The human body carries trillions of bacteria, viruses, and other tiny microbes — so many that they outnumber human cells 10 to 1. The more than 10,000 species of microbes that humans carry contribute 8 million or so genes, whereas parents pass down a measly 22,000. Thought to be the most important bacterial landscape in the body, the gut has 100 billion bacteria for every 1 gram of intestinal matter. Scientists call these resident microbes and all of their genes “the human microbiome.” “The microbiome is the collection of the total microbial cells that colonize us in and on our bodies. It’s on our skin. It’s in our gastrointestinal tract. They’re in the crevasses between our teeth,” said Laurie Cox, Ph.D., a researcher at New York University (NYU). Bacteria pull much-needed nutrients from the food we eat and produce essentials like vitamins K and B12, but humans have found ways to “hack” the microbiome to make these organisms do even more. Our hangers-on help us digest food and make short-chain fatty acids vital for our cells. They produce vitamins, anti-inflammatories, and even their own brand of antibacterials to fend off foreign germs that could hurt us (and steal resources from them). Some of these microbes can be harmful, but most have lived and evolved with humans for millennia. After decades of antibiotic treatments, Americans have lost many of their native bacteria. Could a damaged microbiome be the real cause of autoimmune diseases like asthma and metabolic conditions like obesity?
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 08:21:59 +0000
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