Published on Aqua-Biome
What is an organ, but doesn’t look like an organ?
This isn’t a riddle or a trick question, but rather insight into one of the human’s body most effective ways of managing its own natural balance and health. The answer, of course, is your body’s microbiome. Though the epithet ‘microbiome’ is relatively descriptive (micro meaning ‘extremely small’ and biome meaning ‘a naturally occurring living community’), it still raises many questions. What is our microbiome — and where is it? What does it do? How can I ensure that my microbiome is healthy and working in harmony with the rest of my body’s systems?
While the world’s biomes contain a vivid melange of plants, animals and bacteria, a microbiome contains only one type of living creature: single-celled bacteria. Microbiomes can grow anywhere that bacteria can grow, which makes our human gut the perfect breeding ground for a flourishing microbiome. If the thought of one of your body’s most essential systems teeming with bacteria makes your skin crawl, have no fear! It’s a good thing — an essential part of you that we could not survive without — that works hard to regulate your metabolism, weight, immune system and even your mood. Your microbiome is as unique as your fingerprint, and is part of what makes you ‘you’… and here you were, thinking you were doing this whole health thing on your own!
Instead, you have a whole army whose sole purpose is to ensure your intestines, as well as body and mind as a whole, are working in tip-top shape.
Though the word microbiome is surging to the top of everyone’s newsfeeds, the colony of bacteria living inside your body goes by another name: gut flora. Flora generally refers to non-conscious plant life, and inside of your body (separated from the rest of your body by a thing layer of epithelial cells in your intestinal walls) there are thousands of different types of flora, microbes and bacteria — more than we could ever know the individual names of, and many that are difficult for scientists to study because they only grow within the body. What we do know about our microbiomes and our gut flora is how we can holistically help it flourish.
From the time we are born, we begin accumulating our signature microbiome which serves to identify and enhance our individual human body’s needs. It is impacted by our genes and other factors we are born with, but also is influenced by our environment and the nutrients we consume — as are most things. Interestingly enough, a wellness routine that is rich in omega-3 fatty acids is essential to maintaining a healthy microbiome, effectively supporting all other functions in one’s body. Specifically, omega-3’s help to create a diverse collection of different bacteria in your collective gut flora, which can help improve your predisposition to different diseases and conditions.
New research on this subject proves that the effect of flora diversity on overall health of a system is profound. A diverse and balanced biome is a happy environment, no matter if it’s a forest in the Sierra Nevada, a coral reef deep in the ocean or the intestines in your very own body.
If you know omega-3’s, then you know there are three different types of this nutrient, each with a super-specialized role. DHA and EPA often steal the spotlight, as they are more common element in most omega-3 supplements, and they serve the vital purpose of enriching the pathway for a healthy immune systems (read: our microbiome). These two work well in conjunction, but so often humans miss out on DPA, the lesser known (yet just as vital) component of omega-3 acids. DPA has specific functions that science is still learning about, but its most important role is well known: DPA works in conjunction with DHA and EPA by being converted to whichever you body requires, adapting to your own individual holistic health needs. If your omega-3 intake is lacking in DPA, then you are missing out on many of the benefits that these fatty acids have to offer, and your microbiome may lack in potential diversity. This may not sound as problematic as a broken bone or blood clot, but your microbiome needs just as much care and consideration.
Why make guesses about what you body needs, when it’s fully capable of making these decisions on its own (when given the right supplies, like DPA)? It’s very comforting to know that we don’t have to do this all alone. Your microbiome is there to protect you, and DPA is there to protect your microbiome. The last variable, of course, is you! If you make the choice to care for your gut flora as you would take care of your heart and brain, you will surely reap the many benefits — holistic, glowing health, from the inside out.
