The Hippo and the Human

Have you ever stared at one of those glossy photographs in National Geographic of the small birds riding on the head and back of a massive hippo partially submerged in some far away African pond and thought to your self, “that’s got to be annoying.” Why doesn’t it shake them off? Why not submerge? Maybe, after dunking over and over only to have the birds return, has the hippo has simply given in to his avian hitchhikers, annoying as they seem?

The African jacana bird is said to spend an average of five hours each day riding on the back of wading hippos, pecking at and ingesting flies, parasites, ticks, detritus and dead skin. Perched upon this floating buffet, the birds also feed upon the many small fish that can gather around the submerged hippo. Seems the fish feed on the same parasites, ticks, dead skin, and algae as do the birds. You would think the never ending pecking and nibbling would finally get to the hippo, and it does, often resulting in thrashing about in the water and fights with nearby hippo neighbors. But for much of the time, the hippo goes about daily water activities with pecking birds and nibbling fish in constant tow and just puts up with their intrusions. Stay with me, there is a point.

Researchers have observed that the hippo-bird-fish relationship may in fact be a symbiotic one, in that everyone benefits at some level, even the host. The hippo gets the ticks, parasites, dead skin, and flies efficiently removed on a dependable schedule, and the birds and fish benefit through nutrients derived from the regular cleansing. Interestingly, different species of fish have been observed targeting specific body parts of the hippo. Members of the carp family are known to be the main cleaner, mowing along the large surface of the hippos hide, removing everything indiscriminately. Species of cichlids prefer cleaning duties in the tail area, while other species clean between the many cracks in the soles of the hippo’s feet. While far from a passive recipient of these cleaning services, hippos have been observed splaying their toes and spreading their legs, affording easier access for the attendant fish. Being opportunists, hippos are known to visit places around the pond where large groups of fish are known to congregate, in effect pulling into “full service” cleaning stations. Life is good.

The health and nutritional dance played out on ponds throughout Africa between the hippo, its avian passengers, and the visiting nibbling fish has been going on for as long as hippos have been around — which is a long time. But is it necessary? Could the hippos do without the birds pecking them on the head throughout the day? Sure. But is the hippo healthier and better off with the parasites and ticks removed? Most likely, yes. The important point to take away from the pond hippo is the adaptability of the species involved — each is enhancing its “lifestyle” through its relationship to the other. Such relationships in nature are often referred to as “commensal” – the Latin roots of which mean “at table together.”

The symbiotic and beneficial arrangements between the hippo and his pond neighbors are not unique in nature — quite the opposite in fact. All around us, from the crustaceous barnacles and white lice that attach themselves to the underside of gray whales, to the spiders in our houses, powerful adaptive forces are forever driving these often necessary and sometimes odd relationships in nature. Many of these host-passenger relationships — though not all of them — can provide profound benefits to one or more of the participants, resulting in improved health/lifestyle and thus, better survivability. The hippo-bird-fish relationship may have already become so intertwined that subtle changes in this relationship may have negative health effects upon one or all partners. For example, if the hippo, for whatever reason, decides to spend more time on the shore and out of the water in the future, will that affect the species of fish that have come to depend on the submerged bounty to meet their nutrient needs? How will the hippo’s newfound terrestrial life affect the fishing success of the birds that enjoyed the ready access to fish as it sat perched on its multifunctional buffet-hunting stand? Will the parasites and ticks, not being removed on a regular schedule by the birds and fish, have a negative affect on the health of the newly land-based hippo, as they accumulate in number? It’s hard to know but easy to guess.

But what we can say with some certainty, is that if the symbiotic relationship between these pond dwellers has gone on sufficiently long enough to have physiologically conditioned the health and nutrient requirements of one of the participants, then we can expect some negative impact to its health, well-being and ultimately its survivability if the action of one or more participant is removed or goes awol. Take our nibbling fish for example. Lets say a particular species, one that has evolved on a diet over eons that has always included significant nutrients garnered from specific algae growing on the under bellies of the pond hippo, is suddenly denied that food item with its specific nutrient profile that the fish has physiologically and metabolically become accustomed to. In other words, it has become a necessary part of the fish’s daily nutrient requirements and its overall health. Can the fish just do without and go about searching for replacement nutrients throughout the pond to make up the difference? Maybe. But if the nutrient profile of the hippo-algae contributed a significant portion of that particular species of fish’s diet, and the nutrient profile of that particular algae is not mimicked well in other resources in the pond available to the fish, then the fish has got a major problem on his hands/gills. Simply replacing hippo-algae with some run-of-the-pond low-grade algae might not do the trick. This would be like putting diesel in a car that runs on unleaded fuel — it stops.

