ePortfolio Question: How are bacteria good or bad for human health?

Bacteria are everywhere, including on and inside the human body. Certain bacteria on our skin protect and promote healthy skin growth. Likewise, there are bacteria that live in our stomachs that help us regulate digestion and can even affect our mood. The bacteria that make up our gut biome grow according to the food that we eat, so it's important to eat a wide variety of foods to cultivate a healthy gut biome.

 

Just as there are good bacteria that are useful to us and our health, there are also bad bacteria which can cause harm and infections in humans. If bad bacteria, such as pathogenic E. coli or C. difficile, inhabit and colonize our gut biomes, they can cause gastrointestinal illnesses with severe symptoms that require antibiotics to alleviate. Likewise, bad bacteria can infect our eyes, our skin, or any organ or tissue of the body. Bacteria can even infect and spoil the food we eat or cause harm to our agriculture. Still, the effect of bacteria on human health is widely beneficial, as the detrimental aspects of bacteria are demonstrated in cases that are outside of the norm.

 

Often times, we use bacteria themselves to develop the antibiotics that fight off bacterial infections. Bacteria are also useful in making cultured dairy products like probiotic yogurts that, when eaten, help cultivate healthy gut biomes. While in isolated cases bad bacteria can cause illness and, in severe cases, death, the overall effect of good bacteria on human health is overwhelmingly positive.