12 Myths About The Human Body Debunked

A common statistic that is often floated around is that we are more bacteria than we are human. Numbers, such as we have 10 times more bacterial cells than we have human cells, are often quoted. This number, although stemming from a scientific paper, does not really have any grounding in science.

The origins of the numbers of human cells can be traced back to a footnote of a very rough estimation made back in the middle of the 20th century. Furthermore, the figure for bacterial cells comes from an estimation extrapolated from the number of bacteria in the small intestine (the area where bacteria are in abundance, with much greater numbers than the rest of the body) to the entire size of the body.

Although you’d think that the number of cells in the human body would be something biologists have known for decades, it wasn’t until very recently that actual studies were performed to quantify this amount. The new estimates stemming from these studies, and other more accurate measures of the bacteria in and on us, puts the ratio of human to bacterial cells at around 50:50.

So rather than saying we are more bacteria than human, instead we should say we are equally human as we are bacteria.

In addition to this, bacterial cells are miniscule compared to human cells, therefore if taking this statistic by weight we are more than 99% human.

Despite only representing a small amount of our body mass, these bacteria perform vital roles that allow us to survive.