Influence of the Microbiome on Human Health

Until recently, scientists believed that the microbiome was neither hurting not helping humans in their daily life processes. They believed that the interactions between the microbiome and human organs and processes was minimal. However, recently they have seen that this is not the case. In fact, a paper called The Oral Microbiota May Have Influence on Oral Cancer explains that an imbalance in the microbiota of a human, either too much of a microorganism or too little can cause chronic infection and systemic disease. This shows that our microbiome indeed can have drastic effects on human health.

The paper mentioned above was aimed at understanding the microbiome of tumor versus normal tissues. They found that there was a significant different in the microbiome make up of a tumorous area versus a normal area of tissue. In a similar way, in 1990, the pathogenic role of Helicobacter pylori was discovered, showing that the presence in most cases of gastric tumors, Helicobacter pylori was present. The researcher even swallowed the bacteria to prove the relationship between this microbiota and cancer. These results from the paper mentioned above may be used in future research to target those differences for more highly specialized cancer therapies. This is research that is ongoing and ultimately could result in using the microbiome to eliminate cancer in the body.

Along the same lines, another current research study is aimed at understanding the oral microbiota in general between ages, lifestyle habits, and family. They have found that the amount of sugar that someone prefers can be traced back to the specific make-up of the microbiota. This is revolutionary seeing as how before scientists did not believe that the composition of the microbiome had anything to do with human health. I was brainstorming extensions of this research that could include microbiome transplants to change taste bud preferences to improve overall diet. In learning about these two studies and brainstorming the uses of this research to aid human health, I began to realize how powerful the microbiome really is. I believe it is safe to say that in the coming future, a person’s microbiome analysis will be more common in normal medical processes.