A Study in Balance: How Microbiomes Are Changing the Shape of Environmental Health

Different body sites -including the mouth, hair, nose, ears, vagina, and skin -have their own unique microbiomes, communities of microbes that perform innumerable services for their human hosts. We are now seeing that our microbiomes also modify environmental exposures in ways not previously considered by environmental health scientists. 2011 Ken Orvidas via theispot.com T he agents we now know as bacteria have been known for centuries to play a key role in certain kinds of illnesses and ailments. But aside from infec tious diseases, the communities of microbes we carry in specific parts of our bodies-our microbiomes-are a relatively new topic in human health. Now this field of study has taken an evolutionary leap forward with new research showing human microbiomes may play a far greater role in environ mental health than ever imagined.