The Good Gut

Part of my ongoing project to better understand and heal my own gut issues. The research is very exciting and promising, if somewhat limited and premature. The authors often present not-fully-tested theories (to be fair, they do say when they are doing this) or talk about their personal choices for their own two children, which are not evidence. Along with this filler, though, is a solid case to be made that our gut microbiota has a profound effect on many areas previously thought to be unrelated, and that improvements in gut health can likewise profoundly affect our physical and even mental health. Sadly, this also means that the modern threats to said gut microbiota – especially the fiber-poor Western diet, the astronomic rate of unnecessary C-sections, the compulsion to oversanitize everything and fear dirt, and the dangerous, but seemingly unstoppable overuse of antibiotics – have had a devastating effect that may not be reversible.

“We are a composite organism, an ecosystem,” the authors say at the book's conclusion. The age of the individualistic, atomistic worldview, the prejudice that led us to see things as separate and disconnected, is at an end, a very dead end. In science, as in every other area of life, we must begin to see each part always in relation to the whole. And in terms of our physiology, that means becoming aware of and working in harmony with our invisible microbial friends. Here's to that hope for the future.