Revenge of the Germs !
Those whom the gods would destroy they first make mad ! Those whom the germs would destroy they first make miserable!
Common wisdom has it that we arose from the primordial ooze, and over the course of four billion years have attained our current status at the peak of the evolutionary heap. The simpler and more primitive creatures of the world are definitely considered to be our genetic inferiors. However, like many relatives, they can be amazingly irritating. They often seem determined to punish us for our snooty sense of superiority.
First came stomach ulcers. We used to think that ulcers were caused by stress, spicy food, and evil living. The ideal treatment was surgery - chopping out bits of the stomach and the nerves to the stomach. Eventually we developed drugs to suppress acid production. This has almost eliminated ulcer surgery. Even more recently we have discovered that the majority of ulcers are actually caused by an infection. A sneaky little bugger of a bug called Helicobacter pylori loves to live in acid. It therefore stimulates our poor stomach to produce all the acid that causes so many of our symptoms. Now that we have figured out its cruel ploy we have been able to devise a cure. What once used to require major abdominal surgery can now be treated with a week of strong antibiotics.
Next came heart disease. We generally believe that heart disease is caused by our arteries being clogged up with cholesterol. Years of low cholesterol diets and extensive exercise were thought to be the only way to prevent heart attacks and death. Then cholesterol-lowering drugs were invented, with a dramatic decrease in heart attacks. And just lately we have discovered that germs may be at least the partial cause of coronary artery disease. A type of infection called chlamydia seems to be important for heart disease. Chlamydia has been found in the fatty deposits in blocking coronary arteries in people who have already had heart attacks.
Researchers at Boston University in Massachusetts compared medical records of 16,000 British patients. They found that those who had taken certain antibiotics for anything from ear infections to tonsillitis were only one third to one half as likely to have heart attacks. Scientists at the University of Toronto showed that by deliberately infecting and mice with chlamydia they could create cholesterol deposits in their arteries. Doctors are currently in doing research in United States and in Europe on the feasibility of giving antibiotics to people at high risk for heart disease. We should know by next year whether or not antibiotics can prevent heart attacks.
The same may be true of arthritis. Both rheumatoid and degenerative arthritis are now occasionally treated with antibiotics. And the antibiotics definitely do create an improvement, although so far only a small one.
Have you ever wondered why so many doctors who treat asthma also have asthma themselves ? So did they! So they studied themselves. They proved that people who work with asthmatics tend to become wheezy themselves. This means that some sort of transmissible agent can trigger asthma. Another germ getting some sort of sinister revenge. Perhaps some future day we will be able to cure asthma with a short course of antibiotics, just as we now can cure stomach ulcers.
Gut rot is another problem we think is caused by germs. The more official terms are ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. Both are associated with severe abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea. We have thought for many years that these diseases were infections, possibly with germs related to Tuberculosis or the Black Death. We are coming closer every day to discovering what the exact infection is.
Perhaps the worst news of all is that we may actually need many of our germs. Up to 50 percent of the dry weight of poop is dead bacteria from our intestines. If we lose these bacteria we are often worse off than when we had them. Many modern yogurts actually boast that they contain "good germs" , like lactobacillis bifidis, which help our bowels be happier. Recent studies show that the normal bacteria in our intestines drop-off with the development of gut rot. A fascinating new therapy is to deliberately give patients intestinal worms to try and boost up their internal germ count. The preliminary results are amazing -after deliberately giving patients with severe bowel disease intestinal worms, five out of six patients went into complete remission.
Even the age old maggot has its uses. The only effective way to treat many flesh eating infections is to cut away all the dead tissue that the germs live on. Doctors can do this with scalpels and bone saws, but maggots are much more and precise and patient. They love to eat dead tissue, and leave even minute bits of healthy tissue completely alone. Believe it or not, doctors now deliberately put maggots into severely infected wounds - to the great benefit of patients!
So germs help us and hurt us in more ways that we have even expected. They cause some diseases that you would never expect, and cure others in surprising ways. Perhaps someday we will even find the love bug. If that happens I hope we don't look too hard for a cure!
