In the same way that the mafia plays a crucial role in the Italian mafia government. They’re still a bunch of dicks, even if they’re working for us. Move ‘em 2 millimeters in the wrong direction and you’ll have a bad time
When bacteria were first discovered, people found them in the gut and thought “oh, that’s horrible. bacteria cause diseases, so we must get rid of them.” it was only found out much later that bacteria in the gut can improve health on average.
the same is true for many other categories of living beings, such as insects (worms), fungi; and now my question is whether it could be the same for viruses?
Some perform tasks, but they largely just take up space, and that’s a good thing. Your body’s full of materials that malignantly pathogenic bacteria would love to get their hands on. Bacteria that are largely incapable of doing anything to us take up space that would otherwise be occupied. You’d likely prefer an old squatter living in your walls, rather than a crackhead. You’d probably choose an electrician, but that’s life. Better they’re largely benign than overtly and desperately malicious.
You factually do have a viral balance in your internal ecosystem. Bacteriophages cull populations, and some viruses hyper-specialize in attacking cancer. There are more examples, but I can’t immediately recall
i’m interested in actually understanding what functions what elements of the gut microbiome perform. but i guess that’s a highly complicated topic, so i expect no quick answers
You’re asking a question without a complete answer, as it’s a complex system in active research, but truthfully, I only know of a couple offhandedly. Some strains of lactobacillus occupy space largely benignly, and some E. coli produce vitamin k. But mostly, they’re just eating and multiplying. Hit up Wikipedia for an abundance of specifics.
Take some of those same bacteria and set them directly against the intestinal lining without any of the delicious mucus in the way and you’ll have a slightly unpleasant time. And I’m being literal. It’ll be aggravating, and deleterious to your long term health, but usually not immediately life threatening. They’re absolutely beneficial, but they’re in it for themselves. They’re not beneficent, they just are, which was all the point I intended to make.
Pretty sure those “horrible little scalawags” play some pretty crucial roles in the human microbiome…
In the same way that the mafia plays a crucial role in the Italian
mafiagovernment. They’re still a bunch of dicks, even if they’re working for us. Move ‘em 2 millimeters in the wrong direction and you’ll have a bad timeI’m actually interested, is this true?
When bacteria were first discovered, people found them in the gut and thought “oh, that’s horrible. bacteria cause diseases, so we must get rid of them.” it was only found out much later that bacteria in the gut can improve health on average.
the same is true for many other categories of living beings, such as insects (worms), fungi; and now my question is whether it could be the same for viruses?
Some perform tasks, but they largely just take up space, and that’s a good thing. Your body’s full of materials that malignantly pathogenic bacteria would love to get their hands on. Bacteria that are largely incapable of doing anything to us take up space that would otherwise be occupied. You’d likely prefer an old squatter living in your walls, rather than a crackhead. You’d probably choose an electrician, but that’s life. Better they’re largely benign than overtly and desperately malicious.
You factually do have a viral balance in your internal ecosystem. Bacteriophages cull populations, and some viruses hyper-specialize in attacking cancer. There are more examples, but I can’t immediately recall
thank you, that makes sense to me.
i’m interested in actually understanding what functions what elements of the gut microbiome perform. but i guess that’s a highly complicated topic, so i expect no quick answers
You’re asking a question without a complete answer, as it’s a complex system in active research, but truthfully, I only know of a couple offhandedly. Some strains of lactobacillus occupy space largely benignly, and some E. coli produce vitamin k. But mostly, they’re just eating and multiplying. Hit up Wikipedia for an abundance of specifics.
Are you referring to getting, I dunno, yogurt in places outside the digestive tract?
My understanding was that gut bacteria play a pretty crucial (beneficial) role in overall health, not to mention the whole gut-brain stuff.
Take some of those same bacteria and set them directly against the intestinal lining without any of the delicious mucus in the way and you’ll have a slightly unpleasant time. And I’m being literal. It’ll be aggravating, and deleterious to your long term health, but usually not immediately life threatening. They’re absolutely beneficial, but they’re in it for themselves. They’re not beneficent, they just are, which was all the point I intended to make.