Sick of Getting Sick? Embrace Your Inner Bacteria!, NPR:
Right this minute, in the moist, warm grottos throughout your body, encounters with friendly bacteria are teaching your immune cells how to recognize dangerous invaders. The ability to distinguish friend from foe is crucial to keeping you healthy. And by acting as a thick ground cover, these benign bacteria crowd out truly noxious germs — salmonella, say, or dangerous versions of E. coli.
The title of NPR’s article is a bit misleading as the focus of the story is really on the potential harm from antibiotics. Bacterial Evolution in Yogurt provides some additional information on the benefits of bacteria. Here are more good bacteria articles:: Friendly bacteria ‘target ulcers’ – Over-sixties advised to boost daily diet with ‘good’ bacteria – USC researcher underscores the benefits bacteria can provide – Bacteria Added to Gum, Toothpaste and Deodorant – How ‘good’ bacteria could counter overuse of antibiotics
via: Take care of those microbes in your gut
Related: articles on the overuse of antibiotics – Antibiotic Resistance and You
All yogurts are not created equAL, and some may have killed and not live bacteria. Similarly, not all commercial probiotic brands (capsules etc)are created equal. There is a wide diversity in the strains of bacteria and their concentration in different formulations thus affecting their benefit potential.
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I fully agree with ‘docwrite’. If you buy probiotic supplement as with everything, make sure that the brand is trustworthy. Probiotics is indeed good for human health but make sure you give your body the right kind of bacteria.