15 Unexpected, Amazing Facts about Viruses You Probably Didn’t Know

by Anita Teresa Boeninger & Val Elefante

1. There are an estimated 380 trillion viruses inside the average human body. Yes. Read that again. There are around 380 trillion viruses in (and on) your body. You can learn more about “the human virome” here.
2. There are an estimated 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (10 quintillion) viruses on earth, making them the most abundant and widespread biological entities on the planet.
3. Alone, viruses are simply packets of either DNA or RNA, surrounded by a protein shell and sometimes fatty materials called lipids. Only once a virus comes into contact with a host cell can it “infect” it and begin to reproduce — but most of the time, this isn’t anything to worry about. More about the structure and function of a virus here.
4. Viral DNA comprises 11% of our genes…which means that in a sense, we’re partly made of viruses.
5. Viruses “infect” the cells in our body all the time — especially the bacteria cells, forming “bacteriophages” or phages for short. They sometimes even kill the bacteria, meaning there might be a way to leverage them for fighting harmful, bacterial infections?… scientists are still working on figuring that out. See more here.
6. Some kinds of viruses become integrated with our human genome and make us who we are. Most viruses are asymptomatic and don’t affect our everyday health. And finally, some viruses enter our bodies and make us sick.
7. The virome is just one part of the microbial ecosystem (bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and viruses) living in and on our bodies known as the “microbiome.” The majority of these microbes live in our “gut,” particularly our large intestine aka the colon. Read an overview of the microbiome here. And here.
8. Our microbiome functions in a symbiotic relationship with our immune system: the two communicate, regulate, and cooperate to support each other.

red blood cells and what looks like infected cells near them being cleared out

9. The microbiome was not generally recognized to exist until the late 1990s. In fact, it was common practice in medicine (and still is to some extent) to set about “sterilizing” any and all microbes. This is what many antibiotics categorically do, often to the detriment of vital qualities of immunity inherent to our microbiomes. Read more here.

10. 70–80% of the body’s immune cells are found in the gut. “The immune system promotes the growth of beneficial microbes and helps maintain a stable microbial community… while a healthy microbiota produces molecular signals that support the development of immune cells and contribute to the fine tuning of immune responses.” More on the relationship between our microbiome and immune system here. And here.

11. Factors that influence gut microbe composition include method of delivery at birth, infant feeding, genetics, infections, medications, and diet. Although we do not have control over all of these factors, studies have shown that some aspects of our lifestyles (urbanization, global travel, diets, and medications) can affect the compositions of our microbiomes and therefore our body’s ability to fight diseases. Read more here.

12. Individual humans can be 80–90% different from one another in terms of the microbiome of their hand or gut. These findings suggest that employing the variation contained within the microbiome is a very fruitful way of informing healthcare decisions. More on this here.

13. Studies done across countries and cultures reveal vast differences in microbiota composition. For example, “in high-income countries, overuse of antibiotics, changes in diet, and elimination of constitutive partners such as nematodes has selected for a microbiota that lack the resilience and diversity required to establish balanced immune responses.” More info on this study found here.

14. Throughout the history of microbiology, most human studies have focused on the disease-causing organisms found on or in people; fewer studies have examined the benefits of the resident microbes.

15. The NIH’s Human Microbiome Project launched in 2008 and set out to use new technologies to characterize the microbiome and study the variation (with population, genotype, disease, age, nutrition, medication, and environment) and its influence on disease. Therefore, there is still a lot we do not know.

Simian Virus

More on the NIH’s Human Microbiome Project.

A vast majority of this microbiome research has centered on the largest family of microbes: bacteria. However, a growing cadre of researchers argues that the community viruses — the human virome — is probably at least as important to human health as our bacterial inhabitants.

Metagenomics is the molecular tool scientists use to learn about and characterize the viruses that make up the human virome. They’ve even discovered ways to streamline the process even more with the advent of “high-throughput sequencing technologies.” Learn more about this process here.

In conclusion, scientists are only beginning to uncover the ways in which, like bacteria, viruses play a crucial role in keeping us healthy!

Electron microscopic image of a fresh water microorganism called a Diatom

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Who we are:

We’re Anita & Val, curious-minded explorers into the realms of human sexuality, integrative health, philosophy, matriarchal studies, and the interplay between science and embodied wisdom. With the advent of the novel coronavirus named Covid-19/SARS-COV 2, we became curious about the nature of viruses, and how viruses interact with the human species.

We decided to put together some resources for other curious-minded folks like us, to provide a range of both fascinating and empowering perspectives on the current global health situation. It also begs the question: is there another way to relate with viruses besides viewing them as a dangerous enemy lurking in the corners, waiting to attack us? As this is still a new area of science, there is much to learn about these ancient precursors to all biological life on earth.

“A war against nature is a war against our own biology.”

-Paul Stamets