We immediately think of infections when we hear the word bacteria. But that is only part of the story. Most bacteria present in our body are healthy and keep our system running. They are responsible for our metabolism, our digestion and they protect us from harmful bacteria. 

The Good Bac­te­ria: 

How are we pro­tected from di­ar­rhoea, neu­ro­der­mati­tis, tooth decay and other in­fec­tions? And what helps us to di­gest our food? The an­swer is good bac­te­ria, which are of course pre­sent in our body and ac­count for most of our bac­te­ria. Lac­to­bacilli and bi­fi­dobac­te­ria are good bac­te­ria. If we have to take an­tibi­otics they un­for­tu­nately de­stroy the good bac­te­ria as well as the harm­ful bac­te­ria.

The Bad Bac­te­ria:

Some types of bac­te­ria are very dan­ger­ous, al­though not al­ways life threat­en­ing. These types do not occur nat­u­rally in our sys­tems as a rule or they are only ­present to a lim­ited de­gree. These in­clude en­te­ro­cocci, which cause in­fec­tions of the uri­nary tract, co­l­iform bac­te­ria, which trig­ger stom­ach and in­testi­nal com­plaints or beta-haemolytic strep­to­cocci, which bring on angina.

The Ugly Bac­te­ria: 

There are types of bac­te­ria that are highly con­ta­gious and very rapidly lead to ­pandemics. Bacil­lus an­thracis, for in­stance, causes an­thrax, Clostrid­ium per­frin­gens is re­spon­si­ble for food poi­son­ing and Pseudomonas aerug­i­nosa is a hos­pi­tal germ.

Fur­ther in­for­ma­tion

• Ar­ti­cle "Pre­bi­otics in in­fant for­mula"
• Overview "In­ter­est­ing facts about our bac­te­ria zoo"
• http://inside.hochdorf.com/en/interesting-facts-about-our-bacteria-zooOverview "The dif­fer­ence be­tween pre­bi­otics and pro­bi­otics"