Hacking Your Body's Bacteria for Better Health -

Wired recently ran an article on probiotics. It had so many interesting observations that I've had a hard time summarizing it.

Okay, the summary is that we need bacteria in order to stay healthy.

Hacking Your Body's Bacteria for Better Health:

We assassinate microbes with hand soap, mouthwash and bathroom cleaners. But some scientists say ... all this killing may actually cause diseases like eczema, irritable bowel syndrome and even diabetes.

"Probiotics have resulted in complete elimination of eczema in 80 percent of the people we've treated," says Dr. Joseph E. Pizzorno Jr., a practicing physician and former member of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy. Pizzorno says he's used probiotics to treat irritable bowel disease, acne and even premenstrual syndrome.

"After the Second World War, when our lifestyles changed dramatically, allergies increased. Autoimmune diseases like diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease are increasing," says Kaarina Kukkonen, a University of Helsinki allergy expert.

Microbial exposures early in life, scientists believe, cause mild inflammation that calibrates the body's responses to other pathogens and contaminants later in life. Without exposure as infants, researchers say, people can end up with unbalanced immune systems.

"Many of the most difficult problems in medicine today are chronic inflammatory diseases," says Blaser. "These include rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, atherosclerosis, eczema and multiple sclerosis. One possibility is that they're autoimmune or genetic diseases. The other possibility is that they are physiological responses to changes in microbiota."