What is a microbiome exactly?

A microbiome is a community of species: Bacteria, Fungi, Pathogens, and viruses that live on and in the human body. The microbiome accounts for up to 5 pounds of your body weight and is essential to human health.  You are equal amounts of human cells as you are microbes. The microbiome, besides inhabiting your body as its living ecosystem has a symbiotic relationship with you, whether you know it or not.  The microbiome helps control critical factors of your health like your immunity and digestion. Indigestion, the microbes actually help break down your food, and in many cases use it to survive. It pushes this through digestion, helping you with your digestive wellness and critical functions of your body. It also plays an important role in immunity. How? When your bad bacteria hold a higher ratio against your good bacteria the viruses, bacteria, and pathogens ( that make up a part of your microbiome) can take hold of the system.

Modern Life: Stress, Sugar, and Antibiotics

In the modern world, microbial imbalances are not just likely, they are posing an epidemic on our health and our ecosystem at large. With the rise of chronic illness, autoimmune conditions, mystery illnesses, and with the staggering rates of digestive concerns, it is impossible not to look to the microbiome for answers.The modern world has made itself comfortable thinking that with modern technology and medicine we have all of the answers. So much so that we have forgotten that we are just as much human as we are bacteria. We have neglected this with antibiotics, harsh antimicrobials, and common toxins.

How can we heal in the modern world? We have to think macro and micro. Rebalance our flora, rethink the overuse of antibacterials and tend to our delicate ecosystem.