Role in Disease
Bacteria in the digestive tract have pathogenic properties in addition to their health-inducing ones: they can produce toxins and carcinogens and have been implicated in such conditions as multisystem organ failure, sepsis, colon cancer, and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). A major factor in health is the balance of bacterial numbers; if the numbers grow too high or low, it will result in harm to the host. The host has enzymes to regulate this balance.
Read more about this topic: Gut Flora
Famous quotes containing the words role in, role and/or disease:
“Certainly parents play a crucial role in the lives of individuals who are intellectually gifted or creatively talented. But this role is not one of active instruction, of teaching children skills,... rather, it is support and encouragement parents give children and the intellectual climate that they create in the home which seem to be the critical factors.”
—David Elkind (20th century)
“The role of the intelligence—that part of us which affirms and denies and formulates opinions—is merely to submit.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)
“What is the disease which manifests itself in an inability to leave a party—any party at all—until it is all over and the lights are being put out?... I suppose that part of this mania for staying is due to a fear that, if I go, something good will happen and I’ll miss it. Somebody might do card tricks, or shoot somebody else.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)