Killing Bacteria with Antimicrobials and Antibiotics May Be Shortsighted, According to New Science About the Microbiome (Part 1)

We might be on the verge of a new medical paradigm if what scientists are discovering about the microbiome ever makes it into the doctor’s office.

In this series, “Cultivating Our Gut Microbiome to Stifle Disease,” we’ll share how the latest developments on this medical frontier are transforming our approaches to illness and offering new strategies to heal and prevent disease.

Modern medicine has progressed in large part by waging war against germs—snuffing out microscopic disease-causing creatures before they kill us.

The 19th-century discovery that microorganisms are the cause of infectious disease—the leading cause of death at the time—led scientists to the consensus that “germs” posed a great danger to humanity, a stance that’s been woven into policy and ideology to this day. Public health advancements in the 20th century proved that controlling infectious outbreaks extended life expectancy and reduced infant and maternal deaths.

It was an era heralded for great medical achievements.

Death rates rapidly declined—even before the introduction of penicillin and vaccines—as public sanitation and better hygiene in hospitals transformed public health. Mass antibiotic production came in the 1940s, initially for wounded soldiers, then exploded into the public sphere. These new antimicrobial weapons cured millions of infections and saved many lives. However, antibiotics also came with consequences that are squeezing today’s health care on two sides: superbug infections and a rise in all diseases.

Good, Bad, and Usually Ugly
The microbial world is diverse. While it’s true that some microbes cause disease, saying that all of them are killers would be like calling all dogs killers because of a few.

Researchers have learned that thinking of microbes as pathogenic, or disease-causing, is profoundly incorrect. In fact, the microbial world encompasses bacteria, viruses, and fungi that largely promote health. Human beings host a vast microbial community, or microbiome, which forms a kind of detached organ with interactions that keep us alive. These tiny creatures may not be cute, but they are essential.

“[There is] a consortium of organisms in us and on us and around us. There are trillions of them,” Dr. Neil Stollman told fellow physicians at a recent Malibu Microbiome Meeting. “When we lose bugs, we are at risk of other bugs hurting us. They are intimately involved in our immune system development. And we help them. We provide a home for them and nutrients.”