Also acne......
Right now, there are billions of viruses, fungi, and bacteria living on your skin. They make up what is known as your skin microbiome. Don’t worry, though. No need to rush over to a sink and scrub them away. Most of these microorganisms are normal – and not harmful – regular residents of your body.
In fact, many of these tiny organisms are extremely beneficial. They get along well with your body and play an important role in warding off infection and keeping you healthy. Together, these bugs make up what is called your skin microbiome.
But sometimes things can get off balance. Researchers are starting to think that when your skin microbes are altered, they may contribute to health problems such as acne and other skin conditions.
“The microbiome can interact with the immune system in a negative way,” explains Julia Oh, Ph.D., an Assistant Professor at the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine in Farmington, Conn. “This can cause different immune pathways to function improperly and result in disease.”
While scientists have known about the microbiome in general for a long time, they have a lot more to learn when it comes to the specifics, such as how microbes might impact skin cancer development.
Oh and her team think the skin microbiome may play a role in the development of a common skin cancer known as squamous cell carcinoma.
The number of cases of squamous cell carcinoma has been increasing for years, and about 1 million cases are diagnosed each year. Treatment of squamous cell carcinoma and other skin cancers is also a burden on the healthcare system – in the US, billions of dollars are spent to treat skin cancer each year, and costs continue to rise.