The bacterial world is poorly understood. Ever since the discovery of bacteria in pond water by the Dutch scientist Anton van Leeuwenhoek, in 1676, only a small number of bacteria have been associated with disease. The vast majority of microorganisms are not associated with diseases.
Most of the organisms found on the human body are associated with health. Out of necessity, medical scientists focused on the disease-carrying potential of bacteria and largely ignored the more beneficial organisms, considering them as merely "innocent bystanders" until only recently.
This narrow focus on disease association has had several unfortunate results. By associating most bacteria with infection, the public has learned to fear bacteria and has employed many techniques for trying to eliminate bacteria from the environment.
The landmark event that led us down this avenue began with the Austrian physician Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis, who demonstrated the pathogenicity of bacteria in the maternity ward in 1847. Semmelweis was ultimately ostracized and humiliated for this revolutionary concept, but since that time, our culture has adopted his views and taken them to the opposite extreme.
The pendulum has swung the other way, and we are now faced with a society that vilifies and fears bacteria. The gray area between these two viewpoints needs further exploration.
The gray area suggests that bacteria play many roles in health and illness, but they are intrinsically necessary for our own survival and that of the environment. [1.] Bacteria are collectively essential as the mortar that holds both our health and the ecosystem together. It is important to modify the way society views bacteria to incorporate the scientific understanding of how important these organisms really are. [2.]
Recent investigations demonstrate that the biomass of bacterial species is not only the most abundant, but also comprises the most important organisms on this planet as well as on our bodies. Disturbances of health and physical functioning are increasingly being tied to the imbalances that result from the destruction and elimination of these organisms because of antibiotic strategies. [3.]
Far from being uniformly dangerous, bacteria are essential to the health of the body and to the environment. [4.] The healthy mouth is home to more than 200 different bacterial species, and the human body is home to several trillion resident bacteria.
Antibiotic-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) is a ubiquitous bacterial species found throughout the ecosystem, on the skin, and in the respiratory tracts of most healthy humans. [5.] Its presence is normal and not a cause for any alarm or concern. MSSA poses no risk to human health as long as the immune system is functioning normally.
Although MSSA is part of the "normal bacterial flora" existing on and in the human body, infections with MSSA can develop when normal immunity breaks down or is disrupted by some other factor. Disruption of immunity can occur for many reasons, both extrinsic and intrinsic to the host organism.
Such immune breakdowns can be triggered by various events, including mechanical breaks in the skin and epithelium (trauma and injury), pre-existing illnesses that weaken the immune system (diabetes, leukemia, obesity, and the like), medications that suppress the immune system (steroids, antibiotics, and immune modulating agents), nutritional factors (vitamin deficiency, dietary errors), and even emotional factors (including stress and depression).
When immune disruption occurs, infection with MSSA can develop as a secondary process. Left to its own devices, MSSA is not normally an invasive or aggressively infectious organism. When the immune system is suppressed, damaged, or disrupted, the situation changes, and it can become opportunistically invasive.
Next week: Part 3, How antibiotics changed MSSA into MRSA
References:
1. Hoy S, Chasing Dirt: The American Pursuit of Cleanliness, Oxford University Press, 1995.
2. Sachs JS, Good Germs, Bad Germs, Health and Survival in a Bacterial World, Hill and Wang, New York 2007.
3. Bach JF, The Effect of Infections on Susceptibility to Autoimmune and Allergic Diseases, NEJM 347, 2002:911–20.
4. Zuger A, Separating Friend from Foe Among the Body's Invaders, New York Times, Science Times, November 27, 2007:F5, F7.
5. Kluytmans J, et al., Nasal Carriage of Staphylococcus Aureus: Epidemiology, Underlying Mechanisms, and Associated Risks, Clinical Microbiology Reviews 10, 1997: 505-20.
Ronald D. Whitmont, M.D., is a board-certified internist with a private practice of classical homeopathy in New York.
Dr. Whitmont's Web site
This paper was initially presented at the 2007 annual meeting of the Homeopathic Medical Society of the State of New York.
HMSSNY Web site
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