Understanding our...
Microbiome
The major source of all inflammation in the body is actually the gut. Your gut hosts the largest number of immune cells in the body. You also have them in your spleen, your thymus and obviously in your blood. So in addition to immune cells being in your gut, you also have a lot of bacteria. These bacteria play a very, very important role in regulating your immune system.
Our gut microbiome is basically trillions of bacteria that live in and on our bodies. Mostly bacteria, but also viruses and protozoa and helminth worms for those of us who have them. In total about 100 trillion in all compared to about 10 trillion human cells. This means as humans we are outnumbered by 10:1 by our microbial cells and genes. So our microbiome's importance is staggering as we are really just hosts to something that outnumbers us 10:1.
Our microbiome isn't just about our gut bacteria but really it applies to everything including our skin and our hair. An amazing fact is that the bacteria ecosystems really vary tremendously. Even on your skin the bacteria that live in your nasal labial folds close to your nose and mouth are completely different to the bacteria that live on your cheekbones only a couple of inches away on the same part of your face. This also applies to the microbes from the gut to the vaginal milieu, to the lungs and to the mouth. All are completely different, based on the differences in moisture and oxygen content and sweat glands etc. Most of these microorganisms are friendly, in fact, ultimately, we cannot survive without them.
Our role as your Life/Food Coach is to explain how our lifestyle today and over the last thirty plus years is destroying our microbiome and is a major cause of all our metabolic diseases. As an example, the cause of someone with inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, may have been from a course of tetracycline treatment for acne during their teens, some thirty years prior.
Our microbiome are the eyes and ears of our immune system and we cannot overstate the importance of our microbiome and why we must keep them healthy and happy and ultimately keep us as humans, healthy and happy as well.
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