A healthy body is organically grown, with roots deep in the biodiversity of the earth. We are a walking ecosystem of germs: microbes outnumber our cells 10 to 1. This fact alone bears witness to the symbiotic relationship we have with germs.
Our Symbiotic Microbiome
Since the beginning of the 21st century, words like microbiome, virome, and microbial cloud have been coming into our consciousness. We are discovering amazing things about this microbiome within us. Its ecological communities of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and viruses are extensive. The number of genes in all the microbes in one person’s microbiome is 200 times the number of genes in the human genome and can weigh as much as five pounds, much of which is in our gut. Optimal health depends on teamwork between these organisms and our body. This is because this microbiome really is our immunity—90% of our immunity. Thus a sterile, germ-free environment is not only impossible but undesirable.
The Absence of Germs Cause Disease
Embracing the germ flies in the face of our understanding prior to this: run from the microbes; kill the microbes! Yet we are discovering that our warfare on the germ has created more disease than ever before.
Studies show that it’s important to expose children the microbes in dirt and the natural world around them. Lack of exposure to the earth can cause autoimmune dysfunctions like allergies, asthma, and inflammatory gut disease.
One study raised mice in sterile environments and found that it predisposed their heart and lungs to viral attack.
Living peacefully with germs is especially important for eliminating autoimmune diseases. Some of the microbes in our gut actually calm down our immunity so we don’t attack our own bodies or develop food sensitivities and allergies.
The crux of all that we’ve learned is that a sterile environment is a deadly environment. A partnership between us and germs is essential for good health.
The Dangers of Isolating Ourselves From Microbes
Waging war on microbes, whether with antibiotics, fungicides, or pesticides, has a dramatic destructive effect on the microbiome in our body and gut. Sterilizing our lives and our houses with antibiotics in hand sanitizers, oral care products, household disinfectants and cleaners, or physician prescriptions are a big negative because they damage our gut and immunity and increases our susceptibility to all kinds of disease, including infectious disease, inflammatory gut disease, and autoimmune disease.
Germs have become less other and more self, a challenge for germ theory which seeks to differentiate between the ‘”good” germs we are versus the “bad” ones out there that we must fight with antibiotics and vaccines.”
– Sayer Ji
There is a danger that our recent sterilizing activities in response to the Coronavirus will become the new normal. There is a place for masks and gloves and alcohol to protect the weak, but isolating and sterilizing healthy individuals and our communities at large is never healthy and cannot become the new normal or we will generate a holocaust of disease far beyond what we have seen so far. Without the protection of our microbiomes we will not only open further the floodgates of chronic disease, but we will also increase our vulnerability to the next virus that comes along.
Cleanliness Does Not Equal Sterilization or Isolation
I am not speaking against cleanliness here. Decay and dampness should not be tolerated in our homes. Our bodies and homes should be bathed in plenty of sunlight, fresh air, and soap and water. In a word, we cannot let our body, and especially our microbiome, become a toxic waste dump.
Yet health also depends on rubbing shoulders with dirt and microbes. Health also depends on touching and hugging people and animals. Health also depends on immersing ourselves in the great outdoors. In short, health depends on diving into the the biodiversity of our world with abandon.
The Answer Is Living with Microbes
A healthy body is organically grown, with roots deep in the biodiversity of the earth. Embracing microbes may seem counterintuitive to us who have been so long indoctrinated with the imperative of fighting germs, but rest assured that it is the voice of sanity crying in a wilderness of fear, ignorance, and vested interest. Indeed, the answer is not running from bacteria or combating viruses but in living with him. The only true health is built on nurturing our microbiomes and our guts. The only defense against disease is in aligning ourselves with the natural world instead of going to war with it.