We nuked our friends.

This is part 2 of a 3 part series of me connecting some dots about our collective health. In part 1, I run down a few things about our microbiome – like some current applications and research that make me think our non-human cells have serious control over our health. In part 2, I’ll chat about all of the innocent victims. Read part 1 here.

Observation #2: Before we understood its presence and importance, we effectively nuked our microbiome.

Consider the following… (I’m speculating some here)

• Where we used to live in direct contact with the soil and all of its microorganisms, most of us avoid it these days – because it’s dirty. And if we do touch it, we shower to remove the dirt. This is sort of an anti-microbiome practice.
• In fact, we invented anti-bacterial soap – so we could clean the germs from our skin. That’s definitely an anti-microbiome practice. Watch this space.
• Where we used to eat food grown only from the Earth, we have incorporated a bunch of synthetic chemicals, herbicides & pesticides into our food system. This is potentially anti-microbiome or at least selectively anti-microbiome-ish.
• Where we used to eat food prepared by hand (and therefore in smaller quantities because it just takes more effort to make), we now eat foods prepared industrially, which are processed for us, convenient, more readily available.  Refined convenience foods have probably shifted our macronutrient ratios enough that our bodies now support a microbiome that thrive on those foods. For whatever that means to our health.
• Where before, we drank raw milk, today we homogenize and pasteurize it. <<< Possibly Nuked.
• Where before, there were no agricultural subsidies to enable the widespread and cheap application of genetically modified and therefore heavy sprayed corn crops as a sweetener, alas, today there is. I do not know if all GMO crops are sprayed with herbicides and pesticides or not. I have no idea whether or not GMO crops alter our microbiome directly, but I speculate that any -icides involved could certainly take their toll.
• Where we used to get sick, rest, and recover… we now get sick, go to the doctor, get antibiotics (anti-microbiome), and sort of recover.
• Where we used to have no personal care products, we now clean ourselves with unnatural soaps and shampoos (potentially anti-microbiome)
• Our hospitals aim to be sterile environments today.  While this aim is true –  in practice this is not necessarily the case (see C. difficile)
• Where we used to enjoy life, relax, and sleep at night – today we have extended our waking hours to we can worry and stress about deadlines or stare at blue-light on a screen. Stress and lack of sleep = internal cortisol bath = anti-microbiome.
• Autoimmunity (our own immune systems are attacking our own bodies) is on the rise. This MAY be a result of our eff-ed up microbiome.
• Chronic disease rates (including ‘metabolic syndrome’) are on the rise. Researchers are beginning to link blood sugar regulation and our gut communities – this MAY ALSO be a result of our eff-ed up microbiome. While…
• With chronic disease on the rise – so to is the use of prescription medications – which potentially alters your gut flora.
• Infectious disease rates – for the most part – are dropping. We can control our infectious disease with improved sanitation and vaccinations… solid – except now we are chronically sicker (for many reasons).

I should plug this book here – called An Epidemic of Absence: A New Way of of Understanding Allergies and Autoimmune Disease by Moises Velasquez-Manoff. This guy is a science writer – he’s not claiming to have the answers – just observations – and personal experience.

So, maybe we have taken sanitation too far? I mean – there’s a place for a sterile environment… it’s for immune compromised humans – who ironically – may be less immune compromised if they were allowed to cultivate their microbiome in a not-so-sterile environment (that’s my speculation).

What about cancer cells? Are they just a fraction of everyone’s microbiome that are allowed to grow out of control, hi-jacking some niche left behind where once healthy cells have been compromised by our blind trust in personal care products or industrial food preservatives or artificial colors or herbicides or our chronically stressed and exhausted states? (again – thinking out loud here)

So my point here is this. We are not alone – yes… our microbiome is important to our immunity & health – yes… and we are getting sicker & larger these days the farther away we get from our natural environment – yes…

Now that we have some clue that our microbiome is a key feature of our bodies… what can we do to keep it healthy or to re-balance it? Besides playing in the dirt more, eliminating synthetic and anti-bacterial personal care products, eating organic whole foods from the Earth, reducing our overall toxic load, using antibiotics only when truly necessary, relaxing, de-stressing, and sleeping…

More in part 3.