10% Human : How Your Body's Microbes Hold the Key to Health and Happiness

Obesity, autism, mental health problems, IBS, allergies, auto-immunity, cancer. Does the answer to the modern epidemic of `Western' diseases lie in our gut?You are 10% human. For every one of your cells, there are nine impostors hitching a ride. You are not just flesh and bone, but also bacteria and fungi. And you are more `them' than you are `you'.Your gut alone hosts 100 trillion of them and until recently we thought that our microbes didn't matter. This is all set to change as the latest scientific research tells a very different story, one where microbes run our bodies and becoming healthy is impossible without them.In this ground-breaking book, biologist Alanna Collen reveals how our personal colony of microbes influence our weight, immune system, mental health and even our choice of partner. This is a new way of understanding modern diseases - obesity, autism, mental health problems, gut disorders, allergies, auto-immunity and even cancer - as she argues they have their root in o