• Question: can a certain amount of bacteria be good for you ? or is it all bad ?

    Asked by racheld to Sarah, Panos, Michael, Mark, MarkF on 18 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Mark Fogg

      Mark Fogg answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      We need bacteria to help digest our food, so yes, certain species of bacteria are good for us. When we are young, they can help ‘train’ our immune system too.

    • Photo: Mark Travis

      Mark Travis answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Some bacteria is definitely go for you. The bacteria that is present in our intestines (called the microflora) is very important in digestion of food and keeping us healthy. Also, there are certain bacterial strains that are classed as probiotics. These are included in a number of foods (mostly yoghurt-based products) and are supposed to improve our health and make us feel better (you have probably seen adverts for yoghurts like this!). There is great debate as to whether these probiotics do really imporve health, and if so, how.

    • Photo: Michael Loughlin

      Michael Loughlin answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      well if we got rid of them all we’d die pretty quick as nothing would ever decay so no nutrients would be recycled. Oxygen would be short and many microbes phtosynthesise and release o2 from CO2
      cows would starve as they don’t break down grass bacteria in their first stomach (rumen) do
      so not a good time for us to be honest better living with them

      and bacteria in out system protect us from more dangerous bacteria by outcompeting them and genrally getting in the way of them harming us

    • Photo: Panos Soultanas

      Panos Soultanas answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      Rachel,

      A lot of bacteria are good for you. Many live in your gut and help you stay healthy.

    • Photo: Sarah Burl

      Sarah Burl answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      Some bacteria is good for you. Experiments have shown that without good bacteria in the gut then you are more susceptible to other diseases therefore after taking antibiotics that gets rid of a lot of your good bacteria as well as the bad can allow other infections to multiple and cause problems.

Comments