10 Ways to Improve your Home Microbiome
As we hauled in our Christmas tree this week, I looked around my home. It was changed by the burst of green, the smell of fresh pine and the bits and pieces of tree scattered on the floor. The tree reminded me that this place I live in and call my home is really a living, breathing ecosystem of plants, animals, too many spiders and microbes. My home isn’t just mine, just like my body is not just composed of just human cells (way more bacteria!), it is a world where the macroscopic appear to dominate, but really, it’s the microscopic who rule the day.
My microbial roommates are different than yours. Both the ones in my body and the ones in my home. Neither of us are ever truly home alone. Each room in our houses and each tiny niche is occupied by different microbial populations. Us humans and our habits directly impact the environments in our homes, which are also called megabiomes. In a 2018 Science study, “Houseplants as Home Health Monitors,” the authors wrote:
Analogous to the gut microbiome, in which the gastrointestinal environment shapes the ecology of the microbial community therein, the built environment plays an important role in shaping the evolution and ecology of the home interior microbiome.
This home interior microbiome, i.e. the next HGTV mega-hit, is shaped by us, the human occupants, our animals, the climate, ventilation, pesticide and antibiotic use. We shape the environment, and our home responds and then shapes our health. Since I’m writing a book about growing babies, I can’t help but think of our homes as a large womb and the outside world as our mother. When our homes are sick, like when we have mold infestations, our health suffers, but when we pay attention and take care of our home microbiome, we tend to be healthier.
One way the authors of the paper proposed to improve our home microbiome is through the use of houseplants engineered to report issues with the ecological health of our living quarters. This truly cool idea would adapt phytosensor technology (sensitive to VOCs, mold, viruses, odors) to indoor plants and these plants would warn us of harmful microbes through color changes of their foliage.
This technology doesn’t exist yet. But there are other ways to improve the health of our home microbiome, and regular houseplants, loved by us plant-obsessed millennials, are still a good way to keep your living environment healthy.
10 ways to improve your home microbiome
Grow more houseplants and flowers
Houseplants are a source of microbial biodiversity and potentially beneficial microorganisms. Plus, they have positive psychological effects—they improve creative performance and reduce stress—and they markedly improve indoor air quality through their air-filtering plant leaves and the degrading effects of the microbes in their roots.
Open your windows
Opening your windows, instead of using air conditioning and throughout the cold months, improves ventilation and brings fresh air inside. Furnishings treated with flame retardants, artificially fragranced household products like air “fresheners” and building materials continuously release pollutants into the air. Other appliances, like space heaters, stoves and furnaces, release pollutants intermittently. Open windows and doors can diffuse these pollutants, which can build up high concentrations in our homes. Plus, open-air environments are home to more diverse airborne bacteria and diversity is a key factor in healthy microbial environments.
Ditch artificial fragrance
Switch to unscented cleaning and personal care products (I make our cleaning products: vinegar + water + essential oils), please, for the sake of my headaches, ditch those artificially scented plugins and reed diffusors in oil that fill your house with that cloying, synthetic smell of chemicalized perfume. Burn beeswax candles, which naturally improve indoor air quality and release negative ions into the air.
Take your shoes off
This is a nice ritual and shows respect for your home and it also reduces the number of herbicides and pesticides that get tracked inside. Also, play barefoot outside in safe environments and interact with beneficial soil bacteria.
Avoid antibacterial products
Antibacterial soaps, which I still see in bathrooms all over the place, aren’t more effective than soap and water and can cause harm. They create antibiotic-resistant bacteria and also act as endocrine disruptors. Increased exposure to antibacterial products, which usually contain triclosan, increases the risk of developing allergies since reduced bacterial diversity impacts the development and functioning of our immune system, which evolved in bacteria-rich world. Antibacterial products are also terrible for the environment. They harm plants and animals and biomagnify in animal tissues as you move up the food chain.
Clean and dry home
Keeping your house clean and dry helps reduce dust mites, molds, animal dander and pollens. If you live in an area with high air pollution, consider investing in a HEPA air filter to remove particulates.
Bring in the good guys
Spend more time in nature and around healthy people. Consider using products that reintroduce healthy soil bacteria into your home—AKA probiotics for your house—like Homebiotic spray.
Get a pet?!
Having animal roommates, especially dogs, is associated with a reduced risk of allergies and asthma in children. Their dirty, stinky ways are a real boon to our microbial health.
Buy better clothes and grub
If possible, buy clothes and food raised using regenerative and organic farming practices. See my post on soil health.
Go outside more!
Look, we apparently spend more than 90% of our lives in built indoor environments. We evolved to interact and move in our environment. We can blend our indoor and outdoor spaces, spend more time outside, go camping, bring natural materials into our homes and simplify and reduce the products we buy.
References
Berg, Gabriele, Mahnerr, Alexander, and Moissl-Eichinger, Christine. “Beneficial Effects of Plant-Associated Microbes in Indoor Microbiomes and Human Health?” Frontiers in Microbiology 5, no. 15 (2014). doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2014.00015
Stewart, C. Neal, Abudayyeh, Rana K., and Stewart, Susan G. “Houseplants as Home Health Monitors,” Science 361, no. 6399 (2018): 229-230. DOI: 10.1126/science.aau2560
Stromberg, Joseph. “Five Reasons Why You Should Probably Stop Using Antibacterial Soap,” Smithsonian (January 3, 2014). https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/five-reasons-why-you-should-probably-stop-using-antibacterial-soap-180948078/
Well, Katie. “How the Home Microbiome Impacts Health (&How to Improve It),” Wellness Mama (2018). https://wellnessmama.com/349305/home-microbiome/