• Question: Do you get any diseases that are actually good for your health? Corran

    Asked by lifeinprint to Hitesh, Nik, Tiffany on 21 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Tiffany Taylor

      Tiffany Taylor answered on 21 Jun 2012:

      Hi Corran. Not exactly, because by definition a “disease” is something which is bad for your health. But there are loads of bacteria which are really good for your health. In fact, there are about 10 times as many bacteria cells in your human body (mostly in the gut) than human cells! So does that make you more bacteria than human??

      Yoghurts and probiotic drinks are full of bacteria – but don’t let that put you off – they’re the good kind.

    • Photo: Nicola Ibberson

      Nicola Ibberson answered on 22 Jun 2012:

      Hmm… I can’t think of any that are solely ‘good’, otherwise I guess they wouldn’t be called diseases! Being a carrier of sickle cell disease (i.e. not affected with disease but you have a few sickle shaped blood cells among normal ones) can protect you against malaria. This is why it has become common in areas with historically high incidence of malaria.

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