Introduction: Change your Life Series
Did you know that the vast population of organisms that live in your body outnumber your cells 10 to 1? Your body is made up of roughly 100 trillion microbes (invisible creatures) that cover your insides and outsides. If isolated, these microbes would fill up a half-gallon container.
In recent years, scientists have identified 10,000 species of microbes. Each microbe contains its own unique DNA, which translates to more than 8 million genes. For every human gene in your body, there are at least 360 microbial ones.
So, what does this mean?
This brings the saying “you are what you eat” to a whole new level. We as humans are quite literally a product of our environment, comprised of everything we touch, eat, drink, breathe, and interact with.
Why does this matter?
Within the past couple of decades, the 10 wealthiest nations in the world have seen drastic increases in brain disease, diagnosable mental disorders, anxiety disorders, depression, and other life-threatening diseases. People are sick, and the constant inflammation in the body is causing more and more people to be prone to disease sooner and for longer periods.
What is our solution?
In 2013, the US spent $50,000 annually caring for each dementia patient in this country, amounting to $200 billion annually (roughly 4 million patients nationwide). Nearly 10% of the US population has a mood disorder for which powerful drugs are prescribed. Headaches cause more than 160 million lost work days each year in the US alone, resulting in $30 billion a year in medical expenses.
In 2014, the New York Times wrote of a new partnership being forged among the NIH, ten pharmaceutical companies, and seven nonprofit organizations. Their mission: to develop a drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease. In the span of five years and $230 million dollars later, the New England Journal of Medicine reported that two of the promising drug candidates for treating Alzheimer’s disease had failed to provide any meaningful benefit.
Unfortunately, labeling a drug as a cure for diseases that are largely preventable in the first place is the most profitable way for pharmaceutical companies to cash in big time on the epidemic that is sweeping across the Western World.
Well, that didn’t seem to work… So, what is the actual solution?
Instead of focusing on what got us to where we are today, how it happened, and tracing back the roots so we can reverse it, we put a golden Band-Aid on the open wound and hoped for the best. Well, how about we begin by asking how we got cut in the first place?
Throughout this series, we will be uncovering the many ways to transform your body into a prosperous safe haven for you to flourish in life, and it begins in the microbiome.
Sources:
1) Perlmutter, D. (2017). Brain maker: The power of gut microbes to heal and protect your brain - for life. Yellow Kite.
