How Microbes Rule Our Bodies
Microbes are everywhere, in the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe, on our hands, in our mouth and even inside our body system.
These microbes form an ecosystem inside our bodies and their effect can be both harmful and beneficial to us. In this article, we would be discussing how we get these microorganisms and how they influence our brains.
How Do We Get Our First Microbes?
As humans, we get our first set of microbes from birth. These microbes are passed from the birth canal (vagina) of our mothers during delivery and also during cesarean section.
Babies born through natural delivery tend to be more healthy than babies born through cesarean section as these babies often suffer from different health conditions such as asthma, leukemia, and other immune diseases.
As we grow, we form a partnership with these microorganisms. We provide them with a place to stay and we feed them and in return, these microorganisms contribute to food digestion, produce the necessary vitamins needed by our bodies, develop the immune system and also detoxify toxic chemicals that get into the body.
Types Of Microorganisms In The Human Body
The human body houses millions of microorganisms like viruses, archea, protists, fungi and bacteria, some of which are friendly while others are not.
We have 3 categories of microorganisms present in the human body-they are;
- The Quiet Microbes
- The Guest Microbes
- The Friendly Microbes
The Quiet Microbes
These set of microbes do their own thing and are politely ignored and being there they take up much space and they keep aggressive intruders out of our bodies.
The Guest Microbes
These microbes that harm us but we’ve learnt to live with them, they want to take as much space as they can but due to the fact that they are not needed by our body, our bodies tries to fight them and keep them off.
These microbes also cannot be totally removed from the body. An example of a microbe that fall in this category is the bacteria that produces acid which melt our teeth.
The Friendly Microbes
These microbes are very generous and friendly. They help in contributing to the general wellness of our bodies. An example of a friendly microbe is the gut microbe.
The gut microbe is a microorganism found in the gut if insects, animals and humans, it helps in the digestion of food and contributes greatly to a great gut health.
How Do These Microbes Communicate With Our Brain?
It would interest you to know that microbes present in our gut interacts with our brain and they do this by producing neuroactive molecules and peptides that send signals to our brain.
How Microorganisms Communicate With Our Immune System
Our gut is susceptible to different form of attacks and because of that it is thoroughly guided by our immune system.
To survive here, our gut microbiome evolves to being able to communicate with our immune system.
It interacts with the immune system by releasing proteins that are recognized by the immune system.
It also increases or decreases the numbers of the cells in the immune system, or change the way the immune cells function.
Some other bacteria help stimulate immune cells in the gut so that they send alarm signals to the brain by activating the immune cells that help the brain recover from injuries.
How Microorganisms Are Able To Communicate With Our Nervous System
It has been observed that 90% of our body’s serotonin, an important messenger for the nerve cells is produced in the gut.
Some scientists think that microorganisms do this to communicate with the vagus nerve which happens to be the information center of our nervous system and by doing so they’re able to interact with the nervous system.
Microbes present in the body influences the type of food we crave.
A research conducted on fruit fly shows that these fruit flies shows that there microbiome influences the type of food they crave. This could mean that our microbes can tell our brains the type of food it should get them.
They also influence our behaviors and the way we feel.
A research shows that healthy rats feed microbes from the gut of depressed people began showing anxiety like behavior and depression.
This makes us understand that we need our microbes and they need us.
We hope you enjoyed our blog post, please let us know if you have any questions in the comment section.
