Extraordinary Health Magazine Extraordinary Health Vol 27 | Page 31

Dr. David Perlmutter signs copies of Extraordianary Health magazine at the Natural Products Expo West 2016 in Anaheim, CA .

CROBIOME
This has prompted Dr. Maria Dominguez-Bello, associate professor
of medicine at the New York University School of Medicine, to study
how Cesarean section-born children could obtain bacteria that
they would have gotten if they would have passed through the
birth canal. She has created a program for actually harvesting the
birth canal bacteria and using it to inoculate the newborn, with
her study describing this technique recently appearing in the
journal Nature Medicine.
It is still too early to determine how effective this technique will
be, or if it will be associated with decreased risk of illness, but
it is exciting to see how researchers are focused on the origins
of the human microbiome and leveraging this information to
create therapeutic programs.
To be sure, Dr. Dominguez-Bello’s research goes well beyond
looking at how method of birth affects the developing microbiome.
Several years ago, she and her group of colleagues visited the
Yanomami tribe living in the Amazonian forest at the border
of Venezuela and Brazil. The Yanomami are
hunter-gatherers who have lived in this region
for more than 11,000 years.
The purpose of her visit was to collect fecal
samples from 12 members of the tribe that

were then subjected to DNA analysis. The findings of her research
were profound. She noted that the amount of microbial diversity,
meaning the number of different types of organisms found within
the guts of this primitive tribe, was approximately 50 percent
greater than what is typically seen in the average American gut
microbiome. We now fully understand that there are significant
health advantages to having high levels of microbial diversity
living within the gut. Diversity of the gut microbes is recognized
as an important attribute, paving the way for health. Diversity imparts
resilience, allowing the person to be more able to cope with various
environmental stresses. Further, it is now clear that the number-one
factor influencing this diversity is diet.
Certainly, Dr. Dominguez-Bello is not the first researcher to call
our attention to the