All this anti-bacterial frenzy ignores the truth that our
bodies cannot live without our friends the bacteria. In just the last few
decades has science begun to realize the beneficial role of many types of
internal bacteria. We’d best learn to call a truce in our bacterial wars, or
we’re gonna crash and become part of our own “collateral damage.”
But breeding new species of super bugs is not the only
unfortunate fallout of our war on bacteria. Some recent research seems to be
pointing the way toward the increasing incidence of autoimmune diseases and
other chronic modern ailments. It’s still a mystery exactly why such diseases
as Crohn’s disease, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and others are
escalating, but our blundering is probably involved. We are altering our
environment and upsetting biological balances that were built over eons. It’s
becoming clear that antibiotics are a significant cause of autoimmune
disorders. How?
The driving force behind our immune system is not a
self-contained mechanism run by us, but is created primarily by beneficial
bacteria. Ever since we became a separate species (about 200,000 years ago),
our immune system has been able to tread a delicate balance between being too
lax (thus failing to detect and battle foreign pathogens) and too aggressive (and
attacking our own cells). Beneficial bacteria have trained our immune system to
achieve that crucial balance. It’s not our own DNA that does the job, but
bacterial (non-human) DNA. But now we’re upsetting that balance. We’ve
saturated our bodies with antibiotics to the point that our immune system is
confused and sometimes attacks our own cells.
Another way we mess up our immune system is by not exposing
babies to dirt. We’ve become so obsessed with protecting our newborns from
nasty bugs that we raise them in as sterile an environment as we can. Meeting a
paucity of microorganisms, their immune systems never get a chance to become
robust and balanced. This is a particular problem today, as more women are
receiving cesarean sections to deliver their babies. The womb is an incredible
bug-shielding organ. As an embryo develops from two cells to a trillion, it can
safely do so in the womb’s sterile environment—without being turned into some
kind of monster by mom’s invading bugs. But to survive in this dirty world, a
newborn must very quickly develop its
immune system. That process begins as it descends the bacterial-laden birth
canal, and continues, as the baby sucks bacterial-laden mother’s milk and
inhales Uncle Charlie’s bacterial-laden breath.
But a baby born by C-section immediately pops from a sterile
womb into a germ infested world, with no preparation in the birth canal. We
aggravate the situation by spraying disinfectant on everything that baby
touches. Result: an out-of-balance immune system that goes haywire and either
allows otherwise harmless bacteria to beat it down or goes into overdrive and
attacks itself.
So the next time your doctor starts to write you out a
prescription for a course of antibiotics for some non-lethal infection, you
might think about declining. The next time you talk with an expectant mother,
you might caution her about the sterile danger of a C-section and encourage her
to breastfeed. If neither of these opportunities arises, express a little
gratitude for all the friendly foreign critters who make their abode inside
you. Your life literally depends on them!
[Note: Some of the information
that stimulated this posting is found in the
June 2012 issue of Scientific American.]
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