BACTERIA
Tonsillitis, pneumonia, cystitis, school sores and conjunctivitis all have one thing in common - they are all
caused by bacteria. Bacteria are not all bad. They are essential for the production of many foods, from wine and
beer to mature cheese and yoghurt.
Bacteria are microscopic single celled organisms that are between 0.3 and 10 microns in length. A thousand
microns make one millimetre, or a micron is 0.0000001 of a metre. Bacteria are everywhere in the environment in
extraordinarily vast numbers. Every gram of soil contains between 1,000,000,000 and 20,000,000,000 bacteria, as
well as 10,000,000 to 50,000,000 fungi, about 20,000 algae and 100 to 1000 protozoa and other single celled
organisms. Amazingly, eight out of every ten cells in our bodies is actually a bacterium, and there are between 500
and 1000 different types of bacteria in a person’s body at any time. That means that we are more a bacteria than a
human. The ratios of these bacteria vary from one person to another, and can be as identifying as a fingerprint. It is
obvious that humans evolved with these bacteria and could not survive without them.
Human life would be impossible without bacteria as they are essential for our digestive systems, the
manufacture of some essential vitamins, and the good symbiotic bacteria even fight of the pathogenic ones.
Sometimes the beneficial bacteria multiply excessively or move to different areas of the body where they become
pathogenic (harmful). For example, the Escherichia coli bacterium is very common, and usually harmless in the gut,
but in the bladder it can cause a urinary infection. Other bacteria (eg. Mycobacterium tuberculosis that cause
tuberculosis) are always pathogenic.
Pathogenic bacteria can penetrate into healthy tissues, and start multiplying into vast numbers. When they do
this they damage the tissue that they are infecting, causing it to break down into pus. Because of the damage they
cause, the involved area becomes red, swollen, hot and painful. The waste products of the damaged tissue, along
with the bacteria, spread into the blood stream, and this stimulates the brain to raise the body temperature in order
Tonsillitis, pneumonia, cystitis, school sores and conjunctivitis all have one thing in common - they are all
caused by bacteria. Bacteria are not all bad. They are essential for the production of many foods, from wine and
beer to mature cheese and yoghurt.
Bacteria are microscopic single celled organisms that are between 0.3 and 10 microns in length. A thousand
microns make one millimetre, or a micron is 0.0000001 of a metre. Bacteria are everywhere in the environment in
extraordinarily vast numbers. Every gram of soil contains between 1,000,000,000 and 20,000,000,000 bacteria, as
well as 10,000,000 to 50,000,000 fungi, about 20,000 algae and 100 to 1000 protozoa and other single celled
organisms. Amazingly, eight out of every ten cells in our bodies is actually a bacterium, and there are between 500
and 1000 different types of bacteria in a person’s body at any time. That means that we are more a bacteria than a
human. The ratios of these bacteria vary from one person to another, and can be as identifying as a fingerprint. It is
obvious that humans evolved with these bacteria and could not survive without them.
Human life would be impossible without bacteria as they are essential for our digestive systems, the
manufacture of some essential vitamins, and the good symbiotic bacteria even fight of the pathogenic ones.
Sometimes the beneficial bacteria multiply excessively or move to different areas of the body where they become
pathogenic (harmful). For example, the Escherichia coli bacterium is very common, and usually harmless in the gut,
but in the bladder it can cause a urinary infection. Other bacteria (eg. Mycobacterium tuberculosis that cause
tuberculosis) are always pathogenic.
Pathogenic bacteria can penetrate into healthy tissues, and start multiplying into vast numbers. When they do
this they damage the tissue that they are infecting, causing it to break down into pus. Because of the damage they
cause, the involved area becomes red, swollen, hot and painful. The waste products of the damaged tissue, along
with the bacteria, spread into the blood stream, and this stimulates the brain to raise the body temperature in order
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