The gut microbiome is like a fingerprint, “so unique to individuals, that in the near future, we will be able to assess crimes by the bacteria that have been left behind by the perpetrator.”
Ben describes how, “When I started talking about the microbiome ten years ago, there was very little known about it. When I graduated from Pharmacy school in 1985, there was very little information about the microbiome. Today there’s thousands of papers written every year. ”
“It’s not just the digestive tract where we have the microbiome. You’ve got a microbiome in your lungs. You’ve got a microbiome in your eyes. You’ve got a microbiome in your mouth. You’ve got a microbiome on your skin. We all carry around a cloud of microbiome around us.”
“It’s kind of funny, because in the old days, we used to call these microbes ‘germs’ and everybody was afraid of ‘germs’. The ‘germs’ are bacteria and only a small fraction of the bacteria on the planet, less than 10%, are bad bacteria. 90-95% of the bacteria on the planet are good bacteria. They’re bacteria that help us process food. They’re bacteria that help us detoxify. They’re bacteria that help us break down fats. They’re bacteria that help us get energy.”
“For years they have known, that when they give cattle antibiotics, the cattle got fatter. So, what is it about the antibiotics that made the cattle get fatter? The antibiotics were killing the bacteria and that prevented the cattle from processing energy correctly, and the sugar got turned into fat more readily.”
“Well, why wouldn’t that happen to humans?”
