Microbiome or Microbiomes?

The health of our microbiome – or should that be plural, microbiomes – are critical for our cardiovascular health.

How can we have multiple microbiomes?

Well we don’t really, the microbiome describes the world of microorganisms that live within us, and on us - over 39 trillion bacteria, fungi, viruses and protozoa - but the makeup of species of microorganisms differs in different parts of our body so we often refer to these as distinct communities. 

Distinct regions of microbiomes being researched include:

• Skin microbiome;
• Oral microbiome;
• Respiratory microbiome;
• Gut microbiome which is also separated into distinct areas – notably, the density of bacterial cells in the colon has been estimated at 10¹¹to 10¹² per mL which makes the colon one of the most densely populated microbial habitats known on earth (read more here);
• Brain microbiome - traditionally, the brain was thought to be a sterile environment devoid of any microbial presence. However, recent scientific investigations have challenged this thinking and shown potential existence of a diverse and dynamic microbiota within the brain (read more here).
• Vaginal and urinary tract microbiome (read more in our discussion article in this link).

Microbiome dysbiosis (an unbalance of species and/or low diversity of species) in any of the distinct microbiome regions can be connected with poor health and not necessarily in the area you would expect.  For example, high levels of bacteria species P. gingivalis in your mouth, which causes gum disease, has been linked with cardiovascular inflammation and disease (read more here) and more recently with colorectal cancer (read more here).

We have shared blogs before on how you can alter aspects of your diet and lifestyle to enhance your microbiome/s (read more here and here and here and here).  However, it’s also important to note, that sometimes life can get in the way of your best efforts.

In two weeks I am moving house and in doing so, decluttering 10 years of family life- ahhhh!  Stress can play quite a significant influence on the makeup of our microbiomes! (read more here and here).  

So too can modern pharmaceuticals, chemicals we eat and breathe, soaps and detergents we use on our skin and in our mouths.  Which all means that optimising the health of our various microbiomes in and on our body requires attention in the form of prebiotics and probiotics in our diet, stress relief, sleep management and an understanding of chemicals we are exposed to which might affect us.

All of our lozenge supplements contain probiotics and/or prebiotics to promote healthy microbiomes. Please contact us if you have any questions about this.

All the best, Anna and Darcy.

If you would like to discuss any of this further, please contact Darcy or Anna (who you can contact at +64 27 599 2255 or +64 27 4861418 respectively) or via info@zesttwellness.com.