Recent knowledge that human body contains mostly ... viruses

[sammmy]

Viruses Can Help Us as Well as Harm Us

Experts are figuring out how to exploit the 380 trillion viruses that make up the human virome

www.scientificamerican.com

Scientists’ rapidly expanding knowledge makes it clear that we are not made up primarily of “human” cells that are occasionally invaded by microbes; our bodies are really superorganisms of cohabitating cells, bacteria, fungi and, most numerous of all, viruses. The latest counts indicate that as much as half of all the biological matter in your body is not human.

 

[tareload]

Viruses Can Help Us as Well as Harm Us

Experts are figuring out how to exploit the 380 trillion viruses that make up the human virome

www.scientificamerican.com

Awesome. Thanks for sharing that. Think about this the next time you hit the beach:

Bacteriophage - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Marine viruses - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

A teaspoon of seawater typically contains about fifty million viruses.[6] Most of these viruses are bacteriophages which infect and destroy marine bacteria and control the growth of phytoplankton at the base of the marine food web.

 

[sammmy]

The striking point of this article is that humans can get sick without any external infection, just from the viruses that they already carry inside (especially the Herpes family). That occurs when the immune system gets weak for various reasons and can't keep them in check, similar to the bacterial infections from already present bacteria.

In the past few years, I have been having repeating debilitating headaches lasting for weeks. It turned out recently it is a reactivating Varicella Zoster Virus (VZV). Such reactivations are described in medical articles but most doctors will not even think to test for reactivations (IgM antibodies). Meanwhile, the corresponding virus is destroying the body bit by bit - VZV is attacking and damaging the nervous and vascular systems and can get you from dysautonomia and paralysis to stroke or dementia.

 

[sammmy]

Reactivation of VZV is what caused nervous damage to Justin Bieber this year:

What is Ramsay Hunt syndrome, the virus affecting Justin Bieber’s face? | Plastic Surgery | UT Southwestern Medical Center

Learn what causes Ramsay Hunt syndrome and why it’s important to talk with a doctor who specializes in the facial nerve if you have symptoms of paralysis.

utswmed.org