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How to live together with bacteria

yhama's picture

 

"About the world within us"

“What's generally seen is that, during disease, the diversity, that rich ecosystem in the gut or on the skin, seems to crash. Just as with a reef or a rain forest, the richer the ecosystem the better.”

I thought this is the interesting idea to talk about because the importance of diversity is what we have discussed through “All Over Creation” and “The Sixth Extinction” and any other readings.

 

“That starts to raise some questions about, well, maybe using too many antibiotics early in life may be a bad thing. Maybe there could be an effect from the degree to which we live in a sanitary environment.”

I think Japan is one of the most sanitary countries. We wash hands and gargle every time after coming back from outside. We keep on doing it since we were very little. We separate inside and outside completely, so we don’t step into houses with our shoes. Maybe we are not so strong against disease, but then is it better to let them in?

Japanese people focus on “preventing” illness. Is it not effevtive?