It is a common misconception within
our society that all bacteria are nasty, little, microscopic worms squirming
around all over the McDonald’s playgrounds. Well… that’s not entirely wrong,
but the part that is wrong is the word ALL. Not ALL bacteria is bad, there is
actually “good” bacteria we as humans need. A prime example of this was displayed using 3 month old infants. The study showed that the use of antibiotics during
the infant stage of life could lead to early onset asthma. More than 300 babies
at 3 months of age had their stool collected and the microbial DNA in the
sample sequenced. The study targeted four types of common gut bacteria: Lachnospira, Veillonella, Faecalibacterium, and Rothia. The results showed that 100% of
the infants with low or absent levels of these bacteria would suffer with early
signs of asthma (wheezing and skin allergies) by 1 year of age. The infants who
contained high levels of the bacteria in the stool samples did not develop
the symptoms. So although antibiotics kills the bad, yucky bacteria making us
sick it ALSO kills the good bacteria keeping us healthy!
This image (FLICKR, Justin Schuck) displays the precious feet of an infant baby.
Original Article: Arrieta, Marie-Claire, Steimsma, Leah T., Dimitriu, Pedro A., et al. (2015). Early infancy microbial and metabolic alterations affect risk of childhood asthma. Science Translational Medicine, doi: 10.1126/scitransimed.aab2271
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