I am no evolutionary biologist (I interviewed several), but it seems to me the rate of microbial evolution is increasing. And might this evolutionary rate correlate to the explosion of cancers? Diabetes? Other human ailments? Here’s a few excerpts from my interview with Dr. Bill Costerton, the “father” of biofilms.

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Richard Longland: In your opinion, is there any relationship between pathogenic biofilms in the human host and some challenging medical conditions?  Two totally different conditions come to mind: cancers and diabetes.

Dr. Bill Costerton: the cancer parallel is very acute in that the cancer parallel can be very well drawn.  And it is just this…When you have a cancer, you have a body of the cancer and you have metastasis.  That is, little pieces of the cancer will go somewhere else and start to grow.  And this is exactly the problem we have with biofilm infections.  For example, if you have a biofilm endocarditis, it can seed into your lungs, it can seed into your brain, and it can produce all kinds of little biofilms that jam in your capillary beds and cause stroke and cause pneumonia in the lungs and so basically a biofilm infection is something that is seeded somewhere; just like a cancer and if the cancer metastasizes to a different area the biofilm also spreads to different areas and we can have a strategy that stops that spread.  And in fact, you use antibiotics to stop single bacteria from migrating somewhere and setting up a new biofilm. So, exact parallel between biofilms and cancer.

And with diabetes we have a real problem because diabetes compromises all kinds of normal functions and makes tissue very comfortable for biofilms.  That’s why they get diabetic foot ulcers, for example.  We have a change in physiology, biofilms get established in this compromised tissue and then, of course, they have to be removed and antibiotic countermeasures have to be taken.  So, there is a real strong connection between both cancer and diabetes and biofilms.

Richard Longland: Is there a causal relationship between pathogenic biofilms and cancers, or is that just too tenuous at this time?

Dr. Bill Costerton: Well, no it isn’t too tenuous at all, actually Rich, it is really rather interesting.  Bacteria when they are growing somewhere in a biofilm are lasting longer in contact with the tissues than we like to happen.  In the old days, you know you were cured in a week or you were finished.  So, basically, the bacteria were only in contact with the tissues for a short time.  But we know now that there are cancers associated with various things that happen in the prostate.

So if we know that something is happening in the liver, Clonorchis infection is a case in point, and bacteria get started there, we know that the irritation that the bacteria cause can cause cancer directly.  So in at least two instances having a bunch of bacteria where they shouldn’t be, in contact with the human tissue in the liver in one case and in the prostate in the other case, they are like an irritant and irritants cause cancer by causing the mutation in the first place.  So two direct links to cancer so far, and I think many more to come.  You don’t want a bunch of bacteria hanging around in tissue for a long period of time producing strange chemicals, including carcinogenic chemicals.  So, it’s important, very important that we clear out biofilm infections.

See 15 minutes of the 45 minute interview with Dr. Bill Costerton here.

I do feel a sense of relief achieving this goal. As well, our video editor has received all the video required for cutting the first version; though he had to transfer video that was already captured from previous editors. These are the hiccups one has to accept when changing editors, apps and hard drives. There are zillions of technical challenges that present themselves during transitions, but the heavy lifting is done. A few metaphors come to mind: I no longer feel like Sisyphus; the monkey is off my back; I made it past heartbreak hill.

Half-Chuck and Eric-Meister

Our new friend, Eric, is the sound engineer working the controls and patiently recorded the session. That’s Chuck, our editor (click on picture for more).

Phew. Thank you, dear God! There are several more significant updates coming in the next few weeks.

Stay tuned, stay healthy, enjoy the spring and all the hope it brings!

Richard

Dr. Bill Costerton – The “Father” of Biofims – YouTube

What an honor it was to meet and interview this amazing man. It was fitting that this was the last interview for the film I’ve been working on for 3.5 years!

I never expected to meet such a wonderful lifeforce, dynamo and kindred spirit in this film adventure, but I am grateful that fate has made it so. Say hello to my new partner and friend, Kat.

In late December, another fateful opportunity was decided; the dedication of this film to the “father of biofilms,” Dr. William “Bill” Costerton. This amazing scientist, naturalist, teacher, and friend to many renewed mankind’s interest in biofilms and has taught countless medical professionals and patients around the world about the natural and scientific world of biofilms. With equal importance, he has taught us how biofilms relate to chronic bacterial diseases. A fraction of his works can be found on PubMed, see app. 400 of his scientific abstracts at this link.

