Looking back at my first writing exercise, I remember being really confused on how to answer the question of how microorganisms influence non-infectious diseases… I remember googling, and not being sure what this meant.
Now:
I know that microorganisms can influence our overall health in so many ways including non-infectious diseases such as:
Obesity
Diabetes
IBS
Ulcers
Asthma (and can also help it…)
Heart disease
Mental health issues
Allergies
Crohn’s disease
and the list goes on and on…
In my fist post, I only included a couple of diseases, and I wasn’t sure if this was even true. Now I know how there are strong correlations between our microbial communities and our overall health. So many studies have been conducted with different chronic illnesses, and we see actual differences in microbiomes of subjects with illnesses when comparing to control groups. I think the most important topics are that understanding the link between ourselves and our microbiomes, could be the future of medicine, at least in some important ways… perhaps when seeing these correlations gain interest and more respect with more publications and more research, we may have new treatments for these illnesses, and they may be healthier treatments than ever before. Another really important topic was that our microbiomes coevolve with us. The microorganisms in our guts aren’t just a new hot topic in science, but they are literally part of us, and have been with us since the beginning of time. Another important topic is that it isn’t just our microbiomes affecting us, but that our choices and lifestyles are affecting them as well– hence the disappearing microbiota hypothesis…
I look forward to hearing more about these topics and I imagine as a future health care professional, that I’ll be educating my future patients on the wonders of the bacteria in their bodies.
