Sorry, teenagers. Acne’s gonna have to stay. It’s good for you.

No, really.

Propionibacterium acnes is the bacteria that lives in your skin’s sebaceous glands and causes pimples. However, we really don’t give it enough credit. It secretes fatty acids into our skin that help keep _other_, more harmful bacteria, out of our skin, and therefore, out of our bodies.

And E. coli , the bacteria that you always hear about that makes us so sick? They’re found in *huge* quantities in our intestines. They synthesize vitamin K and B, and help us digest our food. And by living in our intestines, they fight for food with other more harmful bacteria.

I was having a theoretical microbiology debate with my friend Ronnie yesterday while we were pre-dissecting for anatomy (that’s one of the dorkiest medical sentences ever written), and we decided it’s pretty much complete, total war all over your body. Bacteria are so numerous and so omnipresent that we’re pretty much still around because they want us to be. We’re big walking petri dishes, people. We provide a safe, warm, moist, dark environment with plenty of food (the food we eat, as well as all the dead skin we flake off). There are enough bacteria around that want us around to usually keep the really bad ones at bay. Granted, sometimes we have to keep them in line ourselves, using antibiotics or our immune systems.

And there’s no messing around in the bacterial world. It’s kill or be killed. They’re single-cell organisms. If you wound them, they’re done. No wonder they want to copulate so quickly. Wouldn’t you if you didn’t think you’d live another 10 minutes?

Comments Off on We Love You, Acne!

The fastest growing bacteria can double every 10 minutes (it takes human cells about 24 hours).

If these bacteria were given unlimited nutrients and a stable environment, they’d be larger than the size of the Earth in 1 day.

Amazing, isn’t it?

Comments Off on Taking Over The Earth

Started year 2 today. I’m trying to both keep up with school as well as TA anatomy for the first years, so it’s going to be a busy year. I hope to keep up with weblogging and such; I’ve decided to stop using IM, as it’s a total waste of time, and I’d much rather talk to a friend on the phone, anyway.

A couple good lines from the Microbiology professor today:

* “The ratio of non-human cells to human cells in your body is something like 100,000:1.” What you consider “you” or “your body” is more non-human than human. Yikes.

* “A fine patina of feces exists on every surface in the developed world, and might not be so fine in the third world.” That’s pleasant.

* “My goal in teaching this class is to make you my doctor.” Such an excellent perspective–trying to put it in a personal context, to have us learn what we need to learn in order to meet his criteria so that he’d trust us enough to send a family member to us.

Microbiology is the study of pathogens–that is, bacteria, viruses (virii?), worms, and other parasites. The professor’s very enthusiastic, and has that “I wear a bowtie so I’m allowed to be zany” attitude. A busy, but exciting quarter!

1 Comment »