just don’t want to count them out as a help in our overall survival.
"Bacteria" is already the plural form - the singular form is "bacterium".
And we have one bad one living in the white hut.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.