By Dr. Mercola
More and more, science is finding that teeny tiny creatures living in your gut are there for a definite purpose. Known as your microbiome, about 100 trillion of these cells populate your body, particularly your intestines and other parts of your digestive system.
In fact, 90 percent of the genetic material in your body is not yours, but rather that of bacteria, fungi, viruses and other microorganisms that compose your microflora.
True, some of these bacteria can make you sick; for example, the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases recently found Crohn's Disease may be caused by immune responses to certain gut microbiota.
But the majority are good, and they work together as helpmates to aid your digestive system and keep you well. Beneficial bacteria, better known as probiotics, along with a host of other microorganisms, are so crucial to your health that researchers have compared them to "a newly recognized organ." For example, we now know that your microflora influence your:
- Genetic expression
- Immune system
- Brain development, mental health, and memory
- Weight, and
- Risk of numerous chronic and acute diseases, from diabetes to cancer
According to the featured article in Time Magazine:1
"Our surprisingly complex internal ecology has been a hot topic in medicine lately. Initiatives such as the Human Microbiome Project2, an extension of the Human Genome Project, have been working tirelessly to probe potential links between the human microbiota and human health, and to construct strategies for manipulating the bacteria so that they work with us rather than against us.
...They've been linked to a range of nasty conditions, including obesity, arthritis, and high cholesterol. Now, two newer areas of research are pushing the field even further, looking at the possible gut bug link to a pair of very different conditions: autism and irritable bowel disease."
Read More: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/01/02/digestive-system-gut-flora.aspx?e_cid=20130102_DNL_art_1
