Down and Dirty

On a crisp fall day in 1928, Alexander Fleming, a Scottish microbiologist known for his less-than-tidy laboratory, returned from a family holiday to find that one of his staphylococci cultures had been contaminated with a fungus. The fungus produced a substance that killed bacteria that are potentially harmful to humans and penicillin was discovered.

Good guys vs. bad guys

We often think of our fight against germs and disease as an “us versus them” battle. We labor endlessly to find ways to more completely and thoroughly disinfect, sanitize and sterilize the microbiological world around us in our quest to eliminate disease.

Not to disparage sensible hygiene, but the struggle against germs is not just futile, it’s often counterproductive.

The germs do not see their struggle for survival as them against us. Far from it. They struggle against each other as they live their tiny lives on our membrane surfaces, their world, so to speak. The fungi that produced penicillin are but one example and the result is an equilibrium of sorts on our skin and inside our guts. Good bacteria and fungi — the ones that do us no harm — fight off the bad ones.

In this respect, striving to kill bacteria indiscriminately, is misguided. Think of it as fighting terrorism by disarming the passengers and crew — the only proven way to stop a terrorist hijacking. (Oh, wait. I picked a bad example.)

We know, even if we don’t act accordingly, that a healthy, diverse biome is important to wellness. The makeup of our bacteria populations in our gut is now a popular subject of intense research. We know the biome in our gut makes a difference and we suspect that supporting certain good bacteria by eating fermented foods will make us healthier.

But here we are tempted to stray by identifying certain beneficial bacteria — lactobacillus for example — to the exclusion of the rest. We’re still thinking of good guys vs. bad guys. We need to appreciate the wider picture.

Biodiversity is more than good and evil

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