In a disease-focused medical world, you’re not likely to see or hear anyone saying that biofilms are essential for health. In fact, almost every paper, study, or lecture on biofilms will focus how problematic they are. Yet, the fact of the matter is that biofilms ARE essential AND necessary for the protection of healthy bacteria and microbes. Biofilms are required for the ongoing colonization of beneficial bacteria and microbes in the human gut. This translates to biofilms being essential to our ongoing health and longevity. Why then are so many health-focused supplement companies creating supplements to destroy biofilms? Let’s start by looking at what biofilms are.

What are biofilms?

Biofilms are formed by many different types of microbes – bacteria, fungi, algae, and others. The biofilms are created to protect the microbes, both the good and bad guys. Biofilms are made up of proteins, polysaccharides, fats, and even other microbes. They help to stabilize the colonies of microbes and ensure their ongoing presence. In an earlier podcast here, I discussed the rules governing biofilms and biofilm formation. If scientists and doctors were more informed about these rules, they could make better decisions in regard to biofilms.

Once biofilms are formed, the biofilm can help to protect the bad microbes from antibiotics and immune responses. That is obviously a negative consequence and the focus of almost all the research on the detriment of biofilms. It is also without exception, the way in which everyone approaches treating biofilms. Biofilms support the bad bugs and therefore, biofilms must be eradicated. We must not lose sight of the fact however that the biofilms also protect the good bacteria from being destroyed by antibiotics. Of course, the Hippocratic Oath of “First do no harm” never seems to be the primary focus in health care, and so we wipe out the good with bad, just as do with antibiotics.

Are biofilms really the enemy?

In order to understand why biofilms are demonized, we have to look at the current ingrained approach to healthcare. Even though decades of research have increased our understanding of health and the microbiome, and the interconnectedness of all life, modern medicine still wages its war against all microbes. From the medical perspective, it’s still the ancient, outdated “us-against-them” mentality. The bacteria are the bad guys and the biofilms that protect them makes them the enemy, too!

This, like many approaches in medicine, is an outdated point of view dating back to Louis Pasteur’s Germ Theory. Counter to that was  the point of view of Antoine Béchamp and his holistic view of the function of the microbiome as being necessary to health. The root of this problem goes much deeper, but suffice it to say, we don’t always have to kill everything simply because we don’t understand it.

Who benefits?

The Lactobacillus species of bacteria, that are normally a significant part of a healthy gut microbiome, benefit greatly from biofilms. Their formation of biofilms helps to ensure their colonization and long-term residency in our gut. In turn, their presence plays a very important role in helping to stabilize and create healthy bacterial ratios throughout the gut, as well as greater health throughout the entire body. Their presence helps to reduce the presence of pathogenic bacteria and fungi. Even the biofilms they produce help to prevent the formation of biofilms by the pathogenic microbes.

Additionally, Lactobacillus and other beneficial bacterial species will stimulate healthy immune responses that prevent the formation of biofilms by pathogenic bacteria. The presence of these beneficial bacteria also means less nutrients for pathogenic bacteria. Both of these effects exerts a very strong impediment to biofilm formation by affecting two of the laws of biofilm formation as stated below.

4 laws of Biofilm formation

  1. Number of cells present and how mobile they are. There have to be enough cells present and they have to move slowly enough to be able to establish a biofilm. A sedentary lifestyle with slower blood flow is more conducive to biofilm formation.
  2. There has to be a sufficient amount of nutrients present to feed both the cells at the top of the biofilm and the ones deeper down. This dynamic is constantly changing.
  3. Local immune responses. Healthy anti-fungal immune responses will prevent biofilm formation.
  4. The ability to signal other cells that it’s time to form a biofilm.

These are the essential 4 laws of biofilm formation that have to be met and they all need to be met in order for biofilm formation to take place. Additionally, there are other factors such as temperature, pH, etc. All of this is discussed in a 2022 paper from researchers at Princeton University who refer to this process as, “a dizzyingly complex array of factors that are determined by the intrinsic properties of the individual cells, as well as those of their surrounding environment.”

Embracing Complexity

When we view life through the lens of its immense complexity and seek to understand this complexity, we are so much closer to a whole or complete point of view. We see how everything is interconnected and interdependent, and this dictates that we seek to bring balance to the whole. We do not treat life through the narrow lens of a singular imbalance or infection that needs to be eradicated. In the context of the whole, everything we do will have a widespread effect.

The approach of the Candida Plan is a systemic one that seeks to allow the system to balance itself. Nature and all of life is a series of checks and balances. Our approach is to support the system in balancing itself. Doing so supports the overall health of the the body.

Antibiotic means against life. Antibiotics damage the digestive system or “gut” and that affects the gut-brain axis, gut-lung axis, gut-skin axis, gut-liver axis, gut-bone axis, gut-spleen axis, gut-immune axis and so forth. The subsequent development of fungal candida after antibiotic use is a permanent change that needs to be corrected. Its long-term persistence is why candida is connected to over 125 different diseases and conditions.

I hope this blog helps to illustrate that even biofilms need to be approached by balancing the system and not just attacking biofilms. As with antibiotics, attacking biofilms will only create ongoing imbalances, because biofilms are essential for health!

Dr. Jeffrey S. McCombs, DC, is founder of the McCombs Center for Health, the Candida Plan, the Candida Library, and author of Lifeforce, The Everything Candida Book, and The Everything Guide to Autoimmune Diets. Check out our podcast, Candida Diet Tips Recipes, and Insights on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Buzzsprout, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music and Alexa Flash Briefings. Phone: (888) 236-7780.

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