Non-infectious Microbial Diseases
A non-infectious microbial disease sounds like an oxymoron. I must admit, when I think of non-infectious diseases my mind goes to non contagious diseases that are typically caused by genetic and environmental factors, such as diet and age. For example, kidney disease and heart disease. Neither of these are known to be caused by microbes. Microbial diseases are usually contagious in nature.
The first few diseases that come to my mind when I think of microbes are the flu, measles, chicken pox, strep throat, malaria, urinary tract infections, and the list goes on! The issue is that all of these maladies are infectious. They are caused by microorganisms that are considered to be contagious and therefore are infectious.
However, the real topic to be discussed is not, whether or not microbes are causing non-infectious diseases. It’s whether they are influencing them. Which I must say, of course they are! It is well known that our bodies are flourishing with microbes, both inside and out. It would next to impossible to prove that these microbes have absolutely no influence on our general health and well being. There are many factors that go into illness, infectious or not, and my background in science leads me to believe that there probably is some sort of affect resulting from microbes. However, I am unsure of the specifics regarding microbial influence on non-infectious diseases.
I am curious to learn more about the topic of non-infectious microbial diseases because as it stands right now, I can’t think of any non-infectious diseases in particular that are associated with microbes!
