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“Imagine the scenario: a scientist at a conference claims to have found a new organ in the human body. It is comparable to the immune system in as much as it is made up of a collection of cells, it contains a 100 times more genes than the host..it can be modified by diet, surgery or antibiotics, and in its absence nearly all aspects of host physiology are affected. While this may seem far-fetched, it is the current situation in which we find ourselves.”
Marchesi, et al. (2015). The gut microbiota and host health: A new clinical frontier. Gut, 65(2), 330-339.
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New DNA-sequencing technology in the last few decades have allowed microbiome researchers to fully grasp the vast and complex ecosystem that had been hiding in our guts all along, as, amazingly, only 10-40% of that ecosystem had been 'visible' using culture-based techniques.
Researchers are still puzzling over the identity and functions of the bacteria that have been uncovered, but all agree that the trillions of microbes living in our intestines (collectively called the microbiome) aren't just passengers along for the ride, but drivers of our very function, in fact actively busy either promoting our health or initiating disease in health conditions as diverse as mood disorders, obesity, metabolic health, autism and Alzheimer’s.
Balance and Diversity
What is it about the makeup of our microbiome that swings us towards health or towards disease? It largely depends on the relative abundances in your gut of what Jason Hawrelak calls ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”,
Not surprisingly, it’s best to have healthy levels of The Good (anti-inflammatory beneficial bacteria), low levels of The Bad (pro-inflammatory pathogens) and appropriate levels of The Ugly (in-between ‘pathobionts’, helpful in small amounts, troublesome in larger amounts).
Absolutely key are balance and diversity, an even spread so that one species doesn’t dominant the ecosystem and a rich number of genera, number of species within the genera and strains within the species.