SEEING BACTERIA WITH NEW EYES
By Dr. Lon Jones, D.O.

        Marcel Proust stated it well when he said, "The voyage of discovery lies not in finding new vistas, but in having new eyes." As a physician, much of my professional life has been, and still is, directed at fighting bacteria and the infections they cause. And it is not just infections. It seems that every aspect of medicine is becoming associated with bacteria one way or another. The common infections that involve the sinuses, ears, bronchi, and bladder are well known, but now we find that ulcers are also associated with bacteria. Even heart disease is more significant when there are more bacteria in the blood. We are involved in a very real war with these microbes, and it seems to be a war that we are not winning. Granted we win battles, but the bacteria are adept at learning how to survive our antibiotics. Just like our experience in Viet Nam, we may win battles yet lose the war.

         I recently attended a conference where I began to see bacteria with new eyes. The first evidence of bacteria on this earth dates back over two billion years. For a billion and a half years the bacteria were the only show in town. They developed ways to use the earth's environment, liberating oxygen, developing photosynthesis to use the sun's energy, and fermenting organic material (other bacteria). Since oxygen is toxic to some bacteria these strains died. Eventually a balance developed. Even today bacteria are the primary life forms attempting to balance our Earth's ecology. They are not all bad. They cause us problems when they get a foothold in the wrong places, but otherwise they are not a problem and we should realize this when we label them the enemy and focus a large part of our effort on destroying them. Bacteria are far smaller than any of the cells in our bodies. The first cell with a nucleus appeared about 600 million years ago. About 90% of the bacteria present at that time still exist. About 90% of the higher life forms that have developed since then are now extinct. We need to think about these odds when we choose our enemies. There is some evidence that the nucleated cell, the next significant advance after bacteria, was a cooperative move by the bacteria. That first cell combined in one cell all of the abilities the various bacteria had developed prior to that time. A few evolutionary biologists argue that evolution is not red in tooth and claw, but is an expression of cooperation. In the cycle there is first differentiation, then strife as the different species work out a balance. The cooperation that eventually ensues results in more differentiation and the cycle of life continues. Lewis Thomas, in his book, Lives of a Cell, even proposed that we may be the equivalent of taxicabs these intelligent bacteria devised in order to get around better.

        Another development of these bacteria is the manner in which they share information. When one bacteria develop a way to block the killing effect of penicillin, they make what is called a plasmid that is able to share this information with other bacteria in the vicinity. We cannot develop antibiotics fast enough to keep up with them when they have such an effective means of sharing information. It's as efficient as the Internet. Some researchers think that viruses may be another bacterial creation to accomplish this same purpose. It should stimulate more reflection on our part when we realize that the more we stress bacteria, both by trying to kill them with antibiotics and by challenging them with our destruction of the Earth's ecosystems, the more they will develop these newer and different means of trying to adapt and survive.

          At this conference I also realized that all our infections occur, not from bacteria per se, but when too many bacteria and viruses grow in the wrong places. Rather than killing them perhaps we should focus on keeping them in the right places and right numbers. That way we may all live in harmony.

          As previously discussed, this harmonious co-existence is the idea of an Israeli researcher named Nathan Sharon. In an article with the intriguing title, "Safe as mother's milk," he talks about the use of sugars to treat infections. Just about all the bacteria that cause infections do so first by hanging on to the cells in our bodies. What they hang on to are specific sugars that are on the surface of all our cells. By putting those, or similar sugars, into the environment of the bacteria their receptor sites are filled with the free sugar and they have no way to hold on to our cells. Their numbers are reduced and we no longer suffer from an infection. This is what mannose does for bladder infections and what xylitol does for upper respiratory infections. If you have problems with these infections you ought to try negotiating with your bacteria before you try to kill them. They have tremendous odds in a head-on war. Ask about these sugars at your local pharmacy.

These ideas are discussed further, with references, in the section on evolution at www.nasal-xylitol.com.