Dive into the Microbiome

OMG the Microbiome!
This, what some are calling the largest organ in our bodies, is one the the basic keys to health. Below, I have curated a variety of links. Start with the brief overview, then dive in as deep as you’d like...
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Brief Elementary Overview
From Gut Microbiota for Health
http://www.gutmicrobiotaforhealth.com/en/about-gut-microbiota-info/
Gut Microbiota for Health has been created by the Gut Microbiota and Health Section of the European Society for Neurogastroenterology & Motility (ESNM), member of United European Gastroenterology (UEG)

An Edu-tainment Video
From The Atlantic
Should You Map Your Microbiome? (5 minutes)
http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/482277/me-myself-and-my-microbiome/
In this episode of If Our Bodies Could Talk, senior editor James Hamblin, MD visits uBiome, a company attempting to provide direct-to-consumer information about what everyone’s microbes might mean for their health.

a more indepth video
The Microbes Within Us (46 minutes)
Ed Yong, author of I Contain Multitudes
Recorded at The Royal Institute, 2016
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UOymDhGxS9Q
Great overview of the best selling book I Contain Multitudes

3 Interesting links to Original Research
Diet rapidly and reproducibly alters the human gut microbiome
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v505/n7484/abs/nature12820.html


Microbes, Immunity, and Behavior: Psychoneuroimmunology Meets the Microbiome
http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v42/n1/abs/npp2016103a.html

General info can be found at the NIH Human Microbiome Project website
http://www.hmpdacc.org


A Couple of Very Well-Written Books
I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong
From the back cover: A groundbreaking, marvelously informative “microbe’s-eye view” of the world that reveals a radically reconceived picture of life on earth….


The Microbiome Solution: A Radical New Way to Heal Your Body from the Inside Out by Dr. Robynne Chutkan M.D.
“Live Dirty, Eat Clean—because every serious disease or chronic ailment begins in our gut. The author of Gutbliss and one of today’s preeminent gastroenterologists distills the latest research on the microbiome into a practical program for boosting overall health.”

A MOOC-type class
Coursera: Gut Check: Exploring Your Microbiome
University of Colorado, Boulder
https://www.coursera.org/learn/microbiome

An Experiential or Immersion Experience
Add your own microbiome to the database at The American Gut Project
“The American Gut is one of the largest crowd-sourced, citizen science projects in the country. We discover new information daily to shed light on the the connections between the human microbiome and health.”
http://americangut.org

Bonus:
Image: A New View of the Tree of Life
By Laura Hug and Jill
https://news.utexas.edu/sites/news.utexas.edu/files/tree-of-life.jpg
Explanatory article of image
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/12/science/scientists-unveil-new-tree-of-life.html