Quote:
Originally Posted by Michaelangelica
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...Even if apparently our skin
is crawling....
These "free loaders" IMHO are important to our health. We have evolved to live in harmony with them. In fact it can help (occasionally) to adopt the perspective that we evolved solely to be the perfect, self-feeding, environmental niche for these little beasties.... They evolved us--for their own purposes--and we do their bidding (notice how we are ruled by the gut!).
...but whatever....
They protect us from invaders who want to colonize and eat our flesh.
i.e. If you sterilize your skin, invading bacteria colonize the virgin territory within minutes.
If you just wash your skin, the normal bacteria take hours to repopulate (and prevent any rapid blooms of invading bacteria). -google: "surgical scrub-in" "bacterial count".
Your personal bacterial compliment protects you from MRSA. Don't mistreat your own colonies.
We aren't much different from soil in our need for healthy supporting ecosystems (microbes), water, nutrients, etc., eh?
