10% Human

How Your Body's Microbes Hold the Key to Health and Happiness

By: Alanna Collen

Narrated by: Cat Gould

You are just 10% human. For every one of the cells that make up the vessel that you call your body, there are nine impostor cells hitching a ride. You are not just flesh and blood, muscle and bone, brain and skin, but also bacteria and fungi. Over your lifetime, you will carry the equivalent weight of five African elephants in microbes. You are not an individual but a colony.

Until recently, we had thought our microbes hardly mattered, but science is revealing a different story, one in which microbes run our bodies and becoming a healthy human is impossible without them.

In this riveting, shocking, and beautifully written book, biologist Alanna Collen draws on the latest scientific research to show how our personal colony of microbes influences our weight, our immune system, our mental health, and even our choice of partner. She argues that so many of our modern diseases - obesity, autism, mental illness, digestive disorders, allergies, autoimmunity afflictions, and even cancer - have their root in our failure to cherish our most fundamental and enduring relationship: that with our personal colony of microbes.

©2015 Nycteris, Ltd. (P)2020 Tantor

Really only 10%?

Alana Collen is truly an adventurer as well as a profound scientist. Alana, as the audio opens is deep in a jungle in search of our roots. This audio takes the reader on an epic journey around the world and through the most advanced labs in search for our biological origins. What are we made of and how will it change us? 10% human, tells us that we are not as human as we would like to think. We are actually more virus DNA & microbial DNA than human. That is not what everyone want's to hear, but the science is accurate. Cat Gould does an excellent job in the narration, even when the science get challenging. I recommend this audio for those listeners interested in human biology and the direction it has taken us from and too.

Moira from Schitts Creek

Fascinating topic read by Moira from Schitts Creek!
For real though, the narrator was distracting to me and sounds just like Moira. I’ll read the book with my eyeballs.

Very well researched and written, with common sense approach

Enjoyed and learned so much about gut health and how we got here thank you

Microbiome and your health

The latest Sceince about the critical role that a healthy gut biome plays in our lives.

Must read for anyone that wants to be healthy

Good yes but could be improved if there was a little bit more substantive science behind the presentation. Simple like independent scientific studies to support the conclusions.

Excellent presentation of a complex topic.

This is a mind blowing work that translates arcane micro biome concepts into terms a lay person can understand. Highly recommended to anyone sealing to optimize their health or that of their loved ones.

Good read

A little meandering at times but overall a nice read. My goodness, help those microbes!

Great read. Very informative.

The author did a great job giving a holistic view of our microbiota and recognizes shortcomings in current research. Overall great read.

Must Read!

Precious nuggets of information for everyone’s health!! Very well researched and clear information on how we can change our habits and become healthier. Must read.

Veggies & fiber

Really disappointed how relatively new this book is and how in depth the science goes yet the author, through chapters 6-7 & the last chapter went on about how human has evolved to eat more veggies and fiber and less meat and fat when the science clearly shows the opposite. Also all the veggies the author mentions to eat for fiber are high in lectins which are poisonous to humans and the breakfast she says she now eats is a diabetic nightmare propagated by the American Heart Association. Overall a good book with a lot of great information, just don’t listen to the “eat more plants” dogma crap.