Comment on Bitch shape attack
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks agoI’m actually interested, is this true?
When bacteria were first discovered, people found them in the gut and thought “oh, that’s horrible. bacteria cause diseases, so we must get rid of them.” it was only found out much later that bacteria in the gut can improve health on average.
the same is true for many other categories of living beings, such as insects (worms), fungi; and now my question is whether it could be the same for viruses?
Gullible@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Some perform tasks, but they largely just take up space, and that’s a good thing. Your body’s full of materials that malignantly pathogenic bacteria would love to get their hands on. Bacteria that are largely incapable of doing anything to us take up space that would otherwise be occupied. You’d likely prefer an old squatter living in your walls, rather than a crackhead. You’d probably prefer an electrician, but that’s life. Better they’re largely benign than overtly and desperately malicious.
You factually do have a viral balance in your internal ecosystem. Bacteriophages cull populations, and some viruses hyper-specialize in attacking cancer. There are more examples, but I can’t immediately recall
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
thank you, that makes sense to me.
i’m interested in actually understanding what functions what elements of the gut microbiome perform. but i guess that’s a highly complicated topic, so i expect no quick answers
Gullible@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
You’re asking a question without a complete answer, as it’s a complex system in active research, but truthfully, I only know of a couple offhandedly. Some strains of lactobacillus occupy space largely benignly, and some E. coli produce vitamin k. Hit up Wikipedia for an abundance of specifics.