Those germs might actually be good!

You hear the word germs and you probably automatically think about those bacteria on your hands that give you diseases and what not. To an extent your fears are right. However, trillions of microbes live inside your body and help it function more efficiently. Life would actually be extremely difficult if we didn’t have them. You should be less worried about having those bacteria and more worried about what would happen if their balance was disrupted. Today we’ll look a two different studies that show what could happen when these microbes aren’t functioning right.

There are plenty of foods that help build up the good bacteria found in your gut that help with digestion and extracting nutrients for the body to use. A study conducted by Christina Tsigalou, et al. shows that eating too much of those foods might actually be bad for your microbiome. Probiotics are the rage in health benefits, claiming to help improve your microbiome. Although this may be true, too much probiotics alter your microbiome in a way that can hurt you later on. A section of your gut microbiome consists of microbes that make up your resistome. This section builds resistance to antibiotics, which will not come in handy when you come down with an illness and your medicine doesn’t work. Long story short, probiotics are good, just not in excess.

Another study conducted by Weibing Tang, et al. talks about a potentially fatal disease that occurs when you’re not born with the proper gut microbiome. The colon has a plethora of bacteria that aid in digestion. Some people may be born without some of these necessary microbes, leading to Hirschsprung disease. This disruption of the colon can lead to fatal enterocolitis, which is the inflammation of the liver. Although this is not something that you might be able to control once it happens, it is important to know just how vital all the microbiota inside you are.