In this series, “Cultivating Our Gut Microbiome to Stifle Disease,” we’ll share how the latest developments on this medical frontier are transforming our approaches to illness and offering new strategies to heal and prevent disease.
Previously: Many of the most important medical advances of previous decades were based on containing the threat of infectious disease. Unfortunately, more recent research has revealed this war against microbes also is killing beneficial microbes essential to human health.
The viruses, fungi, and bacteria that live inside and upon us are essential to critical functions in our bodies. Microbes in our mouths help us create nitric oxide, for example, helping keep heart disease at bay by ensuring our blood flows smoothly. This microbial community, our microbiome, is barely understood, but what we do know tells us that it is key to preventing and curing many diseases. Nowhere is this flora of microscopic life more crucial than in our gut….