The Gut Microbiome: 39 Trillion Allies Under Assault
The human gut microbiome — the collective genome of approximately 39 trillion bacterial, archaeal, viral, and fungal organisms inhabiting the gastrointestinal tract — encodes 150 times more genes than the human genome and performs metabolic functions indispensable to human health including the synthesis of essential vitamins, the production of short-chain fatty acids that fuel colonocytes and modulate systemic immunity, the metabolism of pharmaceutical drugs and dietary phytochemicals, and the education of the mucosal immune system in distinguishing self from pathogen. Broad-spectrum antibiotics, glyphosate (a patented antibiotic), ultra-processed food emulsifiers, fluoridated water, chronic stress, and pharmaceutical acid suppressants collectively devastate microbiome diversity and allow pathobiont overgrowth — creating the dysbiotic terrain that underlies the IBS, Crohn's disease, systemic autoimmunity, mental illness, obesity, and neurodegenerative disease epidemic of the 21st century.
