What is the human microbiome and how does it affect me?

Our body is made up of trillions of microbiota on our skin, within our gut, our mouths, glands, lungs and many other areas. The compilation of these microbiota is called the human microbiome. These microbiota can be both good and harmful to our health. Our microbiome is made up of bacteria and archaea (prokaryotes), fungi and protozoa (eukaryotes) and viruses. Understanding our microbiome and how it affects our body is key to improving our health and life longevity.

A large portion of our microbiome resides in our gut. These microbiota affect how we digest our food. Foods high in sugars and carbohydrates, alcohol, excessive intake of animal proteins, and antibiotics, can all negatively impact the amount of healthy microbiota in our gut which intern impacts how our body digests food. Most of the foods on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet aid in the growth of good gut bacteria. Eating SCD legal yogurt ensures you keep a steady flow of probiotics to the gut.

The microbiota in our gut do not only affect our digestion, but they also affect our mental health. When your gut microbiome becomes unbalanced it can lead to depression, anxiety, anger, and will affect your overall mood. Over the past 10 years there has been a significant increase of research on the mind-gut connection. Researchers have found that our gut microbiota are in constant communication with our brain. Our gut microbiota use neurotransmitter to send information to our brains and if we don't have healthy microbiota it will affect our daily emotions. The gut is now thought of as our "second brain" because of the impact it has on our mental well being.

Lastly, our gut microbiome can also affect our immune system and how our body responds to infections, viruses, toxins and any harmful pathogens. For those of us with autoimmune diseases such as Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn's disease, we see first hand the affects of our gut heath on our immune system. Our microbiota are so confused that they are telling our immune system to attack healthy cells! Unhealthy gut microbiota can cause inflamation, can deteriorate our gut mucosa, and can allow harmful pathogens into our bloodstream.

Clearly our gut microbiome is critical to our over all wellness. Eating the right foods will keep a healthy balance of bacteria in the gut to allow for proper digestion, stable metal health, and a strong immune system. The old staying "you are what you eat" is really true!