There has been a catastrophic loss of biodiversity in ecosystems across the world, including the gut, which has been linked to “all human diseases affecting westernized countries”. Chronic diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide and makeup 90% of America’s healthcare costs. There is one part of the body that is often overlooked in discussions about whole-body health; the skin microbiome.

Dysbiosis of the skin microbiome is linked to many common skin diseases, but now, more importantly, many whole-body health problems, such as food allergies, asthma, cardiovascular diseases, and Parkinson’s, are traditionally thought unrelated to the skin.

Researchers link entropy, non-linearity, and chaos theory to show how complex physics helps understand why biodiversity loss creates an unhealthy system.

Recognizing the link between ecosystem health and human health allows us to understand how crucial it could be to maintain biodiversity across systems everywhere, from the macro-environment we inhabit right down to our body’s microbiome. With millions of people currently suffering, research to help mitigate the crisis is of vital importance.