The Human Myth: Why We Can't Understand Human Health Without Our Microbial Partners

For most of my life, I believed what nearly all of us were taught in biology class.

The human body was made up of organs, tissues, cells, and our own DNA. If you wanted to understand health or disease, you studied the human genome and the organs that make up the body.

The trillions of microbes living in and on us? They were largely treated as bystanders—or worse, potential threats.

Over the last decade, my work with the microbiome has completely changed how I think about what it means to be human.

I've come to believe that one of the biggest myths in modern biology is that we are human because of our human cells alone. The truth is far more remarkable.

We Are More Than Our Human Genome

At the end of May, I had the opportunity to speak at Dave Asprey's Beyond Conference. While preparing my presentation on probiotics, I realized there was an even bigger message I wanted to share.

Human biology cannot be understood by looking only at human cells.

The human genome contains roughly 20,000 protein-coding genes. That sounds impressive until you compare it to the collective genomes of the microbes that make up our microbiome.

Together, these microbes contribute millions of genes—providing an estimated 100 to 300 times more functional capabilities than our own genome.

Those numbers are astonishing, but they tell only part of the story.

Many of those microbial genes perform biochemical tasks that human cells simply cannot accomplish on their own.

In many ways, we've been trying to understand human biology while overlooking one of its most important contributors.

Not an Organ—Something Even More Fundamental

People often ask whether the microbiome should be considered another organ.

I actually think that comparison falls short.

An organ is made entirely of human tissue and performs a defined set of functions.

The microbiome is different.

It is a living ecosystem made up of thousands of species that have co-evolved alongside us for millions of years. It adapts, changes, communicates, and responds to everything from the food we eat to the medications we take.

Rather than being another organ, the microbiome is an essential biological partner.

Without it, many of the processes we associate with being healthy simply don't happen.

Our Microbial Partners Do the Work We Cannot

Our microbial partners perform an extraordinary range of jobs every single day.

They help digest foods we could never break down ourselves.

They manufacture vitamins and essential nutrients.

They transform compounds found in plants into molecules our bodies can actually use.

They produce metabolites that influence inflammation, metabolism, and immune function.

They help educate and regulate our immune system from infancy through adulthood.

They communicate with our nervous system through what we now call the gut-brain axis.

They help protect us from invading organisms by competing for space and resources.

Many of these functions are so fundamental that we rarely stop to consider where they come from.

We tend to assume our bodies are doing all the work.

In reality, much of our biology is the result of a partnership.

What Happens When the Partnership Breaks Down?

This partnership evolved over millions of years.

But modern life has changed it dramatically.

Highly processed diets, repeated antibiotic use, environmental chemicals, chronic stress, poor sleep, and reduced exposure to diverse microbes have all altered the communities living within us.

When we lose microbial diversity, we don't simply lose bacteria.

We lose functions.

We lose the ability to produce important metabolites.

We lose biochemical pathways that have supported human health throughout our evolutionary history.

That shift can affect much more than digestion.

Research increasingly links changes in the microbiome to immune health, metabolic function, cognitive health, mood, cardiovascular disease, healthy aging, and many other aspects of human physiology.

The question is no longer whether microbes matter.

The question is which microbial functions have been lost—and how we can restore them.

A New Frontier in Medicine

For much of the last century, medicine understandably focused on human genetics.

That work transformed healthcare and continues to do so.

But it also left a major part of the biological picture largely unexplored.

I believe the next great advance in medicine won't come simply from identifying which bacteria are present in someone's gut.

It will come from understanding what those microbes are capable of doing.

Which biochemical functions are they performing?

Which functions have disappeared?

How do those changes affect health?

And perhaps most importantly, can we restore those lost capabilities?

These are the questions that excite me every day.

Why This Matters at BiotiQuest

At BiotiQuest, this perspective shapes everything we do.

We don't think of bacteria as passive passengers living in the digestive tract.

We think of them as living partners with extraordinary biochemical capabilities refined over billions of years of evolution.

Our goal isn't simply to add more bacteria.

Our goal is to identify strains that work together to restore important microbial functions that modern life has diminished.

Every formulation begins with the same question:

What function are we trying to restore?

Because ultimately, that's what matters most.

Rethinking What It Means to Be Human

The more I learn about the microbiome, the more I realize that being human has never been a solo endeavor.

Our health has always depended on an invisible partnership with trillions of microbial companions.

They are not separate from us.

They are part of the biological system that allows us to thrive.

As science continues to uncover the remarkable work these microbes perform, I believe we'll fundamentally change the way we think about health, disease, and medicine itself.

Over the coming months, I'll be sharing more about the incredible functions our microbial partners perform, how modern life has altered them, and what the latest research is teaching us about restoring these essential capabilities.

The partnership has always been there.

We're only beginning to understand just how important it truly is.