Most people think of bullying as a purely social problem—an issue of personality, parenting, or peer dynamics. We assume cruelty comes from culture, not chemistry. Yet growing evidence suggests that what we call “meanness,” “ostracism,” or “hypersensitivity” might sometimes be the social face of invisible biological stress. One particularly intriguing culprit: Actinobacteria, a group of soil and water-damage-loving microbes that not only colonize buildings but also our skin.
Actinobacteria are ancient, filamentous bacteria—closer in evolutionary history to fungi than to most modern germs. They thrive in damp drywall, HVAC systems, and decaying dust, releasing inflammatory molecules that easily enter the air. According to the Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS) framework pioneered by Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker, these bacteria release biotoxins that can provoke a sustained innate immune response. That inflammation doesn’t stay in the sinuses—it alters neuroendocrine balance, blood flow, and even social perception.
When Skin Becomes a Signal
Shoemaker’s research and subsequent microbiome studies show that Actinobacteria aren’t just environmental—they live on human skin, especially in humid regions or in people exposed to water-damaged buildings. Colonization of this kind isn’t an “infection” in the medical sense, but it can shift the skin’s chemistry: raising inflammatory cytokines, altering sweat pH, and producing volatile organic compounds that subtly change scent.
In evolutionary biology, scent is social information. Humans subconsciously detect immune status and stress through odor compounds and microbe-derived volatiles. If chronic biotoxin exposure changes that chemical language, social perception changes too. Children might recoil from peers whose skin microbiome smells “off,” without ever knowing why. Adults might misinterpret these signals as poor hygiene or social awkwardness.
So when we think back to the childhood game of “cooties”—a tag of contamination passed between kids—we may have been acting out something deeper: an instinctive aversion to biological stress signals emitted through touch, sweat, and proximity. In modern schools with aging, water-damaged infrastructure, that instinct might be reawakening.
From Microbes to Mindset
CIRS research shows that Actinobacteria exposure elevates MMP-9, C4a, and TGF-β1—molecules that degrade connective tissue, increase blood-brain barrier permeability, and dysregulate neuropeptides like MSH and VIP. Those shifts can manifest as anxiety, irritability, fatigue, or difficulty with social attunement.
The Native Brilliance framework interprets this through its “Integrator” and “Guardian” systems—two brain–body circuits responsible for emotional boundaries and social timing. When inflammation erodes those systems, the result isn’t just fatigue or sensory overload; it’s relational distortion. The Integrator loses the ability to distinguish “self” from “other,” while the Guardian struggles to read social readiness cues. In a classroom, that could look like one child becoming overstimulated and reactive while another becomes hypersensitive to others’ presence—a perfect storm for mutual misunderstanding and exclusion.
Bullying as a Biochemical Echo
Bullying often emerges around difference—the classmate who “smells weird,” “acts strange,” or “seems off.” But what if those differences aren’t moral or psychological, but microbial? Actinobacteria colonization can make sweat more acrid and hair oils rancid faster; chronic inflammation can make a child’s skin temperature, posture, and facial affect subtly different. On a subconscious level, others might read those cues as threat or contamination, activating primal avoidance reflexes.
This doesn’t excuse cruelty—but it reframes part of it. Many social conflicts may begin as invisible immune conversations: the biochemistry of one body signaling dysregulation to another.
The Bigger Picture: Healing the Social Microbiome
If this theory holds, anti-bullying efforts need an environmental dimension. Cleaning the air may calm the classroom. Addressing water-damage biotoxin load—through EPA-designed ERMI or HERTSMI-2 testing rather than conventional “spore counts”—could not only prevent asthma or fatigue but improve empathy and cooperation. Restoring microbial balance might literally help kids smell, feel, and think more clearly about one another.
We can’t change the playground instincts evolution gave us. But we can change the environments that hijack them. “Cooties” may never have been imaginary; they may just have been the human body’s way of saying, “Something in this space isn’t safe.” Recognizing that biology gives behavior context—and sometimes, the kindest act is simply to clean the air.
