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A KILLER VIRUS THAT IS GOOD FOR YOU
Antibiotics have now been used for over 100 years and the medical establishment agrees that they are losing their effectiveness in treating infections. This is because of the emergence of superbugs, antimicrobial drug-resistant bacteria that have evolved to resist antibacterial drugs. It is such a serious problem that it is predicted that drug resistant superbugs will kill nearly 40 million people before the year 2050 and from 2050 onwards superbugs are expected to kill more people annually than cancer (1).
NATURES ALTERNATIVE TO ANTIBIOTICS
Around the same time societies around the world began to make and use antibiotics, the French microbiologist Félix d'Hérelle co-discovered bacteriophages, usually called phages and experimented with them to treat infections. While there was success, the price of producing antibiotics was much cheaper and hence their ultimate domination to date.
WHAT ARE PHAGES?
Phages are viruses, and while viruses are usually associated with disease, phages are in fact helpful in fighting disease. They are nature's original and most natural antibiotic. While broad spectrum antibiotics are known to kill harmful bacteria, they also kill beneficial bacteria at the same time. Phages function however in a very different way as they target specific pathogenic bacteria and do not kill good bacteria. Phages are the most prolific life on earth and can be found most anywhere in nature and are known to be present in probiotics such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains. For example, L. casei, L. rhamnosus, L. gasseri L. gasseri and L. plantarum have been documented to carry Phages (2)
WHAT PHAGES DO
Phages can help your body control harmful bacteria, assist in the modulation of your immune system, maintain the gut barrier integrity and therefore help to decrease inflammation.
When phages are present in your body, they are activated when specific conditions such as stress or harmful bacteria are detected and literally seek out specific pathogens based on their molecular characteristics. Phages then infect the harmful bacteria and multiply within until the harmful bacteria burst and are destroyed. This then releases more phages that continue this cycle of pathogen destruction until the targeting bacteria are eliminated and a balanced microbiome is restored. The evidence of the natural benefits of phages is growing and will only escalate (3)
HOW DO I GET PHAGES IN MY BODY?
Phages enter the body in multiple ways, through the skin or directly through the gut. Water sources such as streams and oceans contain the highest concentration and diversity of phages in nature and emersion is such water bodies is an excellent way to get phages into your body as they can be absorbed directly through the skin. Direct contact with soil and plant life in a natural environment is also a good way to get exposure to phage containing elements. For most people the taking of fermented foods is the simplest way to receive the dual benefits of probiotics and phages. if you take probiotic products, it is important to take multi-strain living probiotics as the symbiotic effect of multiple strains that can multiply in the body will give rise to multiple phage species that target different pathogenic bacteria.
(1) The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) February 2023.
(2) 2017 study by Manrique et al. The Human Gut Phage Community and its implications for Health and Disease. 2006 study by Ventura et al. in Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
(3) Ventura et al. (2006) Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Mills et al. (2013) Journal of Bacteriology: "Bacteriophages and their role in gut microbiome development" Chan et al. (2013) Nature Reviews Microbiology: "Phage therapy: revisiting a century-old cure" Górski et al. (2016) Current Opinion in Microbiology: "Phage as modifiers of gut microbiome" Brussow (2017) Microbial Biotechnology: "Phage therapy for superbugs" Kim & Bae (2018) International Journal of Molecular Sciences: "Prophages in Lactobacillus strains"
NATURES ALTERNATIVE TO ANTIBIOTICS
Around the same time societies around the world began to make and use antibiotics, the French microbiologist Félix d'Hérelle co-discovered bacteriophages, usually called phages and experimented with them to treat infections. While there was success, the price of producing antibiotics was much cheaper and hence their ultimate domination to date.
WHAT ARE PHAGES?
Phages are viruses, and while viruses are usually associated with disease, phages are in fact helpful in fighting disease. They are nature's original and most natural antibiotic. While broad spectrum antibiotics are known to kill harmful bacteria, they also kill beneficial bacteria at the same time. Phages function however in a very different way as they target specific pathogenic bacteria and do not kill good bacteria. Phages are the most prolific life on earth and can be found most anywhere in nature and are known to be present in probiotics such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains. For example, L. casei, L. rhamnosus, L. gasseri L. gasseri and L. plantarum have been documented to carry Phages (2)
WHAT PHAGES DO
Phages can help your body control harmful bacteria, assist in the modulation of your immune system, maintain the gut barrier integrity and therefore help to decrease inflammation.
When phages are present in your body, they are activated when specific conditions such as stress or harmful bacteria are detected and literally seek out specific pathogens based on their molecular characteristics. Phages then infect the harmful bacteria and multiply within until the harmful bacteria burst and are destroyed. This then releases more phages that continue this cycle of pathogen destruction until the targeting bacteria are eliminated and a balanced microbiome is restored. The evidence of the natural benefits of phages is growing and will only escalate (3)
HOW DO I GET PHAGES IN MY BODY?
Phages enter the body in multiple ways, through the skin or directly through the gut. Water sources such as streams and oceans contain the highest concentration and diversity of phages in nature and emersion is such water bodies is an excellent way to get phages into your body as they can be absorbed directly through the skin. Direct contact with soil and plant life in a natural environment is also a good way to get exposure to phage containing elements. For most people the taking of fermented foods is the simplest way to receive the dual benefits of probiotics and phages. if you take probiotic products, it is important to take multi-strain living probiotics as the symbiotic effect of multiple strains that can multiply in the body will give rise to multiple phage species that target different pathogenic bacteria.
(1) The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) February 2023.
(2) 2017 study by Manrique et al. The Human Gut Phage Community and its implications for Health and Disease. 2006 study by Ventura et al. in Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
(3) Ventura et al. (2006) Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Mills et al. (2013) Journal of Bacteriology: "Bacteriophages and their role in gut microbiome development" Chan et al. (2013) Nature Reviews Microbiology: "Phage therapy: revisiting a century-old cure" Górski et al. (2016) Current Opinion in Microbiology: "Phage as modifiers of gut microbiome" Brussow (2017) Microbial Biotechnology: "Phage therapy for superbugs" Kim & Bae (2018) International Journal of Molecular Sciences: "Prophages in Lactobacillus strains"