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The Body’s Flora (Indigenous Bacteria in the Human Body)

About one hundred trillion bacteria live inside you – Up to a 1000 species and more than TEN TIMES the number of cells you have in your body! These indigenous bacteria are referred to as the body’s flora and live in many areas of your body, including the skin, intestines, mouth, nose, pharynx, urethra and vagina

Organisms are considered either “friendly” or “unfriendly” – when “Friendlies” and “Unfriendlies” have an appropriately balanced presence, the body can better maintain health

Friendly Bacteria

  • “Friendly” bacterial flora provide many health benefits to the body
  • “Friendly” bacterial flora thrives on dietary fibre – and other so called prebiotic foods.
    • Unfriendly organisms – includes pathogenic bacteria, friendly bacteria multiplying out of control, and fungi, such as yeast e.g. Candida albicans;
  • When uncontrolled by “Friendly bacteria”, the “unfriendlies” can cause disease or illness to their host
  • The “Unfriendly” organisms in your body thrive on sugar – imagine the “party” those pathogenic bacteria and fungi (incl. yeast) are having when you feed them!

Health Benefits of Beneficial Flora

Beneficial flora / probiotics have at least 30 known pharmacological actions. 

  • Anti-infective – antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal
  • Immune system-supportive – upregulates glutathione (GPX) and certain glycoproteins that help regulate immune responses, including IL-4 (Interleukin-4), IL-10, IL-12; more than 60% of your I.S. is in your gut.
  • Antiproliferative – apoptopic (promotes natural self-destruction of cells); Inhibits tumor necrosis factor (TNF) alpha inhibitor, NF-kappaB, epidermal growth factor receptor, +++
  • Protective – antioxidant, cardioprotective, gastroprotective, radio- and chemo-protective
  • Anti-allergenic
  • Antidepressive – the vagus nerve (10th cranial nerve) connects your gut to your brain, each affecting the other, explaining the link between neurological disorders and GI dysfunction (E.g. ADHD, autism). Intestinal health has been found to profoundly influence mental health.
  • Detoxifying – probiotics appear to have a role in detoxing harmful chemicals.

How do beneficial flora /probiotics work against pathogens?

  • Beneficial flora are antagonistic / competitive towards pathogenic bacteria.
    • Probiotics help normalize acid/alkali balance in the intestine – “Friendly” bacteria decrease colonization of pathogenic organisms in the gut by secreting acids that are toxic to local pathogenic bacteria – by liberating hydrogen peroxide and organic acids (E.g. Lactic, butyric and acetic acids) in the intestines, the local luminal pH is shifted downward to create an unfavourable environment for growth of pathogenic flora.

Williams NT. Probiotics. Am J Health-Syst Pharm. 2010;67:449-458.
Alvarez-Olmos MI, Oberhelman RA. Probiotic agents and infectious diseases: a modern perspective on a traditional therapy. Clin Infect Dis. 2001;32:1567-1576.

  • They compete with pathogens for adhesion sites on intestinal wall (epithelium)

Macintyre A, Cymet TC. Probiotics: the benefits of bacterial cultures. Compr Ther. 2005;31:181-185. 

  • They compete with pathogens for nutrients
  • They produce bacteriocins (protein toxins) to inhibit pathogens
    • They Modify pathogen-derived toxins
  • They stimulate immune mechanisms of intestinal mucosa
    • By increasing cytokine activity
    • They increase lymphocyte activity / intestinal macrophage phagocytosis – by causing local macrophages to increase antigen presentation to B-lymphocytes and increase secretory antibody immunoglobulin A (IgA) production both locally and systemically;
    • They reduce immune system reaction to food antigens
    • They help stimulate the production of the protective mucus layer lining the GI tract – they can also line the mucus layer to add an extra level of defense keeping out pathogenic bacteria
  • Beneficial Flora produce beneficial metabolic enzymes
  • They digest undigested polysaccharides / mucin / fibre – g starch, glycogen, cellulose and chitin.
  • They produce the enzyme lactase which breaks down lactose – thereby benefiting those who are lactose-intolerant;
  • Induce synthesis of B group vitamins – B1, B2, B3, B5, B6 and B12, also folic acid and biotin;
  • Improve uptake and absorption of calcium;
  • Help reduce cholesterol;
  • Regulating levels of an enzyme that is involved in production of cholesterol within body
  • Acting directly on cholesterol in the GI tract

Microbes in Disease and Health

Microbes may play crucial role in human health, researchers discovering Consider this: The average person’s body contains about 100 trillion cells, but only maybe one in 10 is human. This isn’t the latest Hollywood horror flick, or some secret genetic engineering experiment run amok. This, it turns out, is nature’s

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Our Inner Microbes

Scientists have long known that many organisms evolved with humans and perform vital functions, digesting food, extracting crucial nutrients and fighting off disease-causing entities. “We feed them and house them, and they perform certain metabolic functions for us that we have sort of contracted out,” said Martin J. Blaser of the

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Nurturing Microbes

Investigators are trying to identify which organisms may truly be beneficial “probiotics” that people could take to help their health. Others are finding substances that people might ingest to nurture the good bugs. Drugs may mimic the helpful compounds that these organisms produce. Doctors have even begun microbiota “transplants”

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Negative and Positive Effects and Benefits Of Microbes

Other benefits of Microbes Negative Effects of Microbes An estimated 30% of bacteria are disease causing pathogens. According to health care experts, infectious diseases caused by microbes are responsible for more deaths worldwide than any other single cause.  It is estimated that, at beginning of the 20th century, more

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Microbes Used in Food Production

Because of the presence of microbes in all walks of human life, there is constant interaction between microbes and humans. The vast majority of the bacteria in the body are rendered harmless by the protective effects of the immune system, and a few are beneficial.  In fact, the relationship

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Microbes and The Mind

By Rob Stein Health & Science Clues also are emerging about how microbes may affect the brain. Manipulating gut microbiomes of mice influences their anxiety and activity, Swedish researchers reported in January in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “This may have implications for new lines of thinking

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Microbes – Do They Play A Role In Obesity?

Similarly, studies indicate that gut dwellers secrete messengers to cells lining the digestive tract to modulate key hormones, such as leptin and ghrelin, which are players in regulating metabolism, hunger and a sense of fullness. Pregnant women often take antibiotics, and young children can get several rounds to fight

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How to Increase Body’s Beneficial Flora

The most important thing to do is to avoid anything that reduces the body’s beneficial flora.  The following factors reduce the presence of beneficial flora in favour of pathogenic organisms – such as pathogenic bacteria, and fungi (e.g. the yeast Candida Albicans): Encourage body’s beneficial flora Article Reference: Shirley

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Fighting Against Microbes

In the same manner that we harness the benefits of microbes, where appropriate, we fight micro-organisms where they can do harm. There are many ways to combat microbial growth, and most involve simple measures that we can employ at home or in the workplace. For example: Pathogenic Disease occurs

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Birth, Development, Disease

“The birth canal is very heavily colonized by bacteria,” said Maria Dominguez-Bello, a University of Puerto Rico biologist who has been studying microbiota around the world, including among isolated tribes in the Amazon. “We think that is not by chance.” The rising number of C-section babies denied this colonization, along with

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