Your Microbiome Keeps Working After You Die
Your postmortem Microbiome teams up with microbes in the soil to ‘recycle’ your body
You likely know that you, me, and everyone else have whole communities made of trillions of microorganisms within us. Scientists began intensely studying our microbiome only a couple of decades ago, but they’ve already learned quite a bit.
We now know these communities are vital to our health and work together to keep us alive by creating essential vitamins, helping us digest our food, protecting us from infections, and much more. In return, they get a safe, cozy home inside us and a regular food supply. But what happens to our microbes when we die? You might assume they die when our bodies do. I sure did.
Without a functioning body to keep the microbes warm and fed, I thought they’d starve and freeze to death. Or, if they do manage to survive, they’d surely die once our bodies decay and they’re exposed to the cold and harsh environment beyond our bodies. Right? Nope. According to new research, the microbes survive our body’s decay process. In fact, they help the process along.
Microbes Shift Focus After We Die
Death understandably disrupts the symbiotic ecosystems within us by bringing everything to a…
