Blog 8 - Continuation of Human Microbiome

I am going to be continuing this blog with the same article I used last week. Like I stated before, this article is very long, and very dense. It has a lot of information about personal experiences from the author, and many facts.

    I ended last weeks with the information about living communities and the microbes in a babies gut. When the author was in Boulder, he actually had a microbiologist, Catherine A. Lozupone, look at his Microbiome. As you may know, everyone has a different Microbiome. Usually people have a “normal” gut, and are very similar. But gut biomes can differ from various populations around the world. Scientists have conducted tests from thousands of different communities in and outside the U.S. The American Gut project will be able to uncover patterns between people’s lifestyles, diet, health, and various makeups of their bodies Microbiome.

 “microbially speaking: we share unusually high levels of prevotella for Americans. Our gut communities look more like those of rural Africans or Amerindians than like those of our neighbors.” Lozupone said.

The gut Microbiome is a very popular subject in scientific research. It is increasing in popularity, and most scientists are conducting more and more tests from around the world, to help them better understand what is actually going on in there.

This article is very well written. I like how the author writes about personal experiences he has with microbiologists, and the different things he has discovered with them. This article has so much useful information, and is one of the best articles I have read so far.

    

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/magazine/say-hello-to-the-100-trillion-bacteria-that-make-up-your-microbiome.html?pagewanted=all&action=click&module=Search&region=searchResults%230&version=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquery.nytimes.com%2Fsearch%2Fsitesearch%2F%3Faction%3Dclick%26region%3DMasthead%26pgtype%3DHomepage%26module%3DSearchSubmit%26contentCollection%3DHomepage%26t%3Dqry116%23%2Fmicrobiome%2F&_r=0

Blog 7 - More about the Human Microbiome

     Since we have been doing a lot of recent work with the Human Microbiome, I searched New York Times and found an article called, “Say Hello to the 100 Trillion Bacteria That Make up Your Microbiome.” It was a very dense article with a ton of information.

     As you know, the human body is home to, well, 100 trillion microorganisms, that live on your skin, tongue, in your intestines, etc… and no two people are alike. When there is a disorder in your body (or “wrong” kind of microbes) can expose the body to obesity, viruses, and a range of diseases. Microbes in our system also play a role in maintaining our immune system, and are able to identify good organisms from the bad. Being able to study the different types of organisms in our body can help scientists come up with a cure for most diseases; but that day is still to come.

    The author of this article, Michael Pollan, wrote about his own experiences with the human Microbiome, and what he has learned. Did you know that microbial communities of couples sharing a home are similar? Or that having a dog increases the chance of blending everyone’s skin communities within a given household? He also went over how a baby’s gut community is highly colonized, versus being completely sterile in utero.  But a baby’s gut if far different from an adults; they lack an enzyme to digest carbohydrates in breast milk. It turns out that breast milk feeds a bacteria, Bifidobactrium infantis, which keeps the baby healthy, and nurturing the integrity of the baby’s intestines.

This is about half the information in this article. Like I said, it is very dense, and contains A TON of information. The main idea of the story is basically all about microbes that live among our bodies, ranging from adults and infants, and what those microbes do. I’ve learned quite a bit about the human Microbiome, but this contains so much information that I haven’t heard of before.

Since there was so much information, I will probably continue next week’s blog, with this article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/magazine/say-hello-to-the-100-trillion-bacteria-that-make-up-your-microbiome.html?pagewanted=all&action=click&module=Search&region=searchResults%230&version=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquery.nytimes.com%2Fsearch%2Fsitesearch%2F%3Faction%3Dclick%26region%3DMasthead%26pgtype%3DHomepage%26module%3DSearchSubmit%26contentCollection%3DHomepage%26t%3Dqry116%23%2Fmicrobiome%2F