Getting to Know Your Microbiome
A colleague sent me this great article from the New York Times about the Human Microbiome Project. The microbiome are the trillions of bacteria living on our skin and in our gut. This article is a little lengthy but Michael Pollan gives a fascinating and in-depth look at the importance of these inhabitants to our overall health. Learn how our microbiome may influence the development of allergies, asthma and other increasingly common health conditions. Could we be accidentally killing off one of our greatest defenses with the wide use of antibiotics? What is the long term impact? Are babies born by c-section at an increased risk for allergies? If so, is there anything we can do to prevent this? Pollan discusses all of this in the article. He also discusses how our microbiome could even be connected to obesity. I highly recommend taking some time to read it.
