and thereby reverse the historical pattern of agricultural soil degradation that
undermined past civilizations (Montgomery 2007).
12.4 Medicine
Soil life has also played a key role in modern medical advances. Soil bacteria have
been our primary source of antibiotics so far (Abrahams 2002), including recent ones
effective against antibiotic-resistant microbes (Pepper et al. 2009). Other drugs have
come from the soil too. From 1983 to 1994, more than half of the new drugs for
treating cancer were isolated from soil (Oliver and Gregory 2015). Beyond these
direct medical connections between soil life and human health, there are striking
parallels in the relationships of endemic microbiomes to their hosts in the rhizosphere and the human gut (Montgomery and Biklé 2016).
Much like our view of soil microbes, our understanding of our own microbial
tenants has changed dramatically over recent decades. Expanding from the foundation of germ theory to include community ecology and symbiotic relationships, we
came to understand our bodies as ecosystems in which the communities making up
our microbiome play a far broader role in our health than the infectious pathogens
we’ve mostly focused on controlling. While effective vaccines now protect against
infamous scourges that have long plagued humanity—like polio, smallpox, and
yellow fever—the past several decades have seen an explosion of revelations
about the importance of the human microbiome in the constellation of modern
chronic maladies that increasingly afflict public health. In particular, understanding
how our diet and the metabolites our microbes make from it promote or quell
inflammation brought new insights into preventing and treating the modern epidemic
of chronic diseases (Montgomery and Biklé 2016). And while the human
microbiome responds rapidly to differences in what we ingest, the health effects of
diet are such that over half of all cancers have been considered attributable to diet
(Rao and Agarwal 1999).
Many chronic diseases—like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and breast, prostate,
and colon cancer—are generally considered rooted in or influenced by chronic
inflammation. Certain foods promote or quell inflammation through the nature of
the metabolites that gut dwelling microbes transform them into. And certain phytochemicals can boost anti-inflammatory defenses and render malignant cells more
vulnerable to immune system attack (D’Incalci et al. 2005). For example, medical
researchers commonly attribute the cancer-suppressing effect of greater fruit and
vegetable consumption to antioxidant and anti-inflammatory phytochemicals
(Murthy et al. 2009). And the amount of dietary antioxidants and other phytochemicals that crops contain is connected to farming practices. For example, a 2005
review in the European Journal of Nutrition found that agronomic practices could
double the content of individual phytochemicals in radishes and increase them in
broccoli and cauliflower tenfold (Schreiner 2005). Connections run from soil health
to human health through the ways we treat our soil and gut microbiomes.
200
D. R. Montgomery
undermined past civilizations (Montgomery 2007).
12.4 Medicine
Soil life has also played a key role in modern medical advances. Soil bacteria have
been our primary source of antibiotics so far (Abrahams 2002), including recent ones
effective against antibiotic-resistant microbes (Pepper et al. 2009). Other drugs have
come from the soil too. From 1983 to 1994, more than half of the new drugs for
treating cancer were isolated from soil (Oliver and Gregory 2015). Beyond these
direct medical connections between soil life and human health, there are striking
parallels in the relationships of endemic microbiomes to their hosts in the rhizosphere and the human gut (Montgomery and Biklé 2016).
Much like our view of soil microbes, our understanding of our own microbial
tenants has changed dramatically over recent decades. Expanding from the foundation of germ theory to include community ecology and symbiotic relationships, we
came to understand our bodies as ecosystems in which the communities making up
our microbiome play a far broader role in our health than the infectious pathogens
we’ve mostly focused on controlling. While effective vaccines now protect against
infamous scourges that have long plagued humanity—like polio, smallpox, and
yellow fever—the past several decades have seen an explosion of revelations
about the importance of the human microbiome in the constellation of modern
chronic maladies that increasingly afflict public health. In particular, understanding
how our diet and the metabolites our microbes make from it promote or quell
inflammation brought new insights into preventing and treating the modern epidemic
of chronic diseases (Montgomery and Biklé 2016). And while the human
microbiome responds rapidly to differences in what we ingest, the health effects of
diet are such that over half of all cancers have been considered attributable to diet
(Rao and Agarwal 1999).
Many chronic diseases—like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and breast, prostate,
and colon cancer—are generally considered rooted in or influenced by chronic
inflammation. Certain foods promote or quell inflammation through the nature of
the metabolites that gut dwelling microbes transform them into. And certain phytochemicals can boost anti-inflammatory defenses and render malignant cells more
vulnerable to immune system attack (D’Incalci et al. 2005). For example, medical
researchers commonly attribute the cancer-suppressing effect of greater fruit and
vegetable consumption to antioxidant and anti-inflammatory phytochemicals
(Murthy et al. 2009). And the amount of dietary antioxidants and other phytochemicals that crops contain is connected to farming practices. For example, a 2005
review in the European Journal of Nutrition found that agronomic practices could
double the content of individual phytochemicals in radishes and increase them in
broccoli and cauliflower tenfold (Schreiner 2005). Connections run from soil health
to human health through the ways we treat our soil and gut microbiomes.
200
D. R. Montgomery