I’d meant to comment on this story when I first heard about it last spring but this is as good a time as any. I think this is a notion that has some merit. There is, apparently, a rising body of evidence that suggests that beneficial microorganisms may be as influential in promoting good health in human beings as pathogens are in producing disease:
The human cells that form our skin, eyes, ears, brain and every other part of our bodies are far outnumbered by those from microbes, primarily bacteria but also viruses, fungi and a panoply of other microorganisms.
That thought might make a lot of people lunge for the hand sanitizer, at the least. But that predictable impulse may be exactly the wrong one. A growing body of evidence indicates that the microbial ecosystems that have long populated our guts, mouths, noses and every other nook and cranny play crucial roles in keeping us healthy.
Moreover, researchers are becoming more convinced that modern trends — diet, antibiotics, obsession with cleanliness, Caesarean delivery of babies — are disrupting this delicate balance, contributing to some of the most perplexing ailments, including asthma, allergies, obesity, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, cancer and perhaps even autism.
Let’s consider this idea briefly in the context of obesity. The most common view of obesity at least at the folk level is that obesity is a character flaw: if fat people wouldn’t eat so darned much and exercise more they wouldn’t be fat. Depending on the individual case that may, indeed, have merit. However, there are enough counter-examples around to suggest that the simple thermodynamic model of weight gain in which Weight gain = Calories taken in by eating and drinking – Calories consumed by exercise is overly simplistic. Attributing the variations to differences in basal metabolism is hand-waving: what causes the differences in basal metabolism?
Do we need a sort of reverse Koch’s postulates? Is it possible that all sorts of conditions, particularly chronic diseases, are caused by the absence of beneficial microorganisms, maybe call them “hygeigens” (I haven’t been able to identify an opposite of pathogens)?
This possibility does raise an interesting speculation. It’s a commonplace to attribute the rise in obesity, diabetes, and heart disease to less exercise to people getting less exercise than they did in the past. Could it also be related to the widespread use of antibiotics which kill hygeigens as well as pathogens? Could obesity be an iatrogenic disease?
Sometime in the future good health might be seen as promoting the proper balance of microorganisms. It seems to me that would require a major shift in thinking away from envisioning healthcare as warfare towards a more cooperative model like farming or education.
I believe the word you are looking for is Probiotics. I would prefer a more scientific name, but the marketing types have been using the word in ‘functional foods’ for years now. My wife is in the Food Science industry and this idea is seen as one of the primary future paths to growth. Well, at least it is where she works.
Based on the growth of the yogurt isle at our grocery store, I’m inclined to agree.
Good time to bring up the hygiene hypothesis and helminthic therapy.