You are! But, let me explain. On any given day and depending on who is counting; everyone’s body, yours, mine and your neighbors is composed of 100 trillion cells.  The interesting part is that the composition of cells is 90% microbes (bacteria) and 10% human.  Think about this for a second – bacteria out number human cells 9 to 1 (these bacteria will be referred to throughout our discussion as microbes).  The ecosystem of microbes is known as the microbiome, and this microbiome is currently one of the most studied and researched sectors of the human body.  

First let’s understand that we are introduced to microbes from our mother at birth, they live symbolically with us our entire lives.  Depending upon how we treat them they can make our lives healthy and protected but when we let them get out of balance, we open the door for bad pathogens to gain a foot hold bringing a host of degenerative diseases including inflammation, autoimmune diseases, diabetes and others.  As we know all too well in this pandemic environment, we live in a world of bacteria and viruses.   There are more bacteria on the tip of your nose than there are stars in the sky.  Whether we know it or not our body is in a constant state of battle.  It’s incumbent upon us to take steps to strengthen our first line of defense, it is easy and starts with a few small changes (detailed in our next blog post).

In a series of blog posts will investigate the critical role the microbiome plays our immune system, digestion, lowering inflammation, obesity, depression, dementia, asthma, allergies, and on and on.

In the next blog, we will explain what fuels our microbiome; what exactly does it eat? Stay tuned!