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Enterococcus faecium M74
Previously named Steptococcus faecium M74 is a friendly, intensely loyal super bug. In the middle of the last century the Hungarian Scientist Mechkov observed that on average the inhabitants of certain isolated villages in Hungary lived for an extraordinary length of time and their longevity was matched by a singular degree of good health. He concluded that the phenomenon was not just due to a genetic predisposition but due to a lifetime diet of Goat’s Yogurt. Contemporaries of Mechkov advanced the study of beneficial bacteria and at the time of the Hungarian revolution were able across the border into Austria. One such scientist was the Endre Kvanta who with his wife Judit got to Sweden and was able to continue his work. It was in Stockholm that Kvanta isolated naturally occurring bacteria from the digestive tract of an unusually healthy and robust suckling baby. He called it M74. Unlike some other bacteria he found M74 quite easy multiply and stood up to preservation extremely well in a freeze dried state, indeed both inside the gut and outside M74 had remarkable properties. When fed to laboratory animals it colonised well protecting against intestinal problems and increasing resistance to disease. It was not difficult to see those rats and mice fed M74 looked and were a lot healthier.
A bookseller from whom Kvanta bought books became interested in developing the concept of feeding friendly bacteria, as opposed to antibiotics. The rest, they say is history, from humble and much derided beginnings the use of probiotics is now firmly accepted. The Swedish company Medipharm that grew from this research is now the world’s leading probiotic producer and the largest dairy company in Europe. M74 is still monitored daily to make sure it is still the very same and is one of the few to bacteria to date to be fully licensed for use under EU regulations for both Humans and Livestock use. Bacteria do not live in mixed colonies and do not live on top of one another so a GI tract tenanted by strong beneficial bacteria prevents the adhesion of deleterious bacteria. Without establishing a stronghold they do not have the chance to move in and start procreating, instead they pass out without having had the opportunity to do harm.