400 years ago, Galileo invented the telescope. This triggered a significant and immediate shift in humanity’s understanding of the Earth’s place in the cosmos. At the time, popular belief dictated that the Earth was at the center of the universe and the sun and stars revolved around our planet. Galileo discovered that the Earth, in fact, was just a tiny rock hurtling through space, orbiting the sun. It was just a planet among a billion of other planets. Galileo was ordered to turn himself in to the Holy Office to begin trial for holding the belief that the Earth revolves around the sun, which was deemed heretical by the Catholic Church.
In the last decade, an even more profound and certainly more disruptive discovery than that of Galileo’s, is that the human cell is not at the center of human health and human disease. It challenges the role of our species on our planet – our superiority as a species. Are we really the most important and most advanced form of biology on the planet?
In the last 100 years, we have attempted to solve medical mysteries related to human disease, be it cardio-vascular disease, cancer, infectious diseases, etc., by studying human cells in sterile petri dishes which have no contact with the vast microbiome universe (bacteria, viruses, fungi) that in reality – we are steeped in. We have totally and systematically rejected their mind-blowing capacity to support human health – and a vast majority of us continue to do so.
Research into the microbiome makes it clear that we are FULLY DEPENDENT upon (in fact, we literally are MADE OF) these humble microbes that are invisible to the eye that live within our soil, water and air systems. The discovery that the microbiome and the virome is the mechanism by which life has occurred on this planet – from the smallest insect to the conscious beings that humans are – is hard to wrap one’s mind around. This is a scientific revolution that we are in the midst of – the likes of which the people who lived alongside Galileo found themselves in 400 years ago: The earth is not at the center of the universe – just like the human cell is not at the center of human health.
Radical. But real.
Our innate immunity and health (physical AND mental) is strengthened when we support our microbial companions – when we immerse ourselves into microbially rich and diverse natural environments, when we eat and drink whole and natural foods.
How will you support your microbiome today?