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by Teresa Bondora
Instead of an experiment, I wanted to write an informative article on bacteria that you can share with your kids.
I wanted to discuss bacteria because in college one of my favorite classes I took was my microbiology class. I’ll never forget how bad it smelled but also how incredibly fun it was. As many of you know, bacteria is not synonymous with evil. Bacteria are very important for our health and well being. And they are very specialized. We have certain bacteria that live on the inside of our cheek and yet different ones on our teeth and still different bacteria on our tongue. And it’s like this throughout our body. Most of the bacteria that cause us infection exist already on or in our bodies. The problem is when they grow in numbers too large for our immune system to handle. And actually, that rarely happens. Many of you remember when I stabbed myself in the hand last year. Amazingly, after the surgery where they had to open my hand all the way down to the bone, they sent me home with not one antibiotic. I got red and inflamed and yes a little infected but the doctor told me this was normal and my body would handle it. And it did. Gone are the days of prescribing routine antibiotics.
Bacteria are very important to our lives and we are surrounded by them. But our efforts to avoid contact with them are bordering on obsessive. The market for antibacterial items is huge and a complete waste of time and money. It is actually doing us harm. Let me tell you why.
1. The majority of “tinys” that will cause you to become ill are viruses. Viruses cannot live outside a host or body for long, actually the most is about 4 minutes. But most viruses average about 30 seconds. 90% of the viruses you catch were from another person’s hand
2. We are dosing our environmental bacteria with antibiotic products to which they will become resistant. This is HUGE. Unfortunately, researchers’ and scientists’ voices who are yelling this from the tree tops go unheard. The companies who make these products have voices much louder and stronger. We are training bacteria in our environment to grow resistant to the antibiotics we are using in our products.
3. Good old fashioned soap kills bacteria and viruses. Baby wipes kill bacteria and most viruses. Alcohol kills bacteria and viruses. Lysol kills bacteria and viruses. Heat kills bacteria and viruses. Stop wasting your money on antibacterial products. Even the space program, when preparing the astronauts for life in the space station, declined antibacterial products in favor of soap and water.
4. We need to have bacteria in our world. I’ll explain next.
Babies and bacteria
The one thing that bothers me most is when I see moms take items from their babies and not let them put it in their mouths. Now obviously if it’s a knife….. But most items moms take from babies, are perfectly harmless, they just assume that for some reason its going to harm the baby with “dirt” or bacteria. Nothing could be further from the truth. As the scientific community is slowly learning, babies are pretty smart and know what they need. Babies put things in their mouths for a variety of reasons. We know about the fact that they’re learning about their environment, they are growing brain cells, increasing ability to learn, etc. But they are also teaching their immune system.
Our immune system is strong but it needs files from which to pull to recognize invaders and welcome the good ones. Our bodies adapt to whatever is in our environment. If we rarely let our body have bacteria, our immune system will be weak and not capable of handling food that maybe was just a bit going bad. We won’t be able to fight off an infection as easily. Our ancestors had stomachs of steel. They were inundated with bacteria and viruses in their environment. So each time we put a bacteria in our mouths, our immune system is taking note. If that bacteria arrives frequently, the immune system is building that information and learns to accept it, not as bad, but as part of the environment.
Our babies are taking a picture of their bacterial and viral landscape and sending it to the immune system telling it, “where I live, this is what I come in contact with.” If we don’t allow that to happen, then the first time a bacteria comes along that may be in sort of elevated numbers, say in a hamburger, then that child will be more likely to get really sick and have diahrea and throw up.
But what’s worse is that increased incidences of childhood allergies, asthma, bronchitis and skin conditions is linked to this lack of bacterial exposure in our environment. If the body doesn’t recognize the bacteria as common for the environment, it will mount an attack, an asthma, allergy or skin attack. If you want your children to be healthy, give them exposure to their environment.
