BOOK – Les bactéries, des amies qui vous veulent du bien

The intestinal microbiota is a large ecosystem with no less than 100,000 billion bacteria. But are these bacteria our “friends”? Pr. Gabriel Perlemuter and Dr. Anne-Marie Cassard are demonstrating this idea in their book: Les bactéries, des amies qui vous veulent du bien – Le bonheur est dans l’intestin.

The hygienist theory, a plague for our bacteria

Bacteria have long been considered harmful and that is why, as human beings, we sought to eliminate them. We looked for every possible means to eradicate them in order to constitute aseptic environments: this is the hygienist theory. However, we live in symbiosis with them. Bacteria can be true allies for our heath. In fact, they influence our health by acting on immunity, digestion, mood, etc. They are also involved in the development of certain diseases such as allergies, obesity, inflammatory bowel diseases. But also other more astonishing ones like cardiovascular diseases, liver diseases due to alcohol dependence or not, or those linked to our behavior.

Take care of our bacteria, a real challenge

We must take care of our good bacteria if we want them to bring us their benefits. This is a real challenge! Over time, we, as human beings, have changed our eating and environmental habits. More travelling, more antibiotics, less heathy diet habits… Several reasons that can disrupt the fragile balance of our friendly bacteria:

Travel with change of environment,
Antibiotics because they destroy good and bad bacteria (warning: these drugs are not good for our microbiota but they may be essential to treat diseases!),
Processed-food, with high content in fat and sugar and with additives and/or sweeteners. This is in correlation with the ever more diversified products offered by industrials.

Of course, other factors exist.

In these cases, this broken balance introduced by the term “dysbiosis”, can have more or less serious consequences on our health: digestive disorders, metabolic disorders (obesity, diabetes), disorders linked to a disruption of the gut-brain axis (autism, etc). It is therefore essential to pamper its bacteria in order to stay healthy. We can start by improving our diet for example.

This well-written book, illustrated with simple examples and metaphors, allows us to understand the whole issue of our microbial world. Accessible to everyone, it gives us good foundations and helps to understand the whole intestinal microbiota. The authors were able to provide clear answers, which are supported by numerous scientific publications.