In the previous article I showed you how you are inextricably tied into ‘your’ genetic heritage, and that this inescapable feature absolutely determines who you are…
Except it’s not entirely true.
From the recesses of your memory, dredge up your previous response to the question ‘Who am I?’ In light of the knowledge from the previous article, you may currently be thinking that you are ‘the expression of a 20,000-40,000 year old genome’. If this is the answer you have in your mind, then you aren’t wrong. But you are also far from right too.
We, as ‘Humans’, have this pesky mental process that gives us the illusion of separation from the rest of the Universe. So even if you’ve advanced your mental model of yourself to incorporate the human genome, you’d still only be appreciating a tiny fraction of the big picture. Let’s expand our viewpoint.
You may think of yourself as a ‘human’, however, this ‘label’ doesn’t reflect the actuality of what a ‘human’ is. Within the human body there are approximately a trillion human cells, but, you also have approximately 10 trillion bacterial cells within you or on you. So, the actual ‘human’ component of you is only 10%. You are 90% bacteria.
And that’s if we stop at the cellular level. Remember Life is really an expression of information that is manifest as physical features. As we saw in the previous article our human information code is the ‘DNA’ patterns written into our genome and it’s pretty vast, weighing in at just under 25,000 genes. However, the bacteria also has a genome and since there are 10 times as many bacterial cells as human, you may think that there would also be 10 times the amount of genomic information; nope. There are in fact about 8,000,000 bacterial genes within you or on you; that’s more than 300 times the amount compared to the human genome. So from a genomic standpoint ‘you’ are actually more than 99% bacteria.
This understanding of who you ‘really’ are is vital. If you approach the situation from a parasitic point of view, we (the human element), in opposition to common thought, seem to be the parasite in a vast multi-cultural colony of bacteria. However, this certainly isn’t the case. The relationship is symbiotic; that is an intricate relationship called the microbiome that mutually benefits both organisms. And we’re just beginning to appreciate how beneficial it is for ‘us’.
The microbiome, and the bacteria that form it, give ‘us’ life.
95% of all of your energy is processed by a structure within your cells called the mitochondria. Although today it is viewed as an organelle; a structure within a cell that performs a specific function, millions of years ago it was a discrete bacteria that formed a symbiotic relationship with the cell line (eukaryote) that includes human cells. Mitochondria still has its own DNA and are produced from parent mitochondria, although over the millions of years of symbiosis it has lost its ability to be entirely self-reliant. The mitochondrion allows us to respire aerobically (a very efficient means of processing energy) and our human cells provide it with protection (shelter) and nutrients (food). The mitochondria also play a huge role in the functioning of our immune system and cellular processes, but that is way beyond the scope of this article.
The other bacteria within the microbiome are still discrete and unmodified, but play just as vital a role.
When the microbiome becomes imbalanced; called dysbiosis, the entire organism declines in health. New research has shown that an imbalance in the type of bacteria found on the skin can influence whether a person has severe acne or blemish-free skin (1). Now while this seems superficial (I guarantee it’s not to those who suffer with acne) it illustrates a bigger point. The beneficial bacteria provide a defence system against external threats, and this is not just happening outside of your body.
Within your body the beneficial bacteria play a similar role, plus many more. Thanks in part to Edwina Curry everyone in Britain was made aware of Salmonella and also, unfortunately, by association scared off of eating eggs. Researchers have recently demonstrated that the probiotic organism Lactobaccilus reuteri - a natural resident of the human gut, produces an antimicrobial substance known as reuterin, which may protect intestinal epithelial cells from infection by the food borne bacterial pathogen (Salmonella).
Your blood pressure is also regulated in part by the bacteria within your gut, and it happens in quite an amusing manner. Many blood vessels in your body possess a receptor normally found in your nose, which is responsible for detecting the presence (smelling) of a particular odour (really the chemical that is a component of the odour). These specialised receptors in your blood vessels sense small molecules which are created by specific microbes in the intestines, and respond by modifying blood pressure. (2)
The research within this field is rapidly expanding and to name but a few there are implications for obesity, diabetes, kidney disease, arthritis and cardiovascular disease.
In addition to the influence on your physical body, the microbiome may also influence your behaviour and even your most private thoughts. A recent study demonstrated that mice fed with Lactobacillus rhamnosus JB-1 showed significantly fewer stress, anxiety and depression-related behaviours than those fed with just broth. It was also found ingestion of the bacteria resulted in significantly lower levels of the stress-induced hormone, corticosterone. (3) Now it’s somewhat obvious that mice are not men, so it doesn’t always follow that the same process will occur across species, but we do know that people with gut issues such as colitis often also have concomitant psychological distress, and certain psychological states such as autism also sometimes co-present with gastrointestinal issues. So although it hasn’t been definitively mapped, the link is certainly a route worth investigating.
Far from the disease promoting perception that we have of bacteria in which we are ‘advised’ to eradicate it at all costs, this could actually be the biggest problem. Our arrogant notion of humans being a separate and dominant species could spell our downfall. The key to our survival and ability to flourish is to, as we have done for millennia, become more humble and re-learn the wisdom of ancient man that not only are we ‘not’ the centre of the Universe, but we are totally dependent upon the entirety of a balanced and harmonic biosphere. Unless we drop our ego-driven image of ourselves and become aware of our true place within the whole, then our stay on this amazing planet could be brutish, painful and short.
In upcoming articles I’ll show you how our ancestors forged this relationship and how we can re-foster this connection so that we can begin to explore the vast potential that lies within us.
References:
1. Sorel Fitz-Gibbon, Shuta Tomida, Bor-Han Chiu, Lin Nguyen, Christine Du, Minghsun Liu, David Elashoff, Marie C Erfe, Anya Loncaric, Jenny Kim, Robert L Modlin, Jeff F Miller, Erica Sodergren, Noah Craft, George M Weinstock, Huiying Li. Propionibacterium acnes Strain Populations in the Human Skin Microbiome Associated with Acne. Journal of Investigative Dermatology, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/jid.2013.21
2. Rosemarie De Weirdt, Aurélie Crabbé, Stefan Roos, Sabine Vollenweider, Christophe Lacroix, Jan Peter van Pijkeren, Robert A. Britton, Shameema Sarker, Tom Van de Wiele, Cheryl A. Nickerson. Glycerol Supplementation Enhances L. reuteri’s Protective Effect against S. Typhimurium Colonization in a 3-D Model of Colonic Epithelium. PLoS ONE, 2012; 7 (5): e37116 DOI: 10.1371/
3. Javier A. Bravo, Paul Forsythe, Marianne V. Chew, Emily Escaravage, Hélène M. Savignac, Timothy G. Dinan, John Bienenstock, John F. Cryan. Ingestion of Lactobacillus strain regulates emotional behavior and central GABA receptor expression in a mouse via the vagus nerve. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2011; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1102999108
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