Some
time ago, Michael Pollan had an article in the New York Times Magazine about
the cohabitation of microbes and human beings. It turns out that each one of
us is a huge colony of cells, some of them specifically human, but the majority
foreign to us. We contain more single-celled microbes than human cells, believe
it or not.
But we coexist with those microbes. They live in us, and on us, and have done so for a very long time, and we have
found ways of coexisting that are beneficial to all. Some microbes help to
regulate our digestion; others regulate our immune systems; and so on.
Example: Helicobacter pylori.
H. pylori was discovered several decades ago to be the main cause of
stomach ulcers. Before this discovery, ulcers were one of those things you just
suffered with, like arthritis. After the discovery, a quick course of specific
antibiotics cured ulcers double-quick.
Except that it turns out that it’s more complicated than
that. H. pylori helps regulate
stomach acid when we’re younger; when we’re older, it causes ulcers. This
(Pollan speculates) may be on purpose: maybe the body and the bacteria are
collaborating to kill us, to move us off the stage so that younger and stronger
people can take over.
H. pylori has been
largely eradicated now. Is this a good thing? Perhaps. Perhaps not.
Pollan also takes on the issue of probiotics. Can we tend our
gut flora as if it were a kitchen garden? Perhaps. We already do it with
yogurt, and pickles, and sauerkraut, and all kinds of things. But now you can
buy foods with “beneficial” microbes, which will colonize your stomach and intestines
and make you unbelievably healthy.
Then there are “prebiotics.”
These are foods that serve as quick-start fuel for microbial populations.
I tried one of these a few years ago.
Evidently I have a very lively microbial population in my
gut. Giving it a little extra food was like giving Hitler the A-bomb.
I will never eat anything labeled “prebiotic” again.
I love my internal microbial population, but I don’t want
them to take over completely.
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