There are more microorganism in your body than there are stars in the Milky Way.

Do you think you are alone? No! You are never alone because trillions of microorganisms accompany with you, on your skin, in your mouth, in every inch of your body. The human body contains many trillions of microbial cells as much as about three times of human cells. They are collectively weigh similar to weigh of your brain.

The human genome has been sequenced to reveal human biology simply from analysis the genome, but the truth is, it didn’t work out exactly as hoped. If the genome doesn’t explain everything, the pattern of microbial communities that people have in and on them is a nice alternative explanation of the variation that we see.

Figure 1

 

Collectively, these microorganisms are called as micro biome. Micro biome is complex microbe ecosystem that is a part of our world. Scientists still have reveal little bit of them and so much have to know. 

All we are ecosystems! Your mouth, skin and gut are home to whole communities of microscopic organisms, whose influence on your body range from digesting your food to training your immune system and they can impact your mood and behavior.

The term human micro biome refers to the complete set of genes contained in the entire collection of microorganism that live in the human body. Their genes are now thought to contribute more to human. Human micro biome is an essential organ in the human body because human body cannot function without it.

Our microbial community is called as human micro biota which is made up of bacteria, yeasts and other eukaryote, archea, fungi, protozoa and nonliving viruses.

It all starts at the very beginning


In the womb, babies are in a sterile zone with no micro biome at all. Our first microbial communities depend a lot on how we are born. Babies that come out the regular way, all of their microbes are basically like the vaginal community. Babies that delivered by C-section, all of their microbes look like skin. This might associate with some health conditions.
Continuous exposure to environment and through contact with parent, grandparents, siblings, pets which crowded with bacteria are picked by new born baby.

figure 2

 

More reasons to breastfeed
Infants get several types of bacteria from their mother through breast milk and it supplys foods for other bacteria of infant. Ten present of nutrient in all breast milk can’t be digested by babies at all. They are feed on microbes in infant digestive system.

Important
They may also be doing all of things, such as educating our immune cells, like this one; teaching them the different between things they should fight off, bad bugs that might make us sick and things that aren’t a threat, like our good microbes.
When we are adults, microbes become our first line of defiance, fighting off germs that try to invade our bodies, protecting their turf while protecting our health. Scientists have discovered they can even spew out their own antibiotics.

Fingerprint
Micro biome have the potential to uniquely identify individuals, much like fingerprint as it contain enough distinguishing features to identify an individual. An unique codes for each person can be generated by looking at the microbial DNA in samples from skin, mouth, gut and vagina.
The studies suggest that micro biome sequencing may someday have utility in criminal investigation. Researches has shown that they could differentiate between small groups of individuals who had touched cell phone by matching their skin micro biota to the microbes left on the cell phone.

Differences really are skin deep
Skin microbes reveal differences about us. It differ according to age like, more oil loving bacteria present on kids under 12 than people over 12. Dogs’ owners share a microbial profile with their pets and have more diverse skin micro biome than non-dog owners. People who were antiperspirant have about 50 times fewer bacteria under their arms than people who just use soap.

Why you have morning breath
More than 1000 kinds of bacteria live in human mouth. Most of them do not harm or actively protect from infection. At right conditions they also can cause tooth decay, bad breath and gum diseases. Dominating bacteria in mouth during night and day are different.

Fecal transplant

All organisms in all environments have microbe associated with them. Beneficial microorganisms in digestive system help to absorb nutrients and digest food efficiently. But these good microorganisms are destroyed by some medical conditions and antibiotics. At that point to reintroduce them, fecal transplant is used.

Fecal transplant is known as fecal micro biota transplant (FMT) or bacterio – therapy.

What is a fecal transplant?

Feces from a healthy donor is transplanted to restore the balance of bacteria in their gut. It can help to treat gastrointestinal infections and other conditions. Some infections are cured and reduced the severity of certain gut health problems in recipient’s body by encouraging to grow healthful bacteria.

Fecal transplant donors are carefully screened to ensure that their gut and feces are healthy. They are tested for various diseases, such as hepatitis.

Donated faces can be delivered to recipient by two methods.

One is using a colonoscopy. A colonoscopy is a small, flexible tube that they can insert into the colon through the rectum. Mostly patients take sedative drugs before the procedure for not to feel any pain or discomfort.

Another approach is injecting liquid feces via an enema that using a colonoscopy.

Fecal transplanting is not a new thing. It has been practiced in ancient Chinese medicine more than 1700 years ago. In past, recipient had to drink a liquid suspension of another person’s feces. It is a highly risky technique.

Today’s fecal transplants are sterile and safe, and there is a growing body of research to support their use.

Researches are conducted on gut bacteria if they are affect overall health. If it is, fecal transplants could eventually treat a variety of conditions.

Some researches has shown that fecal transplants may eventually treat conditions such as diabetes, obesity, hay fever, arthritis.

Gut micro biome

Trillions of microbes exist inside intestine and most of them are found in a “pocket” of large intestine called cecum. Each of them plays a different role in body while most of them are extremely important for healthy but some are cause disease.

As we grow, our gut microbe begins to diversify, meaning it starts to contain many different type of microbial species. Higher the diversity of micro biome is considered good for health. Foods we eat mainly effect on diversity of gut bacteria.

Digest fiber- certain bacteria digest helps prevent weight gain, diabetes, heart disease and risk of cancers.

References

https://www.ted.com/talks/jessica_green_and_karen_guillemin_you_are_your_microbes/transcript?language=en

https://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_eisen_meet_your_microbes?language=en

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325128.php

Image courtesy:

Figure 1

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/834701983722459137/WtAecQ1M.jpg

Figure 2

https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S1744165X16300129-gr1.jpg

Udara Anushika

s13278

One thought on “There are more microorganism in your body than there are stars in the Milky Way.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *