Man's Miraculous Microbes

Appearances are often deceiving. It took many years to convince earthlings that they are not the center of the universe or that the earth is flat.

Yet most of us are still rather certain that the human race is the most advanced of all species, even though coyotes run faster, dogs can smell better, owls can see at night, bats hear what we can’t, and turtles live far longer than we do. And none of them own an alarm clock to rouse them from sacred slumber and face rush-hour traffic to get to work. Seagulls sit complacently and contemplate the waves, bluebirds soar into the sky and view the world from above, and mischievous monkeys play catch under a shady tree.

Life on Earth has existed for many years, but not so homo erectus. We are a recent arrival. If life on Earth were measured in twelve hours, men arrived just before the clock struck twelve. Mankind has only one species while other life forms have thousands of species, even beetles, fungi, viruses and bacteria. This poses a serious threat to our survival. Remember the Irish potato? When a disease struck that plant, the potatoes in the whole country were wiped out, causing the serious famine of 1740/41.

Scientists recently discovered that the human body has a surprising function—it is host to many thousand species of other life forms, namely bacteria. In fact, researchers estimate that each human being hosts over a hundred trillion of these one-celled organisms, a number reminiscent of the astronomical figure of our national debt. It means that we have ten times more bacterial cells living in our body than we have human cells. The total number of human beings living on this planet is about seven billion; yet the number of microbes living in each and every human being is 14,000 times that large!

Bacteria are tiny and amount to about five pounds of our bodyweight. Yet they seem to have an enormous impact on our life, affecting our health and wellbeing, possibly even our tendency to gain weight.

Thanks to recent research, bacteria are no longer seen as our enemy; they are regarded as our benevolent partners. Hundreds of different bacterial species live in our mouth, our ears, and our gut, for example. This internal world of bacteria of ours, also called microbiome, develops after we’re born and seems to be determined by our early environment, resembling often that of other persons in the household. It can slowly change over time, depending on diet, environment and lifestyle, as well as on the medications we take.

Antibiotics were once considered the Holy Grail for fighting infections. Today, researchers are having second thoughts. Antibiotics kill not only bad bacteria, they kill good bacteria as well, and therefore can upset the harmonious balance of our bacterial microbiome and our health.

One day, researchers hope to find ways to harness our innate bacteria to handle our diseases. They may even find ways to track down the microbes that cause us to gain weight and how to keep them in check.

Life is miraculous and a constant source of wonder and amazement.

Until next time,

Rosi