Marie-Monique Robin. “There are a hundred thousand billion bacteria in our gut alone, and they all have essential functions.”

It’s high time we made peace with these unloved ones that we mistakenly fear and persecute. Because 99% of microbes are essential to life on Earth, including ours. Bacteria, viruses, and microscopic fungi that are everywhere on us and in us partners by birth, our benefactors.And as we wage war on them with our highly sanitized lifestyles, inflammatory diseases have exploded (asthma, allergies, diabetes, etc.).

This is what Marie-Monique Robin shows in her documentary Long live the germs. is broadcast on Arte. Fascinating and publicly useful, it is accompanied by a book of the same name (Arte Éditions/La Découverte) and a beautiful book. (These animals who protect us Rue de l’échquier editions).The journalist and the director interviewed dozens of scientists around the world, whose work shows that the main reason for this explosion is the lack of exposure to germs during early childhood.

Too many germs on Earth

“The number of microbes on the planet is quintillion, which is ‘1’ followed by 31 zeroes, which is more than all the stars in the universe,” Dutch microbiologist Remko Kort explained to me. It’s dizzying! Bacteria are the largest group, but there are also microscopic fungi, such as yeasts or molds, and viruses, although the latter are not really living organisms because they need a host to survive. Life on Earth began with microbes there can be no life. Of course, some are terrible and are the cause of terrible diseases that have destroyed mankind, such as plague, cholera or smallpox. Bacteria perform a thousand and one incredible functions: disinfecting soils, turning organic matter into humus, participating in the development of trees… “.

They are everywhere, in and on our bodies

“Thanks to metagenomics, scientists are discovering tens of thousands of new bacteria every day, not to mention all the genes of these bacteria. There are hundreds of billions of bacteria in our gut alone. We’re discovering that every day our entire metabolism is related to bacteria, they digest food, produce some vitamins that we don’t produce ourselves, send messages and they ensure the proper functioning of the immune system. They even contribute to the production of happy hormones. In addition to the gut microbiota, we all have a skin microbiota (which counts one million bacteria per square centimeter of the epidermis and is our first line of defense against pathogens), a vaginal microbiota for women, etc.

An explosion of inflammatory diseases

“We have to interact with microbes or we develop inflammatory diseases (allergies, asthma, eczema, obesity, diabetes, Crohn’s disease, etc.) and even psychiatric disorders like depression. The numbers are very clear. Fifty years ago, less than 5% of the world’s population suffered from asthma or allergies, just to talk about these two pathologies, including food allergies. Today, it is 35%, and WHO predicts that every second person by 2050 if we don’t change course.This is all the more worrying because when we suffer from these inflammatory diseases we are also more vulnerable to viruses In rural areas of Africa or Asia, Covid-19 has infected populations but not caused mass deaths. is

Less allergies for farm kids

“About forty international studies prove it. Babies born in traditional farms like the one I visited in Franche-Comté, where the cows eat grass and grass, where they interact with them and drink raw milk, have almost no asthma or allergies lactobacilli and microscopic fungi such as the Penicillium family.Inhaling this in early childhood stimulates and nurtures the immune system to the point that German doctors in Munich are developing a nasal spray made from sustainable dust to protect children from asthma and allergies in urban maternity hospitals. Because scientists have shown that lack of animal, plant and microbial biodiversity due to concretization, hyperhygiene and industrial food disinfection is depleting children’s gut microbiota. and contributes to the weakening of their immune system. It is a whole balance that has been disturbed we standardized it, like in the fields. Ultimately, we end up with a shortage of ‘good microbes’, which leads to damage, sick people, and death.”

Act in the first thousand days of life

“Everything depends on the pregnancy until the child turns two and a half years old. Because it is here that the microbiota that we will have for the rest of our lives is formed. Therefore, during this period, including during pregnancy, antibiotics must be avoided, because they are a disaster for the intestinal flora. And if we have to take them then let’s supplement the flora by eating raw dairy products, fermented foods, sauerkraut, etc. Studies have shown that children who have taken two antibiotics before the age of 3 are ten times more likely to have asthma, allergies and obesity he has no bacteria in his gut, the first he will have is the one his mother gave him during vaginal passage. If possible, breastfeed. Let the babies crawl and put things in their mouths. It is also necessary to green the areas of the nursery and school so that the children can access the soil , and some supplements destroy the good bacteria in the gut.And then, in general, we should stop washing and sanitizing everything because “too much hygiene kills hygiene,” as one of the scientists interviewed in my film says. In general, let’s reintroduce plant, animal and microbial biodiversity to cities. Because we depend on it.”

Long live the germs!documentary to watch on arte.tv