Through the advancement of medicine and hygiene, our interaction with microbes has changed drastically, from fighting disease to discovering how non-pathogenic microbes influence our physiology. Changes in behaviors that influence our microbiome include: washing hands, taking showers, brushing one’s teeth, washing/cleaning possessions such as laundry, dishes, and furniture, getting vaccinated influences what pathogens are capable of infecting us on an individual and herd level, and spending fewer hours going outside and interacting with others influences the kind of microbes we’re exposed to. Our fear of germs overall without understanding the whole picture of the microbiome is probably the most influential change in behavior overall, for this fear is what drives the change in behaviors listed above.
