Did you know that around half your body is actually made up of microbes?
In fact, there are over 100 trillion of them living on or inside you – and collectively, they may weigh as much as five pounds! Every individual has a unique microbial composition – like a fingerprint – that communicates with the rest of the cells in the body. Research has shown that these single-celled residents are linked to almost every chronic disease and condition – as well as overall health and well-being.
It can be helpful to learn the basic terminology of the microbiome – and then to understand why it is important to have a good microbiome and implicitly a healthy gut.
On the following page, you’ll find a glossary of key terms you will likely encounter as you explore the field of gut health. Don’t worry about memorizing them – simply keep this resource as a handy reference.
- Commensal bacteria: Bacteria that protect an organism against pathogenic microorganisms or do no harm.
- Dysbiosis: A microbial disturbance or imbalance within an ecosystem of the body caused by changes in the types and numbers of bacteria in the gut. Dysbiosis is linked to disease. The prefix dys means “bad, ill, or abnormal.” Basically, dysbiosis is when the ratio between bacteria is off in a way that becomes unhealthy for a person.
- Endotoxins: Toxins that are present inside a bacterial cell and released when the cell disintegrates.
- Epigenetics: The study of changes in organisms that are caused by how a gene is expressed, rather than an actual change to the genetic code; used to describe how we can turn genes on or off to prevent or cause disease.
- Germ-free: Raised and kept in a sterile environment with no microbes. Many studies are compared against germ-free environments that do not exist outside a lab.
- Microbes: A collective term for the microscopic organisms that can include bacteria, fungi, archaea, protozoa, and viruses.
- Microbiome: A collective habitat of microorganisms that live in and on the body, including the microbes themselves, their genome, and their surrounding environment.
- Microbiota:
The microorganisms that reside within a given environment inside the body;
similar to the microbiome but refers to just the microbes.
• Opportunistic microbes:
Microbes that can remain neutral and dormant in the body, not causing harm, but
may disrupt the microbiome and can cause disease when the immune system is
weakened.
• Pathogenic microbes:
Bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and parasites that can cause disease upon entering the
body.
• Prebiotics:
Selectively fermented or non digestible food ingredients that when consumed help
support the growth of health-promoting bacteria.
• Probiotics:
A collection of strains of live bacterial organisms that when taken in proper doses
can have positive effects on health and digestion.
• Synbiotic:
A combination of probiotics and prebiotics