Microbial Diversity in Nature

Human’s evolution from living among diverse natural ecosystems such as grasslands, prairies, mountains, and seashores. provided strategic adaptations that supported survival. The recent urbanization of industrialized nations has superseded centuries of living within the cycles and rhythms of the natural world. The presence of concrete as a replacement for the microbial environment that humans cohabitated with has been found to create physiologic alterations that coincide with the increasing risk factors of inactivity, lower immune function and chronic inflammatory conditions that promote CVD (McDade, Ryan, et al., 2017). Throughout evolution, humans’ metabolism was fueled in part by microbial metabolites and intestinal bacteria that supported healthy immunoregulation (McDade, Ryan, et al., 2017). A longitudinal study of Philippine children who were raised on farms and actively participated in raising and caring for the animals was found to have lower levels of CRP as adults (Rook, Lowry, & Raison, 2015).

The intestinal microbiome has a direct effect on the innate immune system and its ability to fight infections via healthy inflammatory regulation. When the gut microbiome becomes dysregulated humans are predisposed to opportunistic infections and inflammation that can promote chronic inflammatory diseases such as CVD, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and depression (Rook Lowery, & Raison, 2015).

References

McDade, T. W., Ryan, C., MacIsaac, M. J., Morin, A. M., Meyer, J. S., & Miller, G. E. (2017, July 3). Social and physical environments early in development predict DNA methylation of inflammatory genes in young adulthood. PNAS, 1-6. Retrieved from pnas.org/content/pnas/early/2017/06/26/1620661115.full.pdf

Rook, G. A., Lowry, C. A., & Raison, C. L. (2015, August, 20). Hygiene and other early childhood influences on the subsequent function of the immune system. Brain Research, 1617, 47-62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016.j.brainres.2014.04.004