The Power of Bacteria and How to Maintain a Healthy Microbiome
Not all bacteria and viruses are bad. In fact, your body houses a variety of microbes that can help keep you healthy — or harm your health.
It’s all about the microbiome! Like fingerprints, everyone has a unique microbiome which can affect your susceptibility or resistance to a variety of health issues like digestive problems, allergies, autoimmune disease, intestinal conditions, and cancer.
What is the Microbiome?
The microbiome is the cumulation of bacteria, fungi and viruses that live in your bowel. Each person is born with a certain microbiome that is inherited from his or her parents, primarily from the mother during pregnancy. The human body has about 100 trillion cells, but the intestines alone carry about ten times as many microorganisms.
Throughout life, as each person grows and develops, they undergo various alterations of this microbiome. You start with a healthy gut biome, but once one becomes exposed to antibiotics or certain infections or parasites, disease occurs.
“Disease can range from inflammatory bowel disease, Clostridium dificile or celiac sprue,” says Dr. Sabine Hazan-Steinberg, an active member of the Community Memorial Hospital medical staff and an expert in the microbiome and gut health. Board certified in Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Internal Medicine, Dr. Hazan-Steinberg is the founder and CEO of Ventura Clinical Trials and the Malibu Specialty Center.
Ventura Clinical Trials has been on the forefront of drug development for the last 12 years, and through her work in clinical research, Dr. Hazan-Steinberg has used fecal transplants as a method to treat her patients under the supervision of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Her work pushed her to go back to the lab and develop a deeper understanding of the microbiome. This month, she will launch a new, nationwide laboratory called ProgenaBiome. By name, ProgenaBiome believes that to understand the gut flora, one needs to understand the familial gut biome.
