10,000 Germ Species Currently Coat Your Entire Body

10,000 different germ species are presently covering your entire body. In fact, there are roughly 10 bacterial cells for every single human cell you possess. If the very thought of having germs on your body forces you to wash your hands obsessively, you might want to wash other parts of your body, as well. They’re all over the place, including your ears, your nose, your stomach — anywhere they can set up shop, they’re going to do so. With gusto.

However, don’t start peeling your skin off in sheets just yet. According to the Times Reporter, most of these germs are there to keep you healthy, working diligently with other microbes in the peculiar universe that is your body to keep nasty things from happening to you. In fact, were you to gather up all of these germs and what-not into one enormous pile, they’d actually weigh several pounds. Okay, even I’m a little unnerved by that revelation.

Scientists are currently looking into why, exactly, bad microbes hurt some people but not others. “This is a whole new way of looking at human biology and human disease, and it’s awe-inspiring,” lead researcher Dr. Phillip Tarr of Washington University at St. Louis explained. “These bacteria are not passengers. They are metabolically active. As a community, we now have to reckon with them like we have to reckon with the ecosystem in a forest or a body of water.”

In order to figure everything out, 200 scientists from 80 research institutions worked together for five years to uncover where, precisely, all of these germs live on the human body and what role they serve in keeping us happy, healthy, and alive. In order to do so, they collected DNA samples from hundreds of volunteers in an effort to unravel the mystery behind the countless microbes that call your body home.

Feel free to wash your hands now. I think I may do that same.

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