Whose Vis is it Anyway?The Human Microbiome, Health

& the Vis Medicatrix NaturaePaul Mittman, ND, EdD

Human Microbiome

The microbiome is defined as the collective genomes of the microbes (composed of bacteria, bacteriophage, fungi, protozoa and viruses) that live inside and on the human body.

National Human Genome Research Institute

http://www.genome.gov/27549400

Human History of Disease Shaped our Relationship with Microbes

Causes of Death 1900/2010

NEJM

Medicine as Opposition to Disease

Symbiosis in Biological Systems

Legumes

Hermann Hellriegel 1888

Nitrogen Fixation in Leguminous Plants

Symbiosis

• Mutualism – Both Organisms Benefit

• Commensalism – One Benefits the other unaffected

• Parasitism – One Benefits, the other harmed

© 2010 Shigeharu Moriya

http://www.riken.jp/en/research/rikenresearch/highlights/6214

Termites, Bacteria and Protists

Termites, Bacteria and Protists

Hawaiian Bobtail Squid

Euprymna scolopes /Vibrio fischeri

The Bacterium and the Squid

Mutualism

Symbiosis in Human Health

Plasmodium Falciparum

Helicobacter pylori

Human Microbiome

Illya Ilyich (Elie) MetchnikoffNobel Prize 1908

Proposed Lactobacillus Consumption

Polymerase Chain Reaction

Individual CulturePCR

Human Microbiome

Microbial contact during pregnancy, intestinal colonization and human disease

Nature Reviews Gastroenterology and Hepatology 9, 565-576 (October 2012) | doi:10.1038/nrgastro.2012.144

In Utero

At Birth

Perinatal Antibiotics

Breastfeeding

Microbial Transmission

Microbial Transmission via Breastmilk

The human milk microbiota: origin and potential roles in health and disease.Pharmacol Res. 2013 Mar;69(1):1-10

Human Milk Oligosaccharides

Bifidobacterium longum subspecies infantis

TMAO & Heart Dz

Genomic Phylostratigraphy

Genomic Phylostratigraphy

Questions

Whose vis is it? Does an individual’s microbiome play a role in energetic therapies?Can the microbiome help explain naturopathic medicine’s vitalistic approach to healthcare?