I know this just seems awful to some of you. And I know there are some of you out there obsessive about bacteria and the thought of your 9 month old gnawing on a shoe repulses you. But I challenge you to do your own research. Help your child develop his or her own natural armor against becoming ill. They will need it as adults.
In my house
Okay, If you’re not grossed out, you will be after this. Let me tell you how I do things in my house. My son is now 4 but as a baby I let him put just about anything in his mouth. Including my shoe. If it wasn’t dangerous, in it went. I keep my floors relatively swept up so when we drop food on the floor, yep, we pick it up and eat it. I hear you, GROSS! But I can tell you, it hasn’t made any of us sick yet. And it won’t. Just the opposite. We don’t get sick very often at all. My 12 year old was raised the same way. When her school friends get sick, I don’t mind if she plays with them. She’ll get only a little day of not feeling good then right back to herself again. Her immune system has developed a strong database and an army of killers for just about every tiny in her environment. And each exposure to illness, helps strengthen it. And I know she won’t get too ill. My immune system is strong as well and each time I eat with my hands, I am dosing my immune system. Yes, I eat with my hands. Not only for immunity, but also because it helps you lose weight (I’ve lost 25 lbs this year doing this among other things) and it increases the pleasure of the experience of the meal. No, I use a fork in public. But if I drop that fork on the floor? LOL, no I send it back, but I don’t want to.
Here are more examples. We go to Chik-Fil-A sometimes. Sometimes the tables are dirty. I’ll get a napkin and wipe it off. If someone drops a waffle fry on the table, they eat it anyway. I leave my orange juice cup in the car overnight. It wasn’t too cold last night. Today I drink the rest of it. I’ll get more bacteria than yesterday but not enough to make me sick and I am teaching my immune system to deal with larger numbers of bacteria. I’m not talking about the worthless pasteurized stuff you buy in the store, I mean fresh squeezed. Of course if it were summer, it would be too bad to drink. Moldy cheese, I cut off the mold with the exception of a few dots of it and I enjoy it. Actually that rarely happens, cheese doesn’t stay around in our house long enough to mold. But you get the idea.
I challenge you to start training yourself to change the way you think about the tinys in our world. They are not an army of hidden enemies, they are not some evil unseen, they are natural and a part of our world. If we mess with the natural order we cause harm, if we learn to live side by side, in symbiosis with them, we create harmony.
The Proof
Think I’m nuts? I might be anyway, but consider these items.
Remember how Pocahontas died? She returned with John Smith to England where she was not able to cope with the bacteria and viruses in that environment and died of an illness soon after arriving.
Ever wonder why, when you started a new job, you stayed sick for the first year? Why do doctors, nurses, teachers and daycare workers rarely get sick? They stayed sick the first year of their jobs until their immune system could process the barrage
of tinys in their environment. Then they were able to defend themselves.
The Results……
When we did our experiment in college on the tinys in our environment, we were given bacterial plates and told to go swab 4 things in the building and streak the plates with the swabs to see what was growing. I chose a door knob, the floor, the toilet in the public restroom and the water fountain spout.
When I swabbed the toilet, I ran the swab along the inside of the toilet. When I did the water fountain, I stuck the swab into the little hole where the water comes out. We put the plates into an incubator and let them grow for a few days. The results shocked me and thus began my education about bacteria. Of course I couldn’t’ wait to see the toilet results but to my surprise there were very few little dots or colonies on the plate. The ones there were simple bacteria that already exist on our skin. The worst by far was the water fountain and I mean the results were really scary!! There were E. Coli, and about 7 other different bacteria. The plate was completely covered with bacteria. The floor had the second most but they were harmless and then the door knob had nothing. Needless to say I don’t drink out of water fountains unless I have to.
About the author:
When she had her son in 2001, Teresa resigned from full-time teaching to stay home with him. Teresa took her daughter out of government school in 2003 to home school her. She wants to share her love of science with others, so she continues to do this online.
For free science lessons delivered to you bi-monthly, sign up for the free newsletter on Teresa’s web site at:
www.HowToTeachScience.com
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