An evolutionary biologist and science writer explores the widely-ignored role our gut microbes play in our health and well-being.

You are just 10% human. For every one of the cells that make up the vessel that you call your body, there are nine impostor cells hitching a ride. You are not just flesh and blood, muscle and bone, brain and skin, but also bacteria and fungi. Over your lifetime, you will carry the equivalent weight of five African elephants in microbes. You are not an individual but a colony.

Until recently, we had thought our microbes hardly mattered, but science is revealing a different story, one in which microbes run our bodies; remaining a healthy human is impossible without them.

In this riveting, shocking, and beautifully written book, biologist Alanna Collen draws on the latest scientific research to show how our personal colony of microbes influences our weight, immune system, mental health, and even our choice of partner. She argues that so many of our modern diseases -- obesity, autism, mental illness, digestive disorders, allergies, autoimmune afflictions, and even cancer -- have their root in our failure to cherish our most fundamental and enduring relationship: that with our individual colony of microbes.

The good news is that unlike our human cells, we can change our microbes for the better. Life -- and your body -- will never seem the same again.

• We started tracking this book on June 30, 2015.
• This book was $13.99 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 100 times in the past 3,457 days.
• The current price of this book is $2.99 last checked 2 hours ago.
• This book is at its lowest price in the past 90 days.
• This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past year is $1.99.
• The lowest price to date was $1.99 last reached on July 1, 2024.
• This book has been $1.99 5 times since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was $14.99 last reached on June 10, 2023.
• This book has been $14.99 2 times since we started tracking it.

• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 352 Pages
• File Size: 8,067 KB