As most of my family and friends know by now, I'm all about promoting the understanding of microbes, or as I call them...."my children".
Several studies have linked the health of bacteria in our guts to our own health. Even more interesting is that science is quickly showing how bacteria control how we feel. In a way, our brains are slaves to our intestinal bacteria. I recently emailed about the study that linked brain inflammation and depression to bad bacteria in our gut. But not all bacteria are bad. In fact, the vast majority of gut bacteria could careless that they are living in our body instead of a turd in a toilet, and some of these non-evil bacteria are also controlling us in a good way!
A very convincing study in mice has just shown that probiotics can relieve inflammation, depression and anxiety. The question remains if they are releasing chemicals that help us directly, or whether they are competing against (and thereby diluting) the harmful effects of the bad bacteria. Either way, this is a reminder that the majority of bacteria want to live with us and not kill us.
Antibiotics cannot select out bad bacteria. Instead, they destroy all bacteria in your body. This is why antibiotic resistance is such a problem. If one bad bacterium evolves to resist the drug, it no longer has any competition in your gut. It OWNS your gut. So the next time you feel anxious or just finished a cycle of antibiotics, think about the health of your bacteria and whether they can use a probiotic yogurt or two.
Brenda also just took notice of a new technique to treat cancer. Viruses! http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2011/08/31/cancer-virus-intravenous-study.html
As you can tell from the comments below the article, most people get their science information from movies and would rather die of cancer then get infected and turn into a carnivorous nocturnal zombie.
The take home message here is that viruses and bacteria have evolved with us and as a result we depend on each other (This of course is only true to those of you that believe in evolution!).
If we want to live healthier and longer lives, we should focus our efforts on how to live with bacteria and not on how to eradicate them.
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