What really is your Microbiome?

Ever since the start of Microbiology, microbiomes is something that has perplexed me. Every animal has its microbiome which is an immense population of good bacteria and microorganisms living on or inside them. These organisms help to protect them from other pathogens, aid in digestion, produce useful by-products for our body to use and many more benefits. I feel like everyone has heard the term “good gut health”, and this refers to those good bacteria in your intestines that help you aid digestion. Obviously, the microbiome has a vast array of benefits for us but it also can determine a lot of things about our genetic composition and is a major part of our body’s defense systems.

I decided to do some research about how your gut health can help with your immune system and found this article. They wanted to study and prove that the disrupt in a microbiome from antibiotics was linked to a decrease in immune responses. From our learning in class of different diseases, we know that taking antibiotics greatly disrupts your gut biome because they clean out all of your bacteria, good or bad. So, it came to no surprise that when they treated healthy adults with antibiotics before receiving the flu vaccine they saw a decrease in the immune response. In comparison with a control group, they produced a significantly lower amount of antibodies in response to the flu. This study could help people understand that the gut microbiome is one that plays such a vital role in our overall health, not just our digestion. This study could also help you with the timing of when you receive your flu shot for optimal protection form contracting the flu.

The human gut microbiome is a crazy place and I remember Dr. Cramer had said something about how our gut bacteria could influence our body weight and fat content. When I first heard this I was a little skeptical because everyone grows up believing that the way to stay healthy is to exercise frequently and eat a balanced diet. However, I learned that it may be harder for some people to maintain a slim physique than others, especially in children. Child obesity is something that is a very serious and growing issue in America, but new studies like this one have revealed an interaction between gut health and the effects it has on metabolic organs. They seem to think that a disruption in your gut microbiome could lead to either over-stimulation of various organs resulting in obesity or the inability of your body to process and utilize certain things which also could lead to obesity.

These are just a few of the things that I have found through my research and it amazes me that there is so much going on inside our bodies and how everything is someone connected. There is still extensive research being done on the microbiome because it is such a complex thing and different for every person, which makes it even harder to understand. I am very excited to learn more about it as the class goes on and as new findings get published!