Can Taking Bacteria Improve Your Health?

Ever since Flemming brought us Penicillin, we in the west seem to have a love affair with antibiotics. In a way antibiotics have become part of our culture and lie at the heart of the meaning of what "modern" medicine means. However history tells us that it is usually when we learn to take knowledge for granted that the incontrovertible "facts" can often be blown wide open with new evidence.

For example, it was not that many years ago that scientists believed strongly that no bacteria could ever live in the extreme environment of the human stomach. However, we now know differently and call these bacteria extremophiles. History is littered with similar examples. Is there anyone out there who seriously still believes the earth to be flat?

Could the same be true of antibiotics. Please, don't get me wrong, antibiotics are absolutely useful and necessary in many circumstances. Penicillins have revolutionized the treatment of conditions such as pneumonia, and it is without doubt that antibiotics have saved many lives. However, they may not be the cure all, or tonic that many believe. There are a number of associated "harms" with taking antibiotics. What many people do not realise is that when antibiotics take effect, not only do they eliminate bacteria exactly where you want them to (for example in the lungs, in someone who is suffering a chest infection), but throughout the entire body.

Human beings have evolved a symbiotic relationship with bacteria over many millennia. Some of the bacteria that colonize our gut are of little use, but others actually perform a rather useful function. Taking antibiotics wipes the slate clean and destroys all but the most hardy bacteria, leaving what remains to re-colonise the gut. In most cases this re-colonisation is rapid and fairly similar to pre-antibiotic consumption levels. However, occasionally unhelpful bacteria can take hold and this can lead to stomach cramps and persistent diarrhoea which requires further medical intervention. This relates to some of the harms of taking antibiotics that I mentioned previously.

In addition to this, our obsession with clean living and eliminating "germs"in our homes by using cleaning fluids and bleach means that we are even further removed from the symbiotic bacteria we have evolved to live in conjunction with over the period of our evolution.

Recent research suggests that all this clean living and antibiotic taking may have some rather unintended consequences. For example, were you aware that probiotics can actively reduce histamine levels thereby reducing the effects of allergy? Or that probiotics have an active role to play in "programming" the immune system? Moreover our lack of exposure to these bacteria may have implications for medical conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis (which at it's core is an immune mediated inflammation of the joints), fibromyalgia, and asthma. More than this, there is now an established neuroendocrine link between gut health and mental health. Some probiotics have been shown to influence the way the body responds to stress hormones thereby reducing levels of anxiety and stress.

In summary, actively taking bacteria, rather than obsessively killing "germs" may confer a certain significant health benefits. If you are interested in this topic I would encourage further reading. Probiotics which incorporate a number of strains are likely to be of most benefit. These can be bought online relatively inexpensively. I would also suggest taking the probiotics for a trial period of at least 1 month. Finally I would also recommend buying a brand which has a sufficient number of bacteria to be helpful. I would suggest that around 4-5 billion colony forming units per strain would be sufficient.


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