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."

Comments

Re:Probiotic supplements

[ceoyoyo]

Wow. My "medical theory 'modern dirt has everything you need'?" Are you serious?

Reading on, I see that you're not. "the Jarrow Labs EPS is crap. I'm taking Nature's Way Primadophilus Optima probiotics."

So yeah. Another infomercial.

Re:Easy solution

[PCM2]

If your immune system was up to snuff, getting some fecal matter and germs on you, in normal concentrations, would not bother you at all, OCD Boy.

Given that the fecal-oral route is a main method of transmission of everything from influenza to e. coli, hepatitis A, cholera, shigella, giardia, clostridium, cryptosporidium, typhoid, and various parasites, just for starters -- and many of these wouldn't exist if they couldn't complete their lifecycles by getting into your mouth via fecal contamination -- I'd say most infectious disease specialists would disagree with you. Some of these agents can get you very sick; a travel doctor once told me that you almost always recover from hepatitis A, but while you're ill you'll feel so awful you'll wish you were never born. Maybe it's just my OCD, but I went ahead and got the vaccine.

Then again, the nature of your statement leads me to wonder: Just what do you consider to be "normal concentrations" of feces on your hands?

Wash your hands, people, with soap. Don't worry about what kind of soap it is. The act of rubbing your hands together with a surfactant does more to remove germs from the surface of your skin than antimicrobial chemicals in soap do anyway.