Researching probiotics brought me to an interesting website recently. The Human Microbiome Project is an initiative of the National Institutes of Health to study the microbial cells in the human body, which outnumber human cells 10 to one.

It’s only recently that we’ve had the technology to study those microbial cells so that we can better understand the impact they have on our development, physiology, immunity and nutrition. The project is focusing on microbes found in the nasal, oral, skin, gastrointestinal and urogenital areas.

I’m interested in these studies because the impact probiotics have in your body has to do with the impact on the microbial environment. As technology and scientists isolate the information, we’ll learn more about strains of probiotics that will help us the most, particularly in treating disease states.

While the project isn’t focused on probiotics, any understanding of the microbial environment in our bodies will advance the science that we use to bring you the best probiotics possible. It’s exciting to see glimmers of the future potential – aside from the amazing things good bacteria already do!

To read more about what the Human Microbiome Project is doing, click here: http://commonfund.nih.gov/index.aspx

To your health,

Dr. S. Challa