Your Skin Microbiome Loves you. Don't Kill it!

 

Good news for us, holobionts! Nature has made available for free an entire issue dedicated to the microbiome of the human skin. Plenty of interesting data about all the members of the human holobiont: the mammal and the bacteria together. 

 

There are over 1000 species of bacteria for every single mammal, and these bacteria are doing a lot of good things for the whole biont, including protecting us from external infections. One thing they say is:

"researchers have uncovered evidence of extensive communication between bacteria, skin cells and immune cells. These interactions help to reinforce and repair the barrier formed by the skin, bolster the body’s defences against infection and tamp down excess inflammation."

So, wash your hands only when it is really necessary and don't use aggressive chemicals: otherwise you'll weaken your resistance to bad microbes. Your skin microbiome loves you, don't kill it!

 

Here is the link to the issue and, as always, onward, fellow holobionts!

What makes us holobionts: Touching each other as a gift of love.

Image from Nella Turkki's dance project, "I, Holobiont"

 

Touching each other is part of what makes us fellow holobionts, part of the greater holobiont that we call the Ecosphere or, sometimes "Gaia." In his book, "Thank God for Evolution," Michael Dowd doesn't mention the term "holobiont," but he gives us a poignant description of what it means touching each other, starting at page 231

The Furry Li'l Mammal in each of us craves touch and tenderness. Without touch, a baby dies, the human heart aches, the soul withers. Touch is not only a biological need; it is a profoundly elegant and essential form of communication. . . . For millions of years our mammalian ancestors were reassured by parents or comrades not through words but through touch. For 99.9 percent of our mammalian journey, there were no words. The need for touch begins for mammals at birth and continues until we die. . . . There is healing in touch, too. Because tender touch communicates love and care, it triggers metabolic and chemical changes in the body that assist healing. Touching also stimulates the production of endorphines -- natural body hormones that control pain and embrace our sense of well-being.

And, let me add, touching each other means exchanging our skin microbiota: it means exchanging the skills that the small creatures that populate our skin use to protect us from harmful creatures and chemicals. Touching each other is a reciprocal gift, it is a gift of love.

Onward, fellow holobionts!  

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Below, you see the front cover of Michael Dowd's beautiful book "Thank God for evolution" (2008). But if you want to know why exactly ancient Christians used a fish as a symbol of their faith, you have to read the book by myself and Ilaria Perissi "The Empty Sea" (in Italian), or wait for the English version to be published by Springer (should be soon)