"if you're a good parent you should have your children eat dirt"
Are the intestinal flora that have evolved to symbiotically keep us healthy going extinct?
The human body has some 10 trillion human cells - but 10 times that number of microbial cells. So what happens when such an important part of our bodies goes missing?
With rapid changes in sanitation, medicine and lifestyle in the past century, some of these indigenous species are facing decline, displacement and possibly even extinction. In many of the world's larger ecosystems, scientists can predict what might happen when one of the central species is lost, but in the human microbial environment - which is still largely uncharacterized - most of these rapid changes are not yet understood. "This is the next frontier and has real significance for human health, public health and medicine," says Betsy Foxman, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan (U.M.) School of Public Health in Ann Arbor.
Yes, this is the hygiene hypothesis yet again. Love the hundred trillion happy campers in your body. Put down the stinky hand sanitizer. Get dirty. Live, and live longer.
The human body has some 10 trillion human cells - but 10 times that number of microbial cells. So what happens when such an important part of our bodies goes missing?
With rapid changes in sanitation, medicine and lifestyle in the past century, some of these indigenous species are facing decline, displacement and possibly even extinction. In many of the world's larger ecosystems, scientists can predict what might happen when one of the central species is lost, but in the human microbial environment - which is still largely uncharacterized - most of these rapid changes are not yet understood. "This is the next frontier and has real significance for human health, public health and medicine," says Betsy Foxman, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan (U.M.) School of Public Health in Ann Arbor.
Yes, this is the hygiene hypothesis yet again. Love the hundred trillion happy campers in your body. Put down the stinky hand sanitizer. Get dirty. Live, and live longer.