Are we organisms or living ecosystems?

Did you know that there is more bacteria in your body than there is, well, anything else? Well it’s true: they’re in our digestive tract, all over our skin, in our teeth, on our tongue, and have even fathered 40 of our own human genes.

Leading scientists are already on the case to learn more about the interdependencies between our body’s inhabitants, and our bodies. In 2008, several countries launched the International Human Microbiome Consortium (IHMC), “an effort that will enable researchers to characterize the relationship of the human microbiome in the maintenance of health and in disease.

VIDEO | Lecture: Outwitting Bacteria’s Wily Ways – Dr. Brett Finlay illustrates the clever tactics bacteria use to infect our bodies and survive in hostile places.

READ | SEED Magazine: The Body Politic

READ | Scientific American: Humans Carry More Bacteria Cells Than Human Ones

The food industry is in on this too with a new buzz word: probiotics.

The World Health Organization and the United Nations say in a 2002 report:

Probiotics are living microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host

According to Danone’s dedicated site to this movement (leading maker of probiotic yoghurts):

Probiotics are living microorganisms, usually lactic acid bacteria, that when consumed in sufficient numbers can provide health benefits that go beyond basic nutrition. The benefits are due, in large part, to the effects of these so-called “friendly” bacteria on different intestinal functions. But benefits may also include removing harmful substances from the body or countering some of their effects.

Reviewing Our Relationship With Bacteria & Planet Earth

Emerging evidence has suggested that human beings and these organisms have evolved together; in fact, a modern human being could not survive without the essential contribution that many of these cultures make to the benefit of the host.

A big part of living healthily seems to involve helping oneself manage the ecosystem of bacteriological cultures in one’s body, in line with the functional requirements of the host. But what of the relationship between more ‘advanced’ cultures, such as humans, and their host planet? It seems that, in recent years, the Earth has found it difficult to regulate its own ecosystem. Perhaps humans could collectively apply a similar model in assessing their contribution to this planet.

Related Articles

• Is yogourt really a digestive cure-all? (nationalpost.com)
• Bacteria Offers Insight Into Health (findmeacure.com)
• Gut Bacteria Affect Almost Everything You Do (wired.com)
• Darwin still making waves 200 years later (cnn.com)
• Biodiversity Is Always a Goal, Right? (freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Basics: Bone, a Masterpiece of Elastic Strength (nytimes.com)
• Breakthrough in the treatment of bacterial meningitis (scienceblog.com)