The Body as an Ecosystem

In my post, Our Second Brain, I brought forth the health implications of this often overlooked aspect   of our physiology, the enteric system. The  informational links on that post, http://thepo
werof4-paula.blogspot.com/2011/05/healthy-gut-healthy-person.html?goback=%2Egde_65780_member_106590695, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=gut-second-brain and http://www.psyking.net/id36.htm said it best. The enteric system is a major intelligence in the body, able to operate outside the brain's master command center.  This intelligence not only dictates digestion, but impacts our mood and emotional state.  When this system is unwell, in an inflamed state, it is a major player in the wellness/disease factor for the entire body.

On further readings about this second brain I am impressed with the idea of our bodies being made up of many ecosystems of "microbiota".  Especially in this day and age of routine use of antimicrobial soaps and antibiotics, we are systematically damaging this delicate ecosystem that co-exists in this singular organism, the body.

`"Each person is an assemblage of not only human cells but also many symbiotic species.  The abundant and diverse microbial members of the assemblage play critical roles in the maintenance of human health by liberating nutrients and/or energy from otherwise inaccessible dietary substrates, promoting differentiation of host tissues stimulating the immune system and protecting the host from invasion by pathogens.  A number of clinical disorders are associated with alterations in host-associated microbial communities (the "microbiota"), including obesity malnutrition and a variety of inflammatory diseases....Thus, the human body can be viewed as an ecosystem and human health can be construed as a product of ecosystem services delivered in part by the microbiota."*

This resonates well with the ideas of Oneness and everything being a microcosmos of another 'universe'; whether it be in relation to the details of a working star/planet system or the intricate operations of our cells and DNA.  Everything is related.  We are in relationship.  Unfortunately, we don't have a working awareness of this truth.  So (out of fear) we act blindly; for example, attempting to eradicate all mosquitoes from a community with two cases of West Nile virus and in doing so obliterate most of the entire lobster population from nearby waters (Pesticide effect on lobsters studied - Connecticut Post ), not only killing off countless creatures but dozens of livelihoods. (And how does this effect birds who feed on mosquitoes?)  Or we evolve innumerous MRSA (MRSA Strain on the Rise in Hospitals) noscomial infections in hospitals often related to the use of antibiotics. Antimicrobial soaps and alcohol-based "Purells" are used routinely in hospitals by staff instead of soap and water, mostly for convenience sake.  What is this doing to our personal ecosystems and our already health-compromised patients? We don't work with our inner or outer ecosystems, we attempt to conquer them.

Fungi microbiata on cork

"The human-microbial ecosystem plays a variety of important roles in human health and disease. Each person can be viewed as an island-like "patch" of habitat occupied by microbial assemblages formed by the fundamental processes of community ecology: dispersal, local diversification, environmental selection and ecological drift.  Community assembly theory, and metacommunity theory in particular, provides a framework for understanding the ecological dynamics of the human microbiome, such as compositional variability within and between hosts."*

Is this not an eloquent statement paralleling all that exists?  We exist because of the diverse and total Relationship always at work on all levels. In a way what is interesting, is the seeming natural inclination of humans to not acknowledge this, to act otherwise outside that knowledge.  The notion of "metacommunity" alone or being a "patch" in the collective habitat is incredibly moving.  The symbiosis of the universe's many "assemblages" (microbial or otherwise) is at work and counting on our awareness so that it is able to be maintained.

Science and the sublime meet.  The art of the universe's genius is displayed in the microcosmic truth of our guts' reality:

"Obesity is a pandemic which has been rapidly developing for three decades. When a population is submitted to the same nutritional stress, some individuals are less susceptible to diet-induced weight gain and hyperglycemia. This observation suggests that other mechanisms are involved which are not directly related to the human genome. The human gut contains an immense number of microorganisms, collectively known as the microbiota. Evidence that gut microbiota composition can differ between obese and lean humans has led to the speculation that gut microbiota can participate in the pathophysiology of obesity. Different mechanisms have been proposed to explain the link between gut flora and obesity. The first mechanism consists in the role of the gut microbiota to increase energy extraction from indigestible dietary polysaccharides. The second, consists in the role of gut flora to modulate plasma lipopolysaccharide levels which triggers chronic low-grade inflammation leading to obesity and diabetes. A third mechanism proposes that gut microbiota may induce regulation of host genes that modulate how energy is expended and stored."**

Information/research like this calls us to make a stand for our "microbial assemblages", our "patch habitats" which we systematically destroy by promoting inflammation with the pharmaceuticals and foods we ingest, the chronic stress and/or emotional toxicity we allow.  It's undermining our health and well being. Kefir, Kombucha, other probiotics are not FDA approved (and never will be).  If antibiotics are necessary why are probiotics almost never prescribed along with them? Why is the lag time of implementation so great when the science is there? Where is con-science in our health politics when entire populations of crustaceans are discounted and livelihoods of fishermen are marginalized? How are we at large not acting out of the knowledge of being in relationship to all that is inside and outside ourselves?  The universal human blind spot?  

Our bodies are ecosystems, sometimes in a delicate balance in relation to the ecosystems we internally move through at every moment and agriculturally benefit from everyday.  We are a colony within a colony within a colony, unabated and continually rippling out.

 * The Application of Ecological Theory Toward an Understanding of the Human Microbiome, Costello, Elizabeth et al. Science Magazine Vol. 336, June 8, 2012

**Arquivos Brasileiros de Endocrinologia & Metabologia, Print version ISSN 0004-2730