It’s been said that the power of life and death is in the tongue. This is certainly true, but it would probably be just as accurate to end that sentence with the phrase, “in the gut.” At least, that’s the conclusion that many in the scientific community are coming to.
According to the recently completed five-year Human Microbiome Project (HMP) conducted by the U.S. National institutes of Health (NIH), the human ecosystem is occupied by over 10,000 different microbial species, each of which play a distinctive role in the body’s ability to manage non-beneficial bacteria, build immunity and maintain a healthy flora balance in the intestinal system. The study sheds new light on the conventionally accepted perspective known as the “germ theory,” which assumes that the large majority of bacteria are harmful and that a bacteria-free environment is the best way to avoid “contracting” illness.
According to one of the lead researchers for the study, Dr. Phillip Tarr of Washington University in St. Louis, MO., “This is a whole new way of looking at human biology and it’s awe-inspiring. These bacteria are not passengers. They are metabolically active. As a community, we now have to reckon with them like we have to reckon with the ecosystem in a forest or a body of water.”
To find more detailed information on the Human Microbiome Project, you can read the highlights on the National Institutes of Health website.
If that’s a little too much to digest right now (pun intended), you can check out the ABC News article, The Ins and Outs of Gut Bacteria to learn “five fascinating facts about the tiny tagalongs in your gut.”