I knew that; we all know what a fungus is. I just never imagined how many there are!
If you’re reading this and eating at the same time, I strongly urge you to stop one or the other . . . right now. No, seriously. Put down that taco. You’ll thank me later.
I’m not entirely clear on whether that’s an actual picture of some sort of human-hosted fungus, or just someone’s idea of what Venusians will look like when they finally reach Earth. But Google says they’re fungi, so I’m going with that.
And no, they’re not the latest in Russia’s or China’s arsenal of chemical weapons . . . as far as I know. They’re actually right here, on our very own bodies — along with bacteria and viruses — by the billions . . . and we need them.
(Excuse me, but if the plural of “fungus” is “fungi,” then why isn’t the plural of “virus” . . . “viri”? Just asking.)
Anyway, it seems that any square centimeter of skin on your body contains between 10,000 and 1,000,000 bacteria. But they’re the good kind. So they (the experts) now tell us we shouldn’t overdo the antibacterial soap and other stuff we’ve all become so addicted to since the Covid pandemic. Because it turns out that all those tiny trespassers on your personal property — your epidermis — are there as the first line of defense against any pathogens that might try to invade your system. [Jasmin Fox-Skelly, BBC, August 13, 2024.]
And reading on, I learned that the distribution of these little squatters is uneven throughout your body . . . and that there are a number of different types of bacteria living with you in apparent harmony (and presumably not paying rent). Your forehead, nose and back might be housing one type, while your armpits, or between your toes . . .
All right — I told you to drop the taco, didn’t I?!!
I did add quite a few new words to my (admittedly limited) medical vocabulary along the way, such as “Cutibacterium,” “Corynebacterium,” “Propionibacterium,” “keratinocytes,” and my personal favorite, “skin dysbiosis” — all of which I promptly consigned to the “Immediately Forgotten As Being Totally Useless” file in my brain. I’m absolutely certain I won’t be discussing “cutie bacteria” with any of my friends in the near future . . . or ever.
The article, which was quite lengthy, went into great detail as to the way in which each of these tiny treasures does its job to keep us healthy, and as to our body’s workings in general. And trust me . . . you probably don’t need to know every bit of it, any more than I did. But if you are the curious type, here’s the link:
Otherwise, just be content with knowing that you shouldn’t be scrubbing yourself with Grandma’s lye soap in a misdirected attempt to get rid of all of those baby blue Venusians crawling all over you. They’re friendlies. They should stay.
But maybe you could have that talk about rent.
Just sayin’ . . .
Brendochka
8/14/24
The Blog About Everything … and Sometimes Nothing 