Wonders of “Human” Holobionts

This page contains numerous excerpts from GreenMed Info.

 

We are Holobionts!

“holobiont = individual organism + associated microbial communities/including the gut’s microbiome (which include a mind numbingly complex web of bacteria, viruses, protozoa, helminths and fungi).  The microbiome genome is 95% larger than our genome – containing 2 million protein coding genes versus the only 23,000 for the human body alone.  Even Pasteur, arguably the father of germ theory, on his deathbed, was reported to say: ” I was wrong. The microbe (germ) is nothing. The terrain (milieu) is everything.” What is the terrain?  We are an ecosystem, positioned within an ecosystem.  With the dawning of our awareness that microbes live in and around us, we ceased to be human in the ways we had come to believe. We are not, in fact, humans trying to uphold and protect our humanity in a sea of invaders. We are a meta-organism, a holobiont, interfacing with a greater whole, like a fractal repetition of a pattern.”

With the completion of the human genome, however, we learned that we have fewer protein-coding genes than an earthworm. This means that the genes we thought made us who we are, don’t. What?!  Where on earth does our seemingly infinite uniqueness come from? How are diseases manifesting if not genetically?  And a new science was born. It was named epigenetics.

 

Humans can subconsciously detect the Earth’s magnetic fields

Read about Joe Kirschvink’s amazing work at Caltech here. http://web.gps.caltech.edu/~jkirschvink/www_pdf/magnetoreception.pdf

Or check out research from the Heart Math Institute:

Correlation Between Changes in Local Earth’s Magnetic Field and Cases of Acute Myocardial Infarction

 

The mitochondria in our cells – are they actually ancient bacteria?

our primary cellular energy production sites – the mitochondria – themselves, are ancient bacteria that were assimilated into the human organism over a billion years ago.  Mitochondria, in fact, have their own DNA and that DNA is only passed down through the mother’s mitochondria via the maternal germ cell cytoplasm.  The mitochondrial DNA is circular like bacterial DNA, and the mitochondrial ribosomes and transfer RNA are also similar to those of bacteria, as well as other components of its membrane. The genetic sequences of mitochondria also clearly indicate an origin from a group of bacteria called the alpha-Proteobacteria.

Viruses – The Virome – do we need them to thrive?  I think so.

viruses in our body – the total number referred to as the virome – perform indispensable functions

DNA – are we part virus?

About eight percent of human genetic material comes from a virus and not from our ancestors

What really happens when we’re born?  Our mothers supply us with the bacteria we need as holobionts

“Birth is the process of leaving of one symbiotic association system and forming another.”

The bacteria in our bodies produce vitamins and other essential nutrients
  • certain Lactobacillus strain of food importance is capable of producing the active methylated form of folate, compensating for the lack of the production in those with genetic MTHFR mutations.  Can a bacteria help out a sister?  Yes, it can.
  • Bacteria linked to human urogential infections has been proven to produce Vitamin C in the body.  Emerson once said that a weed is an herb whose virtues have yet to be discovered. So too may be the case with ‘germs.’ A nuisance, perhaps, may grow into greater numbers when the body is suffering from a deficiency of one of its primarily biosynthetic pathways and associated biomolecule, be it a vitamin, anti-tumor agent, or antibiotic. It is possible that C. glucuronolyticum grows into ‘infectitious’ proportions when the body is starved in vitamin C, and that when the body is replete with vitamin C the normally benign strain does not contribute to urogenital infection.   Of course this discovery does not prove that the gut flora are capable of producing physiological relevant quantities of vitamin C via this strain alone. But it does prove that it is possible for the human body to produce vitamin C — further exemplifying how little we know about the human body, and again, how vitally important the ‘germs’ may be in helping us to compensate for our genetic impairments.
  • Counteract vitamin B12 deficiency
  • Produce B-group vitamins, as a whole
  • Break down pesticides
  • Break down xenobiotic hormones like BPA
  • Produce essential immune factors like bacteriocin
  • Biotransform plant compounds like flax lignan into
  • beneficial hormone modulating compounds
Non-human genes change our physiology minute to minute, second to second!

nonhuman genes may play an expressive role in human physiology.  Amazingly similar to viruses in nature, structure, and possibly even function, exosomes are created and received by our bodily cells in order to direct, determine, and react to states of being.  40-100nm in diameter, exosomes typically carry something called micro RNA or miRNA which are key regulators of gene expression, naturally impacted by environmental factors, from toxicants, nutrition, and lifestyle patterns.  Seminal research has demonstrated that stable miRNAs are transferred from plants including rice and ginger, into mammalian physiology where they then serve to regulate gene expression. Once again, food is reframes as so much more than calories and nutrients…it is information.

Cells communicate and new informaiton is passed to the next generation

bodily cells were recently found to communicate inheritable information to sex cells (e.g. sperm) capable of being passed down to the next generation, effectively challenging the exclusivity of Darwinian forms of inheritance in favor of including the long denied Larmarckian view.

Humans can extract energy directly from the sun!!

 

we are a product of our energetic experience in the context of a greater whole.
  • neuropeptides travel around the body encoding emotion in different tissues and organs. The shape of these peptides, or their conformation, further transmitted information to receipient cells.  All of the sudden, informational transfer takes on another dimension – vibration. – Dr. Candace Pert
  • established the role of environment and belief in the body’s physiology. His work has decentralized the nucleus (where the genes are housed), and focused on the cell membrane as an information-processing interface with the environment. – Dr. Bruce Lipton, cellular physiology
  • physics theory morphic resonance, suggests that collective experiences set a potential template for individual experiences in a type of memory transfer that has little to do with genes. – Rupert Sheldrake

 

hundreds of studies, many of which are strain specific, show potential value of probiotics and cultured foods in the prevention and treatment of a wide range of health conditions

The growing research on the skin microbiota have revealed that the skin is colonized with a larger number of microorganisms than had been discovered previously. We’re also learning more about the connection between the gut and skin, and there’s even more attention on the gut-brain-skin axis.