(307) Update on C. Diff Management and the Role of Microbiome in Health and Disease

The microbiome is an exciting and quickly changing field in understanding our microbial selves and how the microbes that live in and with us have major effects in determining who we are as humans and how we respond to illness and maintain health. They play a major role from the day we are born in our future lives as they have influence on the development of traits from obesity, to allergy, to auto-immune illness and perhaps even how we choose our eventual mates! In addition, the maintenance of a healthy microbiome can influence our development and response to illness including predisposing us to, or protecting us from rapidly growing iatrogenic infections such as C. Diff. Our microbiome and probiotics can prevent C. Diff and treat its symptoms and severity. In the future there is a rapidly growing science to show that we can modulate and utilize microbiome-based treatments to prevent disease, treat illnesses from infections to depression, and improve our lives in many ways we are only beginning to understand! Finally, we will discuss why it may be time for all of us to take a sample of our stool while we are healthy and keep it in out freezer to help us recover from future illnesses! The future is exciting as we examine the many ways our bacteria and microbiome can be one of our best partners in maintaining health and preventing illness.