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- List and describe as many changes in human behaviors as you can think of that contribute to decreased exposure to microbes.
- Differences in diet
- Less diverse diverse diets decrease exposure to microbes. Dietary choices that exclude food products from animals or plants narrow the microbiome even further.
- Stricter hygienic practices
- Constantly cleaning decreases exposure to microbes significantly
- Heavy use of things such as hand sanitizers, bleach, detergents all kill off microbes and decrease exposure
- Children born via C-section
- Children born via C-section face less exposure to microbes compared to vaginal birth where they are exposed to the mother’s vaginal microbes
- Mode of feeding
- Feeding children via breastfeeding is an important factor in the colonization of the microbial community in infants as human milk contains bacteria important for establishing a “healthy” and diverse microbiome
- Formula-fed infants are experienced to less microbes as they lack the bacteria found in human breast milk
- Not allowing children to play outside and be exposed to the bacteria that they wouldn’t be exposed to in the house alone.
- Antibiotic treatment decreases exposure to microbes as it kills off high abundances of bacteria
