Microbes are everywhere in this planets and outnumbers us by vast numbers. Closer to us it is on everything we touch and it is still there when we have washed our hands. Still closer millions of them are crawling on our body even as you read this. You can do absolutely nothing to get rid of them. So millions of years ago evolution created a pact between us. It decided that we will give them food and shelter and in turn they have to work for us. But this partnership is like a cold war.
The child when inside the mother’s womb is sterile but when it starts its journey from the womb to the birth canal the child is covered by millions of mother’s bacteria. This is an important part of its health. Children born via caesarean operation have higher chances of asthma and immune diseases. There is no other option but to accept the invasion of microbes. During the millions of years of evolution we have evolved to co habit and to get the best out of this relationship. The mother’s milk contains special type of sugars which meant for certain group of microbes and also boost the immune system. In a child it can take up to two years for microbes to form a healthy community. Every human has its combination of bacteria, fungi and other minute organisms.
It can be categorized into three categories. First are the ones who keep to themselves and are ignored by the body. But they too have their utility; they take up space and keep away aggressive intruder microbes. Second are the ones which can harm us but we have learnt to live with them. One example is bacteria that can literally melt our teeth if we stop brushing and taking oral care. Third are the friendly ones which we benefit from. This group counts up to about 400,000 billion bacteria and about 5000 different species in our stomach only. They help in digestion of food and also extract the additional calories from things which we cannot digest ourselves. But the stomach is also a primary target for the bad bacteria so it is guarded by our immune system.
To survive in the stomach the good bacteria had to communicate with our body so that the immune system does not kill them. So some of them engineered a communication line to interact with the immune system and the rest worked to stimulate the gut cells to regenerate faster. But recent research found that this relation may go much deeper and may have the ability to talk with our brain. 90 percent of serotonin which the main messenger system of the body is produced in the gut. Some scientists are of the opinion that the microbes use this channel to communicate with the vagus nerve which is the body’s information highway. Some bacteria’s help in building the immune system and act as an early warning to the brain.
Scientists are slowly starting to understand the complex inter relationship between the bacteria and the internal functioning of the body. One experiment showed that when microbes from depressed rats were fed to healthy rats, they also started showing signs of anxiety. In fruit flies it showed that microbes influenced the types of food they craved for. It could mean that the microbes are communicating with the brain on which type of food it should eat.
The organisms in our stomach have different appetite, some like leafy green vegetables, some like sugars and some love the greasy fried food. If we eat healthy food then more healthy bacteria are formed, if we eat more of fast food then such type of bacteria gets preference. When we eat more of a particular type of food then we give preference to a particular type of bacteria and therefore they multiply faster and take over space of other bacteria. They also send signal to the brain to send more of such type of food. This increases the craving for a particular type of food in us.
If the body is over run by bad bacteria then there is only one solution, we need an army of the good bacteria. This can be done medically and now even drinks with healthy bacteria are available in the market. Whatever is the case, now we cannot do without each other and in this process we have got a powerful ally if we can live in peace with them.
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