Throughout our evolutionary march to mammalian dominance, humans have maintained a similar symbiotic relationship with an unlikely cast of characters. Though many people would be hard pressed to name any one of them, they are with us every minute of every day and have been from the moment we entered this world.

It was in our early knuckle-walking days that we nurtured our symbiotic relationship with some evolutionary hitchhikers that would evolve and survive with us to this day, becoming so intertwined with our health and well-being that any affect on them, has an affect on us. You see, humans are host to a vast and complex community of microorganisms that have carved an ecological niche inside our bodies, on our skin, in our hair, under our nails, in our mouths, in our noses and, most relevantly, occupying every length of our gastrointestinal system (gut). At this very moment — as you read this post — there are literally trillions of these gut microbes feeding on portions of your most recent meals. Like other living organisms, they live, multiply, and die based on access to quantities of sufficient quality food items, with variety being a plus. Well over 1,000 species of bacteria are present in a healthy human adult, with the vast majority living in the colon. In the stomach, acid keeps the bacteria at a relatively puny thousands of inhabitants. The small intestine has a quick transport time through its several metres in length, with the quick wash-through allowing “only” millions of bacteria to persist. At 1.5 m (5 ft) in length, the adult human colon contains at any given time about 1/4 kg (little over half a pound) of bacteria reaching 100,000,000,000,000 in total. This represents about 90-95% of all the cells in our body. Taken literally then, we are 20 times more microbe than mammalian. The typical adult has more bacteria in their colon than has ever been people living on Earth and ever will live on this planet. We also excrete our own weight in fecal bacteria each year — try measuring it if you don’t believe us! If we live to about 75 years or higher then we should have excreted the equivalent weight of 12 elephants in feces (African or Indian who knows?) and that’s a lot of hippos too. So who says humans aren’t full of s***?

The bacteria maintain their numbers and diversity in our colons based on the food they receive (i.e. mainly the food we, as the host, give them). This arrives in the colon as a number of substances, but in general, as dietary residues that escape digestion and absorption further up the line in the stomach and small intestine. The vast majority of these “non-digested” foods are known as dietary fiber. Yes, fiber is not food for us, but food for the bacteria.

Though a great number of species are present at any given time, over 99% of the billions of bacteria in our colon are represented by just a few genera —  a group or family of bacteria that are related and called one group name e.g. for that well known bacterium E. coli, E. stands for Escherichia and is the genus name whereas coli is the species within that genus. We know that the vast majority of the bacteria found in the human gut are harmless, many are benign, and some are actually quite beneficial. Disease causing bacteria (pathogens) always are present in very small numbers, but they hog the press, giving bacteria their, vastly undeserved, negative public image. Their development is suppressed by the joined activity of the other intestinal bacteria, helped by the natural resistance of the host. It is only when the latter is weak or severely challenged that harmful bacteria can develop and can cause disease. If you shop in the local grocery store, you have no doubt become familiar with two groups (genera) of these good guys: Bifidobacterium or ‘bifidobacteria’ and Lactobacillus or lactobacilli. If you eat yogurt (e.g. live-, bio-, bifidus, active, etc.), you may immediately recognize these names, as they have become very popular additives in a range of dairy products, as probiotics.

Most folks are taken aback when learning that gut microbes — or bacteria — have invaded our bodies in such large numbers and even more surprised when they find out that many of these bacteria play an important role in our health. How can this be? As youngsters we can remember our mothers saying “don’t touch that, you’ll get germs. Put it down.” Seems some things are timeless. The message was simple: bacteria are bad and they will make you sick. Get rid of them. This is nonsense however. Our lives would be impossible, or decidedly uncomfortable, without them.

At NakedPizza we have developed an Ancestral Blend^TM of flours to deliver the diversity of “non-digested” foods our health-giving bacteria need in each and every slice of our pizza. Recognizing that humans are superorganisms made up of one human genome and trillions of bacterial ones is the first step to realizing optimal health and well-being. Continuing to ignore this basic biological fact will not result in any significant improvement in population health. Think friendos. livNAKED.