human body as 'an elaborate vessel optimized
for the growth and spread of our microbial inhabitants.'"
- Dr. Justin Sonnenburg (Stanford Microbiology) quoted
in "Some of My Best Friends Are Germs" by Michael Pollan
of the New York Times
Has it come to your attention lately that you aren't pooping on a regular enough or comfortable enough basis? Has Jamie Lee Curtis convinced you that the answers to all of your problems can be found in a cup of Activia yogurt? What, not crazy about eating yogurt multiple times a day? Maybe you need to swallow some Phillips' Colon Health, Bayer's somewhat expensive offering; no yogurt, just pop a pill! These and other products promise to deliver "probiotics" that will tend to your less than perfect defecation situation. Sounds good, right? Take this stuff with your vitamins in the morning and it will straighten you out. But what is the it that is doing the straightening? Thanks to the New York Times Sunday Magazine this last weekend, you can learn all about it in one easily digestible article. And that's great, because it has had the attention of the scientific community for a while now, and it's only becoming a hotter and hotter topic.
In, "Some of My Best Friends Are Germs", Michael Pollan provides a great survey of the current state of research into the human microbiota - the trillions upon trillions of bacteria that live on you and in you - all the time. But wait, aren't bacteria bad? Don't they cause illness? Aren't they to be feared and fought off with soaps, sanitizers, cleaning sprays, and antibiotics? The answer is yes, but only sometimes, and just the troublemakers (read: pathogens - the disease causers). It's true, whether you like it or not, you always have been, and always will be, populated by microbes, head to toe, inside and out. And that's a good thing! Your resident microbes help you digest food, they help keep your immune system up to snuff, and they help out-compete the disease causing bugs when they try to take over the turf of our friendly cohabitants. The way research is moving, there's likely a study linking your microbial friends to the most mundane bodily functions.
In this great piece by Pollan, we see the popular press providing an in depth look at the many aspects of health and modern research that is dedicated to understanding the bacterial symbionts that we live with. In fact, in the scientific community, it is becoming less chic and more mundane to view the human body as an ecosystem unto itself - a veritable superorganism - composed of our human cells and no less than 10X that number in bacterial cells, representing many hundreds of different species. Their presence can be weighed, literally, in pounds. (Trying to shed some weight? Sorry to say, but several of those pounds don't even belong to you.) Hence, the title of this post. You literally have 100 trillion "other", non-human, cells living in and on you. And why not? You're a great place to live. Your exposed surfaces, inside and out, provide so many different habitats to adapt to. Your immune system keeps the trouble makers at bay. You provide food and water multiple times a day. You are very efficient at delivering oxygen, at least to those bugs that bother to breath it in the first place. For those that don't - and, by the way, most of your symbionts don't - most of your digestive tract is really great at keeping that poisonous gas far far away (yeah, oxygen is actually poisonous to them).
Symbiosis is at the center of this story. Life often works better when different species live and interact with one another. Our commensal bacteria - the ones that have something to gain from us, but we could care less about them - are often written off as "along for the ride". This may be so, but the more we learn, the more difficult it is likely to become to draw the line between these free-riders and our bona fide mutualists - we provide a benefit for them and they return the favor. These are the probiotics we hear so much about in TV commercials (though there are many many more that aren't included in your probiotic pills!). Your body gives them food and shelter, and they make sure you poop on time and that the experience is as good as it can be. Most of the time when we think about microbes, we think about the ones that cause disease - the pathogens - but they comprise a small yet horribly troublesome minority. So when you think about you and your 100 trillion little friends, there's no need to be grossed out. They need you and you need them. Anyway, it's how life works, and there's no amount of Purell or penicillin that can change it.
We'll talk more about this soon,
- @EJDimise
"SYMBIOSIS - any close physical association between two
organisms, usually from different species. This includes
mutualism, commensalism and parasitism. The term originates
from the Greek words syn (together) and bio (life)."
In this great piece by Pollan, we see the popular press providing an in depth look at the many aspects of health and modern research that is dedicated to understanding the bacterial symbionts that we live with. In fact, in the scientific community, it is becoming less chic and more mundane to view the human body as an ecosystem unto itself - a veritable superorganism - composed of our human cells and no less than 10X that number in bacterial cells, representing many hundreds of different species. Their presence can be weighed, literally, in pounds. (Trying to shed some weight? Sorry to say, but several of those pounds don't even belong to you.) Hence, the title of this post. You literally have 100 trillion "other", non-human, cells living in and on you. And why not? You're a great place to live. Your exposed surfaces, inside and out, provide so many different habitats to adapt to. Your immune system keeps the trouble makers at bay. You provide food and water multiple times a day. You are very efficient at delivering oxygen, at least to those bugs that bother to breath it in the first place. For those that don't - and, by the way, most of your symbionts don't - most of your digestive tract is really great at keeping that poisonous gas far far away (yeah, oxygen is actually poisonous to them).
Symbiosis is at the center of this story. Life often works better when different species live and interact with one another. Our commensal bacteria - the ones that have something to gain from us, but we could care less about them - are often written off as "along for the ride". This may be so, but the more we learn, the more difficult it is likely to become to draw the line between these free-riders and our bona fide mutualists - we provide a benefit for them and they return the favor. These are the probiotics we hear so much about in TV commercials (though there are many many more that aren't included in your probiotic pills!). Your body gives them food and shelter, and they make sure you poop on time and that the experience is as good as it can be. Most of the time when we think about microbes, we think about the ones that cause disease - the pathogens - but they comprise a small yet horribly troublesome minority. So when you think about you and your 100 trillion little friends, there's no need to be grossed out. They need you and you need them. Anyway, it's how life works, and there's no amount of Purell or penicillin that can change it.
We'll talk more about this soon,
- @EJDimise
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