Microbiome – trillions of organisms supporting your health
The growing body of evidence shows that the trillions of microorganisms in our gut might rule our lives to a...
I've heard about microbiome before, but please remind me. Our bodies, inside and out serve as a home to many trillion microorganisms/microbes. This is entirely healthy and natural. While bacteria are the main players, other microorganisms such as archaea, fungi and viruses are present. This is also entirely natural. Together these are called the human microb iota .
There are many terms, can we clarify the terms please? Just like human cells contain DNA, human microbiota also contains genes that regulate their function. The term "microbiome " refers to the whole set of genes that our microbiota possess and what functions arise from them.
In other words when we talk about the microbiota, we focus on WHO is there (which microbes are there) . When we talk about the microbiome, we also describe WHAT microbiota can do. Colloquially, these terms are often used interchangeably. We will stick to the term “microbiome ,” because we care about the function of these organisms for our health.
Ok, why does microbiome matter? While the microbes are too small to be seen without a microscope, they play a major role in our health and well-being. How do they manage? It's a numbers game, where the “bugs” outnumber human cells. Let's look at the human body:
- There are ~37 trillion human cells in our entire body. There are ~39 trillion microbes in the gut alone.
- We carry around 20 thousand genes in each of our cells. The microbiome potentially holds 10 million genes.
This mathematical power implies that the functions of the microbiome can be very complex and versatile. And these functions are not separate from us. Further, recent studies point to the interactions between “them” and “us”, revealing a complex relationship between us and our bacterial colonies.
What specifically does the microbiome do? The microbiome can do a lot:
- respond and channel environmental signals, for instance react to different nutrients
- modulate our immune responses, in other words help our resistance
- alter metabolic pathways – affect how our bodies generate and consume energy
- affect neurological function, for example affect our moods
- modify the risk of different diseases – make us more or less likely to develop depression, for example
- impact aging – speed up or slow down our cellular age
In addition, microbes evolve, change, adapt and multiply rapidly, which makes them – and us, their hosts – remarkably sophisticated. That being said, the science of microbiome is still maturing, revealing more and more examples in which the microbiome interacts and modulates human health. While the complex communities of gut microbes vary widely among individuals, in all cases the there seems to be a link between our health and the health of our gut flora. Simply put, what lives inside us, determines how well we live.
What's the take home? The growing body of evidence shows that the trillions of microorganisms in our gut might rule our lives to a much larger extent than we have previously imagined. This sounds complex and scientific, but the take home is simple – the microbiome should not be taken for granted or neglected. Be a good host. Take care of your gut bacteria, and they will take care of you.
In our upcoming posts, we will share more background and practical advice on your microbiome health.
References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5962619/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-020-0433-9
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00194-2
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2018.01835/full