Gutsy Irish Cricket Players Remarkably Transformed by Their Travels

Background:

International travel is part of modern life, your life. Whether that is visiting family in Europe, business trips to Asia, or a dream vacation to the tropics, these all have something in common. The microbes and germs in these places are different and not what your body is used to at home. 

Your body is covered, inside and out, with little microbes that influence your health both mentally and physically (Beaumont et al. 2018. Hathaway et al. 2021). These symbionts (organisms that coexist and interact closely with another organism) are not the same for every person, especially at a global scale. Recent advancements in global sampling of microorganisms has shown that novel and unknown microbes are not only common in the cities of the world but often differ based on the climate, country, and various other environmental factors. Consequently, when a person travels to a new part of the globe, they are exposed to microbes that their bodies may never have seen before and contact with microbes like these can lead to some uncomfortable conditions (Danko et al. 2021).  

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The Connection Between Our Personalities and Our Gut Microbes

Image provided by vrx/Shuttestock via Shape.

Background

Personality, according to the American Psychological Association, refers to “individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving’. In short, it’s what makes us us, what makes me different from you. It shapes how we process and understand our individual lives and all the nuances they bring, and in turn those experiences also shape our personality.

Though it may have seemed obvious, there have been recent findings that personality could play a larger role than we may have thought in determining an individual’s health. For example, Youyou et al found computer-based personality judgements could predict an individual’s physical health or even if they’re more prone to substance use (Youyou et al 2015). Continue reading “The Connection Between Our Personalities and Our Gut Microbes”