You Are Not You--Part 1

We are taught by our culture that we are each a unique, separate, and independent individual. We think we are in charge of our mind and body, that we alone determine how our being gets along. We see ourselves as an organism that is assembled from a trillion cells that all have our unique identity stamped on them; cells that make up organs and bone and nerves—every one of them containing our exclusive DNA.

Not so. You are not who you think you are. You are not the distinct “you” that you’ve believed all your life. Instead, you are a colony, a society of countless individuals, a complex ecosystem of creatures that work together to form a vast community. For every single one of your trillion cells that constitute your body, there are ten bacterial cells inside you. These bacteria greatly outnumber the total cellular composite that is you—and they are not just visitors passing through, they live in you! You permanently host a massive colony of beings. You are literally a superorganism. You are not you.

Most of our bodily functions are regulated by these bacteria. Another fable that we’ve accepted is that these bacteria are bad guys—they cause disease and infection. True, some do, but the vast majority are beneficial—in fact, they are essential to our health and welfare. Our digestive system could not do its job without countless kinds of bacteria. They provide nutrients and break down otherwise indigestible food. Our immune system would go haywire without bacteria to regulate it and maintain its exquisite balance. We would quickly expire without the help of all these microorganism critters. We need them, far more than they need us.

Only recently has science discovered the role of bacteria in our biome. (Biome: a large community of creatures occupying a significant habitat—usually thought of as a forest or extensive ecosystem.) We have been obsessed with the kinds of bacteria that cause disease. In centuries past, disease was a mysterious malady whose origins were beyond humans. Then, in the late 1800s, microscopes helped us to see these tiny critters and identify some of them as the source of many illnesses of the day. Shortly thereafter, penicillin and other antibiotics were discovered to have an ability to stop the deadly bacteria and bring about miraculous cures. We fell in love with the drugs that kill microorganisms.

We went to war—fighting many varieties of bacterial infections and rendering humanity far healthier than in the past… or so we believed. In our phobia with conquering bacterial infections, we went a little too far. Today our medical professionals prescribe far too many antibiotics—to the point that the rapidly-evolving “bad” bacteria are mutating into new strains of superbugs that can slough off our most sophisticated antibiotics. We’re literally breeding new kinds of super bugs! Our massive factory farms that crowd together staggering numbers of poultry, pigs, cattle, and fish are wonderful breeding grounds for bacteria, so we dose these critters with copious amounts of antibiotics, hoping that they don’t succumb to disease. When we eat these doped-up animals, we ingest their leftover antibiotics and help to keep the microorganism arms race going in our bodies.

More on microbugs next time…