How Does the Gut Flora Influence Our Health?
It is now widely appreciated that humans did not evolve as a single species, but rather that humans and the microbiomes associated with us have co-evolved as a "super-organism," and that our evolution as a species and the evolution of our associated microbiomes have always been interwined. -William Parker, Duke University When we are born, our body is sterile , meaning our skin, lungs, and intestines don't contain any bacteria at all. When we pass through our mother's birth canal, we are exposed to outside world. Over time our body gets colonized by a diverse and distinct brew of bacterial species determined by genetics and by bacteria surrounding us. The gut is literally at the center of our body and plays a central role in our health, just as our " gut feeling " plays a central role in our instinct. In this article, we will look at gut flora and its links to our health. Gut Flora There are estimated 100 trillion microbes that ...