I will be interviewing “Bill” and his colleagues soon. It is an amazing opportunity for me as a patient, who recovered from an undiagnosed hospital-acquired infection, and of course as a filmmaker. But it’s a unique opportunity for all of us to see and hear this great man impart his knowledge of biofilm science which spans more than five decades!

I’ve been struggling with the conclusion of this film for some time, which leaves the audience with an open-ended question (sorry, cannot tell). It seems fitting that this challenging inquiry will rest upon the shoulders of a man who devoted his life to researching biofilms and understanding their evolving place in our world.

Ironically, it took me three years to learn the right questions to ask my doctors about biofilm infections, and more years to heal. Now that this film is nearly complete, the few remaining questions will be posed to Doctor Costerton on camera and will conclude this film “journey.”

In closing, I want to thank my wife, Terry. God blessed our marriage in 2001. Thanks to my family and friends for their support. And especially doctor Bill Costerton for the zillion articles explaining the biology of biofilms and their connections to human disease. All of you inspired me and helped me to the finish line!

Our film will be exploring many of these important medical issues in detail; so I am especially pleased to see these obfuscated medical problems that challenge most Americans finally make it to mainstream media.

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LETTER TO WSJ. This article is way overdue, but is a needed eye-opener for Americans. While interviewing doctors, biofilm researchers and dental professionals for my film, “Why Am I Still Sick?,” I was stunned with their contrasting views regarding the oral-systemic connection. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.

It turns out that chronic bacterial infections affect – infect – most of the adult population in many different ways. According to recent studies, untreated bacterial biofilm infections kill the same number of people that cancer does. Why does such an important fact go unnoticed? Unaddressed?

Bacteria spread “quietly” throughout the body as planktonic bacteria, or from biofilm communities. It’s that simple, but somehow that natural fact of biology gets overlooked and dismissed by dentists, primary care doctors and others across 131+ medical specialties.

There is one surprising thing in this article that jumped off the page: “it is now believed that oral bacterial enter the bloodstreamall the time…” .What?!

Yes, I learned that from my interviewees, but this has always been dismissed – when did this become common knowledge? If medical intelligentsias accept this as an everyday occurrence, what are they doing about it?

I’m no magician, but I am tenacious and never afraid to ask for help (qualities I learned from my sales career, but also by being nearly dead in 2005-2006). Last year, I spent many hours contacting organizations soliciting donations or resources to support the film. I failed miserably getting donations, but I was fortunate to find professionals in music and film who have helped me now in these final stages of film production. I feel lucky to have met smart and experienced people that provided gentle guidance and referrals along the way, so I want to thank Alison at the Berklee College of Music, and Howard at CDIA. Thank you both, for helping with this unusual film, which will be seen all around the world.

Via the Berklee introductions, I met two wonderful folks from Brazil, both of whom are musicians. Luiz (who has the longest name in the world) is a musician and lawyer and his wife Vivian a musician and a composer. Vivian has a solid background as a musician, but also has a rich international and multilingual experience which will be helpful given the target international audiences.

Vivian will take into account a wide range of creative inputs to create an entire film score: the desired instruments (from around the world), the complex nature of the film, the suffering and drama of the patients in the film, emotions to amplify, adding depth or clarity by using sounds…so much more! Luckily, she knows what she’s doing and you can see and hear some of her compositions on her web site.

We are ambitious about our film score goals. How so? First, the film scoring will include some unusual instrumentation, both live and synthesized instruments; even voice. For music lovers, listen to this piece on YouTube. As a reference, this is setting the bar pretty high for Vivian, but I believe her score will be on par with the range, mastery and dimension of sounds you’ll hear. Second, we will offer a short version of the film score in a free song download, a 4-6 minute piece in MP3 format.

I sign off with gratitude to those who gave – and will give – to help complete this important piece of video journalism. It will touch the hearts and minds of so many people around the world.

Peace and good health to all of you in 2012.

Actually, I never knew much about making a film. Never went to school for it. But I learned a great deal from my first video, Getting Back on Their Feet, which gave me some good training wheels.

