when you think about your body it may
come as a surprise that half of you
isn't really you by quantity only about
50% of the cells you carry around are
human the rest are micro organisms like
bacteria fungi and viruses living on or
inside you
that may sound unsanitary but most of
them are either harmless or even
beneficial a new research shows that in
our efforts to kill the bad germs we are
also killing too many of the good ones
and it's hurting our health scientific
findings have drawn connections between
human microbiota to all sorts of
diseases from infectious ones to non
communicable ones and even psychiatric
disorders it's a rapidly developing
field now I think the excitement is
really understand what all these terms
are and what they do it's like another
organ almost the average human body
harbors about 38 trillion microbiota of
all kinds and they mostly live in the
gut which is exactly where scientists
have begun altering conditions in the
search for more breakthroughs research
is stressed that individual therapies
will take time to develop but fecal
transplants have already shown promise
in treating the dangerous bacterium C
difficile a pathogen often contracted in
hospitals that causes diarrhea and kills
about 30,000 people a year in the US but
beyond specific treatments one aspect of
our microbiome has become clear
diversity matters diversity confers a
certain amount of flexibility and
strength onto the microbiome the
microbiome seems to have an effect on
modulating your immune system
and preparing you for the many types of
proteins and allergens that you're going
to encounter in your life people in
developed countries have significantly
less diversity and the microorganisms
that populate their bodies compared to
people in less developed places the
leading cause is thought to be an
excessive use of antibiotics in both
medicine and agriculture the most
important thing to remember is that for
your own sake and for the sake of all of
us it's really important not to overuse
antibiotics people in developed
countries also spend less time outdoors
and have less exposure to animals
factors that may decrease diversity of
microbiota studies suggest that growing
up with a dog lowers a kid's chances of
having asthma so go ahead play in the
dirt and don't be afraid of some dog
kisses it's good for you
you