Our microbes are so important in defining how our immune system evolves and

how all of the things that we come into contact with in our environment, so what we eat, the pollutants that we experience,

the medicines that we take, influence our health and influence the function of our genome.

So because they are sort of at the core of everything if you don't have a good

understanding of what they're doing it's very difficult to really meaningfully prevent

disease.

Well James Kinros is a consultant surgeon specializing in the gut microbiome.

He feels that we urgently need to rethink our relationship with our microbes.

I'm Liz Earl and welcome to the Liz Well-being show.

This is the podcast that helps us all have a better second half.

And my mission is to find ways for all of us to thrive in later life by investing in our health and our well-being today.

Now, I think you probably know by now, certain if you're a regular listener, that I love talking about the gut.

I wrote one of the very first consumer guides to the gut, the good gut guide, researching

that, gosh, nearly 10 years ago now, and it's been so fascinating to see this whole area of medicine just

explode and how the gut is now linked to pretty much every single thing in the

body. Well James Kinross is somewhat of a kindred spirit. He's a senior lecturer in colorectal surgery and consultant

surgeon at Imperial College London. He also leads a research team defining how the microbiome causes cancer and other chronic diseases

of the gut.

Now in his book, Dark Matter, the new science of the microbiome, James explains the microbiome's enormous potential for helping us live well,

but also that our modern lifestyles are putting us in grave danger. Are we irrevocably destroying ourselves from the inside through our diets, the

war on bugs and the industrial world? And if so, what can we start doing now to work with our microbes to live better, healthier lives? James, it's such a pleasure to get to chat with you. As I mentioned in the intro, I love the gut.

And I perhaps use the term you know gut microbiome in

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