Friendly Bugs

News | Christine Dionese L.Ac | January 8, 2010 at 5:36 pm

You might be surprised to learn that the human body holds more bacterial than human cells. While alternative medical practitioners have been educating us for years now on balancing the immune system with beneficial bacteria (pro-biotics and pre-biotics), conventional medicine is only recently acknowledging this vital role. With the rapidly growing rate of antibiotic overuse, micro-biologists urge medical practitioners to consider this when prescribing drugs that may kill certain essential microbes. Researchers fear that as a society we’ve focused so much on “clean living” that we’ve perhaps taken what they describe as our “ancient allies” for granted. At this point, what’s necessary is ascertaining which bacteria, protozoa, fungi, and viruses are essential for a healthy system to thrive. (Via Scientific American)