Sterile To Symbiotic

Microbiome Research Picks Up What Pasteur Missed

- Andrew W. Campbell, MD

Each and every one of us has an organ in our bodies that did not develop when we were inside the womb. In fact, it is not made up of any human cells at all. It weighs 3 pounds, about as much as a human brain. The total number of cells that form our bodies is about 37 trillion; this organ inside of us is made up of 130 trillion. Our human genetic makeup totals 23,000 genes; this organ is comprised of a substantial 8 million. Not only that, but without it, we could not survive.

This organ is our gut microbiome, located in the colon. It is gaining attention in the medical field, garnering more research in the past 10 years than ever before. It is interesting to note that the study of our gut microbiome began more than 100 years ago, in 1908, when Nobel Prize winner Ilya Metchnikov, PhD, first described the microbes that inhabit the intestines of all humans. He wrote that by replacing harmful microbes—microscopic organisms including bacteria, viruses, and fungi—in the gut with useful ones, a person’s health would improve.

Doctor Metchnikov was the first doctor to realize the benefit of probiotics by observing the life of Bulgarians living in rural areas. They lived difficult lives of poverty in a harsh climate, yet they died at a very old age. What they all had in common is they ate homemade yoghurt. In Greek, “pro” means to promote, and “biotic” means life: “to promote life.” He concluded that aging is caused by toxic bacteria in the gut, and that health could be improved and old age delayed by increasing the gut microbiome with microbes found in sour milk like the Bulgarian’s yoghurt.