Your Microbial Menagerie Pg.37

This article explains how there are atleast 200 trillion microscopic organisms, bacteria, viruses, and fungi swarming around our bodies right at this moment.

SUPPOSEDLY the largest collection of organisms are one that cling to your gut, and they weigh a total of abouty FOUR POUNDS!!!!!
1000 species can live in the Human Mouth!

These things hiding and living in our body may seem creepy, but the microbes are overwhelmingly HARMLESS! Actually they help us and keep us healthy at a microscopic level. It's liek a commensalism relationship in ecosystems. One organism benefits and the other is unharmed!

I believe its SOOOOO creepy!!!! to think that 200 trillion other life forms live on your body, even reproduce in your body!

that is creepy man... but very interesting!

But i think your wrong about the commensalism relationship! They both benefit! It would be Mutualism!
The organisms get what they want in order to protect us and it says in the article that the organisms educate the immunes system and outcompete and block potential pathogens (yeeeee boooy)

imagine how many microorganisms are on the elephants body!!!!

IMAGINE HOW MANY IN A CROCODILES MOUTH!

and oh yesss! thats what i meant to put, Mutualism! Bio 30... Should have studied more... LOL

The article said there is 1000 speices of microbes living on your scalp when there is another whole species living on the crook of your elbow!

Im guessing the same organism that reside in your mouth are also in the crook of your elbow, and on your hand because when you sneeze what do you cover it with?! EXACTLY!

although that's kind of a gross way to look at it you have to realize that all organisms basically rely on something to survive and although humans rely on a lot of different things the bacterias protecting our body is a major one even if we don't realize it.

Even if they are protecting us.. there is always the bacteria that makes us sick, diseased, and weak.. Why can't they protect us from them?

And that's what they call Parasitism One organism benefits while the other is harmed.

I still think its gross how we are home to soo many other life forms

i guess the bacterias are only their as peaceful citizens who knows nothing about violence, seems to me like the "monks" or "fathers" of the bacteria community .

i never supported drugs/medicine and sanitizers as i knew we are only killing off these innocent ones who are only helping us. I prefer herbal medicine and washing my hands like the traditional ways. those methods existed long ago and is still in existence tells you something about their reliability in effectiveness .

Very true Josh. While it is gross that we provide a home for the many species of bacteria, we have to acknowledge how helpful and necessary they are to our survival. Also, we are unaffected by a lot of these bacterium harvesting off our body; if I can't feel them, don't see them, and am not aware they are there, then I feel totally fine harvesting the variety of bacteria

I guess it depends on the person.

It has its pros and cons.
Pros:

• The bacteria help you in some way
  Keep you healthy

Cons:
They mostly use your body as a home, to live, reproduce , mostly feed off you.

simrit this is a pretty cool topic. i too feel that these organisms are necessary to our survival. without these we would be constantly sick and would never be able to fight off any other diseases. our immune system would be shot and we would not be able to survive. its kinda creepy that all these bugs live in us but there are bugs everywhere we go. they are in the air, on desks, on our skin, in water. these organisms are a part of our life( like food) and without them we would not survive. they dont bother me at all and i guess i am glad to have them

But they are using your body as homes without paying rent! lol
I guess it is some sort of mutualism they do help you in some ways...
But how do you know each one is good and one is bad?
Some could basicaly be parasites.. which are harming you and you wouldn't even know it.
Who knows, maybe there even using you body as toiilets?

ya but if they were bad parasites then you would know about it cause you would get sick. just like those intestine worms. you would become sick then you know something is wrong with you. as for the rent goes i dont think the organisms have money
i see them as a plus cause most of them probably get ride of harmful things

There are many different types of microorganisms which live within our gastrointestinal tract! and many are rather beneficial to us. Researchers once thought that those microorganisms did nothing to our body, and were just there for nothing. But recent studies show that those organisms may actually benefit us in a way, but at the same time, it may be a cause to some diseases.

Also, everyone has a different amount of microorganism in their bodies, because of what they intake. The idea of " what do the microorganisms that live within us do" has got scientist's thinking and trying to figure out what each microorganisms function is, and if they may be an answer to the cure for some diseases or disorders. But it is not easy to simply look into a specific organism since the organism itself is so used to its own environment, once taken away from the environment it is adapted to, perhaps the acidity of a place it is located at, the microorganism can possibly die off. I think we should put money into these researches to have a further understanding of what's happening in our body. For the time being, new advanced techniques must be developed to allow scientists to have a deeper look into a microorganism.

if scientists can figure out exactly what these bacteria can do i think the curing of some of the major desieses
will become highly probable.
but i guess all we can do is sit and wait!

I found this article very interesting; I could not believe that there were so many microscopic organisms on our body all the time with collections weighing up to four pounds. Even though these organisms help us I still am creped out by the fact that they are always on me moving around. I would never think there were that many organisms on my body at once. I am happy to hear that these organisms help us though and that the make us stronger, the commensalism relationship is very reassuring in this case.

haha i agree
the four pounds part is crazy!! i guess when we weigh ourselves we can sasy were four pounds less then what is says hahaha
however it is kindove groosom thinking abount them crawling around like ciara said.

ya but its not like we can see them with the naked eye. its no different than cells just tiny little things moving around in us