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	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		Studying the health benefits of microbes in the gut
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:02
	Publish Date:		2016-01-11 00:00:00
	Description:		It used to be thought that all germs and microbes in the gut were bad for us. Trying to eliminate such microbes with disinfectants and antibiotics over the years led to the ‘hygiene hypothesis’, which states that a lack of early childhood exposure to germs, microorganisms and even dirt, can suppress the natural development of the immune system. "There does seem to be a consistent benefit of being exposed to a more diverse microbial community, regardless of the source of that diversity." That’s Rob Knight of the University of California, San Diego. He’s one of the world’s leading experts in microbiome research. "Many different studies linking microbes to health have found that if you have a low diversity microbial community in your gut, you’re more at risk for a range of different diseases. That doesn’t necessarily mean that having a high diversity community is good, but it does point to an association between microbial diversity. And so the goal of a lot of studies going forward is to figure out, if you do something that increases the diversity of microbes, will that have a health benefit?"
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