Missing Microbes
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What are considered some modern plagues?
Obesity, childhood diabetes, asthma, hay fever, food allergies, esophageal reflux and cancer, celiac diasease, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, autism, eczema
What are the conditions of today’s world like compared to the lethal plagues of the past?
The lethal plagues of the past strict fast and hard but today they are chronic conditions that diminish and degrade their victims’ quality of life for decades
How has type 1 diabetes changed?
Has been doubling in incidence about every twenty years across the industrialized world Also striking younger children
What do the rise in chronic conditions suggest?
Children are experiencing levels of immune dysfunction never seen before
What is the most popular explanation for the ride in childhood illness?
Hygiene hypothesis ~ modern plagues are happening because we have made our world too clean and the result is that our children’s immune systems have become quiescent and are prone to false alarms and friendly fire
The microorganisms that make a living in and on our bodies, massive assemblages of competing and cooperating microbes
Microbiome
Where do microbes thrive in/on our bodies?
Mouth, gut, nasal passage, ear canal, on the skin, vagina
Why are parts of our microbiome disappearing?
1) . Overuse of antibiotics in humans and animals 2) . Cesarean sections 3) . Widespread use of sanitizer sand antiseptics
How does the loss of our microbiome affect us?
• changes our development • affects our metabolism • immunity • cognition
A serious inflammation of the nervous system
Meningitis
A genus of spiral shaped bacteria Their helical shape helps them penetrate the gelatin like mucus that lines the gastrointestinal tract
Campylobacter
Affected pregnant sheep and cattle causing them to abort Rarely infects humans
Campylobacter fetus
What is helicobacter pylori?
Found in the stomach Can cause gastritis and ulcers Also part of our normal gut flora and plays a critical role in our health
What’s a key step in restoring our missing microbes?
Reduce the overuse of antibiotics in children
Domain of bacteria Single cell organisms that lack a nucleus
Prokaryotes
Single cells with a nucleus and other organelles that provide building blocks for more complex, multicellular forms of life
Eukaryotes
What are the classes of microbes
Bacteria (prokaryotes) Archaea Eukaryotes
Not alive Propagate by invading and co-opting living cells Most target bacterial cells
Virus
What is one possible way to treat bacterial diseases in humans
Involves harnessing phages~ viruses that kill bacteria
What is an important feature of microbial life?
They can lurk for long periods of time in small numbers and then spontaneously blood
What do microbes do to make the planet habitable?
Decompose the dead Convert inert nitrogen in the atmosphere into a form of free nitrogen
Bacteria living stably together
Consortium
Microbes that can form gelatin like layers surrounding themselves Form thick gels called… Explains bacterial persistence in harsh circumstances
Biofilms
When does the development of your microbiome begin?
Immediately at the moment of birth Develops in the first few years of life