Our Friends, the Bacteria

Below is a link to a New England Journal of Medicine article this week. Family members Wilson and Matt are the 2 docs in the trenches who I urge to respond to my comments.

For those non-medical people, read the first and last few paragraphs of the article anyway. These give the main points. I remain a post-doc out in the pasture eating alfalfa (very good for cattle's bowels I am told). As you all know, I am now intensely interest in prebiotics and the gut microbiota, the glorious cauldron of gut microbes. But, this is a serious memo to friends and family.

If there were ever any proof needed of the power of evolution, what bacteria have shown us is the best (or worst) example. They have simply evolved to defeat whatever humans have come up with to counter them. We are possibly on the precipice of some very bad things happening.

Now that I no longer am part of the active medical community and, especially, since I am a confirmed advocate of natural responses (to the extent possible) to those things that we will not be able to change - e.g. bacterial resistance to our increasingly toxic antibiotic drugs - I pass these thoughts and recommendations on for what they are worth.

1. Most bacteria are our friends-cherish them

2. Bacteria are everywhere-air, skin, nose, mouth, every part of the gut, urinary and vaginal tract-everywhere. They are at the top of the highest mountains and the bottom of deepest seas. They were here billions of years before we arrived. They produced the oxygen in the air that we breath. They are our buddies. We want to keep the good ones very close.

3. Maintain your good skin bacteria. When bathing, use soap sparingly. Avoid "antibacterial" soaps - the A-Bomb of washing yourself. If the good skin bacteria are excessively washed away, guess who will come to dinner?

4. Maintain a flourishing collection of good gut bacteria. How?...

5. Eat 25-35 gms of veggies, fruits and whole grains each day. And make sure to take your Prebiotin with the prebiotic fibers that nourish just the probiotic good bacteria in the gut - the ones we want to keep there.

6. Absolutely avoid "detox" regimines. Your body does just fine getting rid of most of the nasty stuff we encounter. Further, you can never "cleanse" your gut nor would you want to. No regular high colonic enemas.

7. Avoid antibiotics to the extent you can. Most antibiotics kill bacteria almost everywhere in body along with bad ones we take then for. When the good ones are gone-- yep, you guessed it.

8. If you have ever had MRSA, get your nose cultured. Your pet, too. You and they may be carriers.

Bottom line - protect the good bacteria inside and outside your body, they are your friends.

Whether you call me Dr. Frank, Dad, Uncle Frank or simply friend I urge you to consider this.

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "Frank Jackson"
Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2009 9:15:18 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: An article from The New England Journal of Medicine

Dr. Frank Jackson wants to notify you about thefollowing article from The New England Journal of Medicine:

Antibiotic-Resistant Bugs in the 21st Century -- A Clinical Super-Challenge: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/360/5/439??eaf