The microbiome is the population of trillions of microbes — including bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms — that live within the human body alongside human cells.
It doesn’t serve just one purpose; instead, the diversity of the microbiome affects virtually all body systems by influencing:
The microbiome begins populating with those microbes during fetal development and continues changing through every stage of life. The composition of the microbiome and its influences on GI/overall health depends on the interactions between microorganisms and the host. Various species and strains of bacteria within the microbiome develop different relationships with the cells of the human body. They do different things and have separate purposes, yet they maintain an interactive relationship and share two goals: survive and thrive.
