Microbes, mainly bacteria, make up 90% of the cells in our bodies, and about 10% of our body weight. Most of these, good and bad, are in our guts and on our skin.
Most microbes are vital for survival, like aiding our digestive system, while a small amount cause infections and diseases, but our immune system usually keeps them in place, but even our immune system needs help sometimes. Bacteria are able to cause disease when they are allowed to reproduce in the body, and produce toxins, which damage tissues and organs.
So, how do antibiotics work? In the video I watched to gain information, the man said that just like a man doing kung-fu, bacterium also can defeat each other with special moves.
They produce antibiotics.
These antibiotics are a type of compound that kill other microbes and allow the attackers to take all of the food for themselves.
Antibiotics were discovered by Alexander Flemming.
He was examining some mold that grew near one of his tests. It contained disease causing bacteria, but it killed them all.
The use of antibiotics completely revolutionized how people treated diseases that were previously untreatable.
The bad news is that Microbes can become resistant to antibiotics, and bacteria can evolve, if you will to keep antibiotics from damaging them. (So there IS a catch!)
The rest of the bacteria will succumb to the antibiotics, but the one species of bacteria that has become resistant to the antibiotics will continue to grow, and bacteria reproduce at an alarmingly high rate.
To this day, scientists are looking for a new antibiotic that can kill this superbug.
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