Bacteria stereotyping

As with most things, there is good and bad. Likewise, this concept can be applied to bacteria; they can be beneficial or harmful to you. Bacteria aren’t all bad; in fact you couldn’t survive without some bacteria! Before discussing the difference between good and bad bacteria, you must be asking yourself this simple question, what exactly are bacteria? Bacteria can be defined as ubiquitous microscopic organisms.

Basically this means that they are living and can be found everywhere but not visible with the naked eye.

Bacteria have only one cell, and it’s shaped like a sphere, a rod or a spiral.

The singular of bacteria is called a bacterium, and this is really tiny; millions would fit on the head of a pin! In fact, bacteria are so numerous that for every human cell in your body, there are approximately ten bacterial cells.

So long story short, we are surrounded by bacteria and cannot get away from them. And as we may know some bacteria can be harmful to humans (pathogenic). However, did you know that only a small number of bacteria can actually cause diseases? Pathogenic bacteria can originate from environmental toxins, stress or even from the food and water you intake. These harmful bacteria invade your body cells and can cause sickness, infection or in extreme cases, death.

Some examples of the debilitating effects of bacteria are: • Pneumonia- Streptococcus pneumonia • Meningitis- Haemophilus influenza • Strep Throat- Group A Streptococcus • Food poisoning- Escherichia coli, Salmonella As a result, you have been taught from young about maintaining proper hygienic practices in order to reduce the risk of gaining infection from bacteria. And those are practices that you should continue to follow since these will aid in keeping some of the bad bacteria away.

But like we mentioned before, they are not all bad. Actually, many types of bacteria can be beneficial to you. Some beneficial bacteria also known as probiotics can either be found naturally in your body or can be obtained from foods (eg yogurt, miso, kefir, sauerkraut, tempeh) and supplements.

Probiotics in your intestines act as the superman against the Lex Luthor of bad bacteria. Your superheroes protect the intestines in our body, the typical ‘damsel in distress’, against the bad bacteria by maintaining an acidic environment and cutting them off from the nutrients in your body.

The mucosal tissue of your intestine is also fortified by probiotics which prevent toxins from gaining entry.

Probiotics assist in digestion by maximizing the nutrients you get from your food. They break down the complex sugars, proteins and fats which are converted to energy for your body.

Although you may obtain vitamins externally from food or supplements, did you know your helpful bacteria synthesize them by breaking them down? Examples of such bacteria include: • Lactobacillus acidophilus which produces vitamin K • Enteric bacteria which produce vitamin B-12 You may now be wondering if antibiotics and antibacterial products will kill only the harmful bacteria.

Here’s the truth: Antibiotics and antibacterial products hold no prejudice. Along with the harmful bacteria in the body, they also kill the beneficial ones.

Thus, you become more susceptible in contracting infections or can even develop bacteria that become resistant to antibiotics with prolonged use.

According to Microbe Magic, some of the other great things about bacteria are good bacteria are used in making some of the dairy products you like to eat like yogurts and even some types of medicines like vaccines! Bacteria are some of the best decomposers – they break down dead and decaying organic matter, from leaves to insects. For some bacteria their diet is not very different from yours because they live in your mouth or digestive system and eat the food you eat.

There are bacteria out there however who will eat anything! Bacteria have been found that will eat dangerous or harmful substances, like oil and these are used to clean up oil spills to keep our environment healthy. Bacteria have learnt to live anywhere so they have learnt to eat whatever is close by to survive which is a good thing for us. Some bacteria even make fuel like Methane, this is made by bacteria that live deep underground and sometimes underwater, wherever there is no oxygen.

So before you simply label all bacteria as being harmful, please remember that we may not be able to survive without some of them.

For more information on Microbes and our Food and General Microbiology Unit, please contact us at 299-0210 ext 5048 or via email at awilliams@cariri.com