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Microbes That Keep Us Healthy Starting To Die Off
Dr_Ken writes with a quote from Scientific American:
"The human body has some 10 trillion human cells—but 10 times that number of microbial cells. So what happens when such an important part of our bodies goes missing? With rapid changes in sanitation, medicine and lifestyle in the past century, some of these indigenous species are facing decline, displacement and possibly even extinction. In many of the world's larger ecosystems, scientists can predict what might happen when one of the central species is lost, but in the human microbial environment—which is still largely uncharacterized—most of these rapid changes are not yet understood. 'This is the next frontier and has real significance for human health, public health and medicine,' says Betsy Foxman, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in Ann Arbor. Meanwhile, each new generation in developed countries comes into the world with fewer of these native populations. 'They're actually missing some component of their microbiota that they've evolved to have,' Foxman says."
Whether or not we "need" them can only be judged retrospectively, and not after a fairly sudden (in evolutionary terms) change in environment before the consequences have worked out - us having evolved to have them would probably indicate that they give some sort of advantage to not having them.
That supposed total of 110 trillion cells overall weigh about 150 pounds. Are the microbial cells really something like 1% the weight on average of a human cell? 100 trillion microbial cells seems hard to believe.
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make install -not war
Basically. If you somehow lost them all in the same proportion, this might not happen. The general problem is that you take, for example, an antibiotic like clindamycin that selectively kills anaerobes of the gut but not Clostridium Difficile. Now all of a sudden you have created a selective pressure that favors the growth of C.diff, and you develop an infection with pseudomembranous colitis.
Maybe less really is more sometimes. I.e. there probably is such a thing as being too clean. No need to swing to the other extreme.
I tend to agree. I am more on the age of thinking, "If i'm not dying(sick in bed), I don't need medicine."
My mother also raised me this way when I was a crawling around on the ground/toddler. Out of my friends I always seem to be the one that doesn't get sick hardly ever. I don't know if that is a trend means I am special. Perhaps I was exposed to more bacteria on a regular basis when I was young, and therefore my immune system grew stronger. Either way, it is an interesting trend.
Parent is correct in pointing out this basic failure to recognize the problem with averages in statistics.
In addition, abortions can also be counted as early deaths.
We already save many that would naturally die which has skewed the average even further. If the technology froze, one would expect the average to go down as the genetic defects live long enough to reproduce and increase the defect rates possibly leading to complications medicine can not fully counter.
Just think about it -- a dominant defective trait allowed to continue leads a large demographic of people (or all humans) who have some sort of defect that requires advanced technology to continue the species... The makings of an interesting science fiction story?
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I hate to play pedant, but that's a poor analogy. Cattle have been bred to mature quickly; meanwhile the never-fully domesticated Elephants of Africa and India rival humans for their long maturation and gestation periods.
/IANA Micro-biologist
Microbes, on the other hand, are easy to breed in quantity once you have established their optimal developmental environment. Once we work out what we have inside and around us and what we need, we could conceivably tailor our anti-biotic intake based on our inherited and environmental differences.
'Intelligently planned' biotic yoghurt supplements may be the next big thing in preventative health care.
The Hygiene hypothesis postulates that the seeming rise in food and other allergies and auto-immune diseases like Crohn's coincides with the rise in hygiene in the developed world.
The immune system evolved in an environment with many more challenges from both symbiotic and parasitic organisms. Excessive hygiene shifts the equilibrium towards the immune system attacking itself.
If fact, Helminthic therapy has shown promise in Crohn's. Infecting patients with parasites or the killed eggs of parasites give the immune system something to chew on other than your own mucosa.
This is a good a reason to breed your own microbes contained within Home brewed Beer and Wine, Sauerkraut, Kim-chi, Sourdough, and Kombucha. http://www.wildfermentation.com/ And set the stage for microbal growth in your local farm soil ecosystems, by participating in and supporting organic agriculture.
Industrializing elephants wouldn't work out so well for the creatures we know as elephants today. 10 of the 12 Bovini are either entirely domesticated or highly endangered, and the Bos taurus of which we have a billion are not viable outside of highly controlled artificial conditions which optimize for milk and steak. For related reasons, the species of chicken and swine which we have in abundance wouldn't be worthwhile to preserve if our primary concern is ecological health or diversity.
There are 1.1... kinds of people.
The vast majority of bacteria are either harmless or beneficial to their human host. Only a very small number of bacteria are pathogenic, and most of the time your body does a great job keeping those out. Here's a great book for bacteria spotters, amateur and pro, which tells you how to find bacteria without a microscope.
http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=3864
http://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Bacteria-Comstock-Book/dp/0801488540
Lies. I had pets when I was a kid and I'm still allergic to them.
God forbid we stop prescribing medicines all willy-nilly when they're not necessary just to quite down parents and belly-achers.
I go to the Doctor when it's serious: i.e., it's not getting better, it's getting worse, it's life-threatening or infected. I do not go to the doctor every time my throat hurts. That's just silly.
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man: no entry for woman in the manual.
"Qua!?"
No problem :)
As for your question, infection implies pathological invasion of the host. Otherwise you are merely colonized with the organism. For example, many people have MRSA present inside their nose, but that doesn't mean they are infected. And yes, you do have a symbiotic relationship with your bacteria, especially the skin and gut. Just have a look at wikipedia for lots of fun facts.