We all have times in our lives where we wish we could take back something we’ve done or said in times of fear or frustration. Moments I like to call famous last words. I think back to when my strong willed barefoot friend Connie resolved that she was declaring war on the numerous yucca plants that inhabited her property. As my eyes scanned the landscape of her 5 acre plot and the surrounding area, my first thought was, I don’t think this is going to end well. It didn’t. I suggested she cut herself a pathway and leave the rest alone. She didn’t. Suffice to say it was a war, that if ongoing would have been much like the one in Afghanistan; a seemingly never ending one.
I never thought it was a very good idea to declare war on Nature even before I had the knowledge I have today. I’ve always had a connection to Nature that made me feel a part of the web of life albeit an infinitesimal part relatively speaking.
Although humans are part of Nature, bacteria, viruses and fungi have been around a heck of a lot longer than human beings. All three are essential to life on this planet, human beings are not. It’s believed that fungi was the first organism to come to land 1.3 billion years ago, plants followed several hundred thousand years later. See more here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI5frPV58tY .
Just how small are we as humans in the big picture of life? Human beings are one species with 24,000 genes and approximately 70 trillion cells. Even rice has more genes than humans do.
The current understanding relative to the human genome is, it’s not just our genetic material that expresses life. Our bodies have what is called microbiomes that are comprised of bacteria, viruses and fungi. Because there are no voids in Nature, a good balance of those microbiomes is essential to our health and our ability to adapt to the environment around us.
Our human cells are outnumbered 100 times over by bacteria. There are approximately 1 ½ quadrillion bacteria on and in the human body. Putting this in perspective, if we only take into consideration the bacteria, we are about 5% of the cellular content of our body. In the bacterial population there is close to 20 to 40,000 known species compared to our one.
In the fungal world there are over 5 million species with billions of genes. We think we have a pretty good idea of how many viruses there are on the planet but we don’t know how many species of viruses exist. Current estimations are that there are 10 to the 31st power viruses on the planet. That’s 1 with 31 zeros behind it. That’s 10 million times more viruses on Earth than there are stars in our universe.
Dr. Zach Bush-GMO’s Revealed Ep 3
Given these figures, would it make sense to wage war on bacteria, viruses or fungi? When these entities are in balance, there is peace in the eco-system. It’s only when they are thrown out of balance that havoc starts to appear.
Being that humans are such a tiny fraction of life on this planet, it’s hard to believe we’ve made the incredible impacts that we have in such a short amount of time and I’m not talking in the positive sense.
The Living Planet Index has declined by 52 percent between 1970 and 2010, The 52 percent figure refers to a general trend of vertebrate species diminishing, on average, to about half the size that they were 40 years ago, according to World Wildlife Fund spokesperson Molly Edmonds.
This is mainly attributed to loss and degradation of habitat, hunting and fishing and climate change. This figure doesn’t include the decimated insect population and the startling amount of plant life we continue to poison every year with man-made herbicides and pesticides. It truly does seem as if we have declared war on Nature and as with all war, there are unintended consequences. Super “bugs” and super weeds being two.
Bacteria
Bacteria are among the oldest forms of life on Earth. They have existed for billions of years and have learned very well how to respond to threats to their well-being. Over the time they have existed, bacteria have experienced a huge number of adverse events that they had to learn to survive. One of those is antibacterial substances. Our pharmaceuticals are made or modeled on the antibacterial substances that exist in fungi and plants. For the most part, bacteria have already had mechanisms in place to deal with them.
In fact, bacteria is proving to be profoundly more intelligent than the human brain can fathom. Not only are we outnumbered by them, we are outsmarted by them as well.
Dr. Stuart Levy is a pioneer in antibiotic resistance. A study conducted by him and his colleagues showed that after placing a single bacterial species in a nutrient solution containing sub-lethal doses of a newly developed and rare antibiotic, researchers found within a short period of time the bacteria developed resistance to that antibiotic and 12 others that they had never encountered before. Dr Levy observes “It’s almost as if bacteria strategically anticipate the confrontation of other drugs when they resist one.” I would make the point that bacteria don’t typically hang out in one species groups in sterile environments like a laboratory, so the results of this experiment, although somewhat horrifying, could be vastly understated if you think about it.
Glyphosate, the main ingredient in the herbicide Roundup is classified as an antibiotic. Every year millions of tons of herbicides are dumped on our food crops destroying not only weeds but the microbiome of the soil. Our food is only as good as the soil it’s grown in.
