This way of looking at disease posits that there are not only microbial "germs" but a human biome that is largely protective of human health even when these normally pathological "germs" are present.
Broad-spectrum antibiotics kill not only the germ targeted but other helpful bacteria that are normally on "our side," the probiotics advocates claim.
It looks like they're right!
Clostoridium Difficle is a bacterium that causes severe intestinal disease ... but mostly among people who have been using antibiotics, often in hospitals.
A study just published trying the ancient remedy of fecal transplant: that's transferring fecal matter from a healthy person to one suffering from C. Difficle. The study group showed this technique to be so effective (15 of 16 patients helped) versus the control groups using standard antibiotic therapy (3 of 14 and 4 of 14) that the study was halted. It was thought to be unethical to continue when the study group was getting such profoundly better results.
The transplant apparently restores a full suite of helpful bacteria to the suffering patient, restoring C. Difficile to its rightful place in the background, causing no further harm.
Have some yogurt!
References:
The New York Times article
"Germs are Us" from the New Yorker
The Wild Life of Our Bodies
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