Understanding Your Body #1: Bacteriaphobia

Aversion to germs is a Western tradition. We believe that everything we touch is filthy and will make us sick. We disinfect our kitchens, bleach our toilet bowls, even douse our bodies with antibacterial chemicals in an effort to feel safe. We follow a regimen of inoculations beginning minutes after birth in an effort to protect us from germs that might cause disease. Cleanliness is next to Godliness, we cry as we gargle, brush, floss, scour, wash, wipe and spray germs to death. Are we really any safer because of this or any less likely to get sick?

An irrational fear of germs not only alienates us from the natural world, it puts our children’s health at risk and drives a mega-billion dollar segment of our economy. You've probably seen the television advertisement of the smiling woman fogging the room with disinfectant spray while her baby sits on the carpet at her feet. It would be more humane for her to simply drop a brick on the infant's head.

Most germs are not our enemies but our allies. Since between 50 and 90 percent of a human body is non-human, harsh chemicals that kill germs harm us as well.

Germs are everywhere. They are unavoidable. Germs are in the soil, in the air, in every bite of food we eat. Our skin crawls with them, they inhabit our gut and nasal passages and colonize our eyeballs. Aspects of our immune system and cellular structure are nearly indistinguishable from germs. Our existence began as germs and eventually we discorporate back into bacteria, viruses and fungi.

Bacteria and fungi form the very ground from which all life emerges. They feed on each other and recycle dead organics, reducing it into its basic building blocks, unlocking what is needed by the living biosphere. Bacteria and fungi compete to form a dynamic and yet stable biological balance.

Viruses are an incomplete life form: packets of DNA that must use another cell’s biological machinery to reproduce. They splice themselves onto the host’s DNA and force it to produce viral copies. Segments of viral DNA are evident in your own DNA, leading some biologists to propose that viruses play a key role in the genetic mutations that drive evolution and over the eons, have created all of the earth’s diverse life forms—from canaries to coconut palms.

Your body contains more cells that don’t carry your DNA than do. It’s true. All life, no matter how complex, is really a cooperative of specialized cells working in concert to form an organism.

For example, mitochondria are tiny cells within our cells—specialized organelles that produce all the energy our bodies run on. Cell biologist believe that mitochondria were once free-living bacteria engulfed by an ameba-like cell to form a symbiotic relationship that led to the evolution of all animal cells. Like simple bacteria, mitochondria have their own DNA. And like bacteria, mitochondria reproduce by cloning--dividing without any recombination of genes. While your body cells are a combination of genes from your mother and father, all your mitochondria are exact copies of the mitochondria present in the original, unfertilized egg cell you grew out of. Put another way, all of the mitochondria in all of your cells are exact copies of your mother's mitochondria.

Healthy intestines resemble a compost heap containing upwards of 1000 different species of bacteria, viruses, protozoans and fungi. Fully thirty percent of the matter that you expel from your intestines each day wasn’t taken in through the mouth. It was home grown: an organic mass of biota. These friendly germs finish the digestive process creating Vitamins K, B12, thiamine and riboflavin in the process. Resident, beneficial intestinal bacteria also work with immune system to help it differentiate between pathogenic and benign germs.

90 percent of the neurotransmitter serotonin is produced in the gut by beneficial bacteria. In addition to many other bodily and mental functions, serotonin is responsible for mood. A lack of serotonin in the brain results in depression and the most widely used prescription antidepressants are the SSRIs, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors that slow the natural removal of this neurotransmitter from the brain. Does it seems logical that the disruption of gut ecology could be a major factor in the epidemic of depression plaguing the Western world?

Antibiotics are purified fungal extracts that inhibit bacterial growth. For bacterial infections they are true miracle drugs, but antibiotics have no effect whatsoever on viruses and actually promote the growth of yeasts. Taking antibiotics when you have viral infections like the cold or flu is a misuse that opens the door to fungal infections and reduces antibiotic effectiveness by aiding the development of antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria.

The use of antiseptic deodorant soap actually promotes body odor. Our skin is home to many beneficial bacteria that form a barrier against germs like strep and staph that patiently await a chance to feed upon our cells. Deodorant soaps destroy this protective layer of germs, allowing colonization of our skin by opportunistic decay organisms. Without competition, these germs grow fast in moist, dead skin cells, often releasing unpleasant odors in the process. The body odor you experience after using antibacterial soap is the smell of your skin rotting.

Medical researchers are beginning to link allergies and early exposure of children to strong antiseptics. Infants need exposure to environmental germs to properly condition and develop their immune systems. While nursing, the mother’s milk protects the baby from pathogenic germs while promoting the colonization of the baby’s intestines with beneficial flora. Overuse of antiseptics not only creates an unnatural, sterile environment, it exposes the infant to life-destroying chemicals. The child’s innate immune system has no biological reference for modern antiseptics. Under chemical attack, the confused immune system may create inappropriate antibodies to foods, dust or pollens, and sensitivities to chemicals or other environmental factors.

Giving immunization shots to children causes even greater harm. Directly injecting chemicals laced with pathogenic bacteria directly into the blood, even weakened or dead strains, causes massive confusion of a child's budding immune system fostering severe allergic reactions to normal environmental substances and/or autoimmune diseases where the body attacks it’s own tissues.

It's time to stop buying into the scare tactics the power structure uses to keep you dependent. Few germs will hurt you and most of them are your allies. They are part of who you are. The majority of dangerous germs come from contact with other humans and in packaged or fast foods from retail outlets or factory farms. Washing your hands with mild soap is an easy way to prevent the spread of disease, especially if you have been in a germ-laden public place like a school, shopping mall, hospital or doctor’s office. Rinsing organic fruits and vegetables under running water, braising meats, drinking clean water, keeping pets out of the house and the use of simple personal hygiene are your best actions to insure cleanliness and freedom from infectious disease.