Doctors who prescribe anti-biotics for nearly everything are only contributing to the issue of resistance. Some household cleaners claim to kill 99.9% of bacteria. If that isn’t waging war, I don’t know what is. To compound the problem, we now have anti-bacterial soaps to cleanse our bodies of the bacteria essential for our health.
Who are the good guys?
According to Dr. Zach Bush, there are no bad bacteria, only bacterial imbalance, everything has a job to do. One example of how bacteria can be beneficial is, the E.Coli in your stomach synthesizes Vitamin K, which is important for blood clotting. The bacteria that occurs naturally in your digestive system feeds on leftover food and produces biotin and amino acids that help complete the digestion process.
As we are in the midst of flu season, it’s hard to think fondly of viruses but in truth, what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger. Most viruses won’t kill you but have shown that they do have their place in our lives. Per Marilyn Roossinck, PhD, Professor of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology and Biology at the Pennsylvania State University states “Viruses, like bacteria, can be important beneficial microbes in human health and in agriculture,”
For example, although norovirus causes gastrointestinal distress in humans and is one of the most dreaded, studies have shown when mice were infected with norovirus, it played a role in development of the mouse’s intestine and its immune system. It can actually replace the beneficial effects of certain gut bacteria that have been decimated by antibiotics. Norovirus infection of mice actually restored the normal function of the immune system’s lymphocytes and the normal form and structure of the intestine per Roossinck.
Some viruses can also provide immunity against bacterial pathogens and latent herpesviruses. They can also arm natural killer cells that kill both mammalian tumor cells as well as cells that are infected with pathogenic viruses.
Some bacteria eat radiation and convert it to energy. The same is true of viruses and fungi. I’m guessing we’ll be seeing a growth in some of these as Fukushima continues to leak into the ocean.
Now for the fun guy
Paul Stamets is a mycologist, author and advocate of bioremediation and medicinal fungi. Paul believes mushrooms can save the World. Mushrooms produce strong antibiotics and we are more closely related to fungi than any other kingdom. In addition, we share the same pathogens. Fungus breaths oxygen and exhales carbon dioxide just like humans. It is sentient as with all plants, it knows when you are in its presence.
Considered soil doctors, mushrooms are fast growing taking 25 days to reach maturity. As mushrooms decay, the sequence of microbes on rotting mushrooms is essential to the health of the forests. They create the debris fields that feed the mycelium. In the right conditions, the mycelium produces a mushroom,
Mycelium is the mass of hyphae that form the vegetative part of a fungus. In a single cubic inch of soil there can exist up to 8 miles of mycelium cells. As mycelium grows it begins to form a net. Inside the pockets of this netting, water collects and provides a place for microbial communities to form. It helps to avoid soil erosion, it infuses landscapes and is tenacious. The largest known living organism in the world is 2200 acres of mycelium matt in Oregon.
Paul calls mycelium the Earths external stomach and lungs as well as a neurological network making it Natures internet. It allows for nutrient sharing between plants and trees.
Because it can hold up to 30,000 times its mass, it has been used in experiments for the purpose of soil remediation. Battelle laboratories and Paul joined together to perform an experiment on spilled petroleum waste products. One pile was treated with enzymes, one with bacteria and one with mycelium mushroom. After 6 weeks, they returned to find 2 dark and stinky piles and one covered in hundreds of pounds of oyster mushrooms.
The mycelium enzymes remanufactured the hydrocarbons into carbohydrates or sugars. Not only did they have a pile of happy mushrooms, The spores from them attracted insects which laid eggs becoming larvae, birds came bringing seeds and their pile became an oasis of life. The same process can be used on chemical spills or bacterial contamination.
The agarikon mushroom although extremely rare has shown to be highly active against pox viruses. Small pox, etc. as well as the flu viruses H1N1, H3N2 and H5N1.
There are also fungi that kill insects. Because insects possess their own innate intelligence, an adjustment was made to morph the mushrooms into non-sporulating. Using this method, Paul was able to eradicate carpenter ants from his house.
All in all it could be time to re-think our place in Nature. As you can see, without bacteria, virus and fungi all three, you wouldn’t be you and I wouldn’t be me.
Instead of having a kill mentality when it comes to bacteria, viruses and fungi, perhaps we could introduce an element to restore balance in the eco system as opposed to destroying those entities that we may not completely understand. This planet has thrived without humans and although I don’t think we will be able to destroy it, we certainly have tipped the balance at the hand of human manipulation. It gives rise to the question, can’t we all just get along?
Mari Marques-Worden is a Certified Herbalist and owner of The Thymekeeper. For questions or more information contact: Mari at mugsyspad@aol.com or 719-439-7303 or 719-748-3388. Mari is available for private consultation.
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