Your Microbiome. Where health begins, and disease ends.

Be sure to read my next post in this series: How the Microbiome Works With Our Body Systems (including Microbiome Diet Basics).

The medical community has long viewed microbes (aka bacteria) as something to destroy, believing that microbes cause illness and disease, and has left us with the idea that bacteria are bad and are a threat to our ecosystem.

But now we are becoming more and more aware that microbes keep us healthy and control our ability to ward off disease. They help us digest our food and support our immunity. Nurturing healthy bacteria and balancing the microbiome (the entire collection of microbes that live in and on the human body) has become of paramount importance. Tending to your microbiome is one of the most important things you can do for your health and longevity. 

If we are in poor health, it’s because something is out of balance in our personal ecosystem: our microbiome. 

Good vs. Bad Bacteria

We have been taught for a very long time – 150 years or so – that bacteria are bad and cause disease. But the latest research indicates that is not so. Bacteria are good. In fact, when they work together in the right way, when they’re part of a balanced ecology, not only are they not bad for you, but they have a positive effect on your health and longevity. If you are in good health, then your bacteria are in good health, and they’re taking care of you. We just have to adjust our understanding of bacteria with this new paradigm.

There is no such thing as bad bacteria. Bacteria only become harmful when they are out of balance with the whole ecosystem. Research and scientists agree that 80% of bacteria are actually good for you. Even staphylococcus aureus, once considered a dangerous organism, is needed for a healthy epithelial microbiome of the lungs. 

The Mighty Microbiome

So what exactly is a microbiome? A microbiome is a huge collection of microbes. Microbes include fungi, bacteria, and viruses. The viruses have phages, which are actually viruses that eat bacteria and keep them under control. (See, not all viruses are bad, just like bacteria are not all bad!) You have a microbiome of your skin, your lungs, your mouth, your eyes, your nostrils; every organ has a microbiome of its own. 

Within the human microbiome are trillions of bacteria, which outnumber our own cells 10 to 1. Therefore, we are mostly bacteria : ) And just like our cells, each bacteria has its own genes! It’s kind of mind boggling: the human genome has 23,000 genes. And the microbiome has trillions of bacteria. That’s a lot of genes! 

These microbes have an intelligence, and they live together in big communities. Just like where you live, if there is discord in your community, problems occur. When microbial communities get out of balance, we see illness, auto immunity, diabetes, obesity, cancers, and so on. And they play a significant role in keeping our gut healthy. 

Gut Health 

We have two to six pounds of microbes in our gut. Most people like to think of microbes as separate from themselves, on the outside, but they are actually part of us on the inside. 

Gut health is a part of microbiome health. The gut houses the microbiome and the microbiome needs a healthy house to live in, so we first focus on making sure the gut is a good home. If you were inspecting a home, you’d want it to be on a firm foundation and make sure it doesn’t leak. In gut health terms, we make sure there isn’t any dysbiosis (imbalance in the microorganisms in the gut) and address any leaky gut issues. 

Once the house is in order, we can explore the microbiome and tap into its power. The microbiome works with all of our body systems! I had goosebumps while doing the research on this topic and can’t wait to share it with you. It is compelling and vast, just like the microbiome. 

Be sure to read my next post in this series: How the Microbiome Works With Our Body Systems (including Microbiome Diet Basics).

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867414003456