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Asked by joshuafo to Claire, Elizabeth, Manolis, Mark, Zach on 7 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by thaileanec.
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Zach Dixon answered on 7 Mar 2014:
There are a lot of germs on your body, about 1 trillion! But you don’t have to be worried, almost all of them are good germs, that help us stay healthy. We have a lot to thank them for, and they thank us for giving them a home!
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Mark Wallace answered on 8 Mar 2014:
Zach’s right, there are more bacteria in your body than your own cells! So you might like to think that actually you’re just a way to help a load of bacteria walk around! Bonkers!
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Elizabeth Ratcliffe answered on 10 Mar 2014:
Hi joshuafo, great question,
Ah beautiful bacteria! it’s really difficult to count the number of cells in your body and the number of bacteria on it / in it. Scientists have tried to estimate it based on the weight or volume of cells versus the average body weight or volume of the human body. Some estimates say that our bodies are made up of 10 trillion cells with 100 trillion bacteria! Generally for every cell of yours it is thought that there are 10 bacterial ones…this is called your microbiome and it’s really helpful as it helps keep us healthy and helps us digest food. It’s amazing how all of our cells interact with each other then on top of that we are interacting with loads of bacteria for all our benefit
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