Common wisdom has it that we arose from the primordial ooze, and over the course of four billion years have attained our current status at the peak of the evolutionary heap. The simpler and more primitive creatures of the world are definitely considered to be our genetic inferiors. However, like many relatives, they can be amazingly irritating. They often seem determined to punish us for our snooty sense of superiority.
First came stomach ulcers. We used to think that ulcers were caused by stress, spicy food, and evil living. The ideal treatment was surgery - chopping out bits of the stomach and the nerves to the stomach. Eventually we developed drugs to suppress acid production. This has almost eliminated ulcer surgery. Even more recently we have discovered that the majority of ulcers are actually caused by an infection. A sneaky little bugger of a bug called Helicobacter pylori loves to live in acid. It therefore stimulates our poor stomach to produce all the acid that causes so many of our symptoms. Now that we have figured out its cruel ploy we have been able to devise a cure. What once used to require major abdominal surgery can now be treated with a week of strong antibiotics.
Next came heart disease. We generally believe that heart disease is caused by our arteries being clogged up with cholesterol. Years of low cholesterol diets and extensive exercise were thought to be the only way to prevent heart attacks and death. Then cholesterol-lowering drugs were invented, with a dramatic decrease in heart attacks. And just lately we have discovered that germs may be at least the partial cause of coronary artery disease. A type of infection called chlamydia seems to be important for heart disease. Chlamydia has been found in the fatty deposits in blocking coronary arteries in people who have already had heart attacks.
Researchers at Boston University in Massachusetts compared medical records of 16,000 British patients. They found that those who had taken certain antibiotics for anything from ear infections to tonsillitis were only one third to one half as likely to have heart attacks. Scientists at the University of Toronto showed that by deliberately infecting and mice with chlamydia they could create cholesterol deposits in their arteries. Doctors are currently in doing research in United States and in Europe on the feasibility of giving antibiotics to people at high risk for heart disease. We should know by next year whether or not antibiotics can prevent heart attacks.
The same may be true of arthritis. Both rheumatoid and degenerative arthritis are now occasionally treated with antibiotics. And the antibiotics definitely do create an improvement, although so far only a small one.
Have you ever wondered why so many doctors who treat asthma also have asthma themselves ? So did they! So they studied themselves. They proved that people who work with asthmatics tend to become wheezy themselves. This means that some sort of transmissible agent can trigger asthma. Another germ getting some sort of sinister revenge. Perhaps some future day we will be able to cure asthma with a short course of antibiotics, just as we now can cure stomach ulcers.
Gut rot is another problem we think is caused by germs. The more official terms are ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. Both are associated with severe abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea. We have thought for many years that these diseases were infections, possibly with germs related to Tuberculosis or the Black Death. We are coming closer every day to discovering what the exact infection is.
Perhaps the worst news of all is that we may actually need many of our germs. Up to 50 percent of the dry weight of poop is dead bacteria from our intestines. If we lose these bacteria we are often worse off than when we had them. Many modern yogurts actually boast that they contain "good germs" , like lactobacillis bifidis, which help our bowels be happier. Recent studies show that the normal bacteria in our intestines drop-off with the development of gut rot. A fascinating new therapy is to deliberately give patients intestinal worms to try and boost up their internal germ count. The preliminary results are amazing -after deliberately giving patients with severe bowel disease intestinal worms, five out of six patients went into complete remission.
Even the age old maggot has its uses. The only effective way to treat many flesh eating infections is to cut away all the dead tissue that the germs live on. Doctors can do this with scalpels and bone saws, but maggots are much more and precise and patient. They love to eat dead tissue, and leave even minute bits of healthy tissue completely alone. Believe it or not, doctors now deliberately put maggots into severely infected wounds - to the great benefit of patients!
So germs help us and hurt us in more ways that we have even expected. They cause some diseases that you would never expect, and cure others in surprising ways. Perhaps someday we will even find the love bug. If that happens I hope we don't look too hard for a cure!