What is the microbiome? Basically, it’s all the bacteria in your stomach and intestines that digest your food. You have trillions of microbes in your stomach, that change based on how you eat. And it is only becoming known recently that these have a tremendous impact on the rest of your system. They can affect everything from your physical health to your mental well-being. We are still trying to figure out everything they affect and how they affect it. It is one of the reasons why everyone is different in how they react to various different diets. You inherit the microbiome from your family and the culture around you. There are thousands and thousands of different strains of microorganisms as well, so it can get quite confusing.
What you eat
What you eat and the environment around you can also change what microorganisms you have in your system. Generally, though, if you are missing a certain strain of microorganism, it’s not going to suddenly and magically appear. This is the reason why everyone reacts differently to things. You can add certain microorganisms to your system such as bacteria that will aid in your stomach, for example, lactobacillus is one of the main bacteria in yogurt. Unfortunately, we only know a few of the probiotics that can help, when there are thousands of other strains. So, at this time we are pretty much guessing. So, the best thing you can do is have a high fiber diet and eat as healthy as you can.
Inherit the microbiome
It is generally thought that as we lose various strains of bacteria in our microbiome, over the years, that we don’t pass down those strains to our children. This implies we are going to get less healthy over time. A lot of people are suggesting avoiding antibiotics, and while we tend to agree with this, we only agree when you’re taking antibiotics when they’re not completely needed. Antibiotics basically kill a lot of the bacteria in your microbiome. Generally, they will grow back over weeks or months or sometimes, unfortunately, years, but sometimes they can be killed off completely which was a bad thing. But if your health is going to suffer and you have no choice then take the antibiotics. But if it was just to fix a bad stomach or flu, avoid them. Treat them as a serious drug, not for the effect now, but for what damage they can do to you later by you not having a bacteria that you need. We believe that sometimes when you have inherited trait such as insanity in the family it might be because of the inherited microbiome. This is just speculation on our part but as we find it the microbiome can control a lot of how your personality and mental function works, so that it does seem to be a reasonable assumption.
FMT
Although this seems pretty yucky there is a thing called fecal transplant. what this is, is basically taking the fecal matter from one person and their bacteria from their own system and transplanting it to yours. At this time this is not medically approved in the United States though there are many communities online that discuss it. There is not enough known about this to know if it is good or bad. Sometimes however when there is no choice, it could be a possibility. One of the other issues as finding the right transplant donor to make sure that their physical and mental state is good and there are no hidden problems. We would not suggest doing this but it is something that is well worth keeping an eye on for the research.
Over the years coming up, you will find more and more about the microbiome affecting your life. Your mental health and your physical health seem to be bound in chains to your microbiome. Unfortunately, there is so much to learn about it, and it has never really been studied at the level it needs to be, that it is a burgeoning medical science. It might take 20 years, or 50 years, for us to have a basic understanding of how to improve our health or mental well-being by changing the biome. Until that time if you want to experiment a little bit, try to take me some probiotics, eat yogurt, kombucha, sauerkraut, and other things, but again be careful as it turns out that your diet can change who you are. Move slowly, and make small safe changes.
