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- There are a host of environmental factors that trigger autoimmune disorders, including chemical toxicants, heavy metals, viruses, bacteria, emotional stress, and drugs.
- There are a large number of bacteria in the oral cavity, approximately 1012, which include the tongue, teeth, and periodontal tissues. In contrast, the stomach has only 103-104 bacteria and there are 108-109 in the terminal ileum. The greatest number of bacteria is in the large intestine. The majority of these bacteria, approximately 70%, cannot be cultivated by current laboratory microbiological methods [47]. The gut, with a surface area of approximately 200 square meters, is where we come into greatest contact with the outside world and it follows that the gut also has the largest collection of immune cells, consisting of 70% of all lymphoid tissues in the body [48, 49]. It serves to prevent the outgrowth of pathogenic organisms. Recent studies have discussed the human microbiome and its composition in the healthy gut [50, 51]. We carry approximately 1 × 10(13) microorganisms in our gut, more than 10 times the total number of cells in our bodies [52]. The two predominant bacterial phylotypes are Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes [53]. Interestingly, the number of genes of our intestinal microbiota is 150 times greater than the number of genes in the human genome (Figure 2) [54]. Diet can substantially effect the microbiota. For example, in a diet that is high in fat and protein, Bacteroides spp. enterotype predominate, whereas in a diet that is high in carbohydrates, Prevotella spp. enterotypes predominate