If I didn’t have training wheels in 1967, I surely would have hit the apple tree near my driveway.

Richard in 1967

Actually, I found it: head on.

Since 2008, my video producer Moki taught me about training wheels and how to ride a bike. During this odyssey of video journalism, I managed to find some apple trees. And stone walls. And other stuff that almost veered me off course.

Despite these obstacles, we have finalized the script and completed the first & second version of the film, approximately 82 minutes worth — a bona fide feature length film. Though the content is somewhat “technical,” the reviewers understood the interviews with patients and doctors understood and related to the subject matter; an obviously critical measure of a compelling documentary.

Other wonderful people found us through circumstance and we’ll be acknowledging them in the months and years ahead for their interest in the film. These folks really care about helping millions of people with chronic bacterial disease find wellness.

Initial reviews of the script and 2^nd version of the film were more positive than I thought, so we are on track: full speed ahead!

Next update: Musical composition for the film.

It’s apropos that this film will be localized in different languages, since we now know that microbes from many different kingdoms can communicate with one another to form chronic bacterial infections – biofilms. How do these tiny, capable creatures “do it” so efficiently? Is there a lingua franca?

In the past few decades, researchers intensively researched quorum sensing. Another feature of microbial communications involves the “exchange of mobile genetic elements,” an especially vital aspect of evolution within biofilm communities.  We touch upon this biology in the film, but I see why researchers are concerned about this superlative survival trait: it enables horizontal gene transfer between vastly different bacterial species and even across different “kingdoms.” And why does this matter?

It’s simple: many chronic infections include myriad bacterial species and frequently different non-bacterial species. As innovators, researchers and diagnosticians dig into all the different life forms of a chronic infection, they are finding “everything” in these living communities (samples from organs, wounds, dental, sinus, etc.) including the kitchen sink. Well, maybe not that, but the kitchen often plays a role in disease transmission.

Much more later – some of which will be in the film.

There’s a Chinese proverb saying, “Disease comes in through the mouth, and trouble goes out through the mouth.” Yet here we are in 2011 and learnings regarding the oral-systemic disease link are somehow nascent. How could the collective knowledge of humans spanning thousands of years be so forgotten or obfuscated?

When I posted about the oral-systemic connection early in 2011, it drew the attention of “consultants” who pooh-poohed this notion of oral biofilms playing a role in systemic health, even though thousands of researchers and millions of conscientious humans understand this connection. Why would people find this obvious, proven and aged wisdom so controversial? See this post on my biofilmcommunity site.

If you have the time to search PubMed, use the culturally accepted terms, e.g.: biofilm dispersal, biofilm disassembly, biofilm virulence, biofilm spread, etc. Using these terms, you’ll find myriad articles explaining the biological phenomenon known as planktonic showers – when biofilms shed entire fragments and/or planktonic bacteria into the bloodstream – thereby setting up other infections or blood clots elsewhere in the host. In my interview with Dr. Garth Ehrlich in 2010, he discusses these important life processes.

During the film making process, it was difficult to avoid this topic of dental biofilms, as dental plaque (an example of a biofilm) is the most popular notion of chronic bacterial infections that is vaguely familiar to the public.  Here’s a snippet from one of my interviews with Trisha E. O’Hehir:

I have nice teeth! Honest!

“…What are the links and what other systemic conditions are linked to oral health?  The list goes on and on, and every week we have new things added to that list.  It starts, of course, with oral health and problems in the mouth.  And it goes as the toxins and the cytokines, the substances that are produced that are dangerous, are dumped into the bloodstream; they can be taken to the heart, they can be taken to a fetus, they can be taken to arthritic joints; any other places in the body, even linking it now to cancers as well.

Something that you might find interesting that has been known for a long time and that is by people who buy and sell horses.  The first thing they look at when they buy a horse is the mouth and the teeth.  And if there are infections in the mouth, they are not going to buy the horse.  It’s the window to the rest of the body…”

So, completing my syllogistic reasoning here: disease does in fact come in from the mouth, and from many other places.  There’s nothing new here – the wisdoms of the ages are now supported and elucidated with thirty years of good biofilm science. Indeed, this film will show that researchers, leaders and healers are using new ways of diagnosing and treating human bacterial diseases.