Site specificity
A moist toe-web is not a dry forearm.
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
Familiarity62
Medical weight55
Benefit70
Risk22
Research80
Live debate40
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Last reviewed Sources & creditsMedia creditsMethodology
Quick answers
Where should I start with Skin microbiome?
Read Identity → How they live → Body & health, then use compare rails.
Is this page advice for Skin microbiome?
Public-health education — not a care plan, prescription, or outbreak briefing.
What does the local lens add?
It names everyday desks for Beneficial allies before English norms look universal.
Are the scores a ranking of Skin microbiome?
No — editorial 0–100 browsing aids inside this atlas only.
How do I compare Skin microbiome to neighbours?
Use related cards and best-of / quiz rails after the first three chapters.
Which chapter is densest?
How they live and Body & health carry mechanisms; skim Identity first.
Grice and colleagues (2009) sequenced twenty skin sites and found oily, moist and dry habitats more than a single skin germ.
Cutibacterium likes sebum, Staphylococcus epidermidis is a common colonist, Malassezia yeasts live on lipids.
Traits
Acid mantle
Sweat, sebum and residents help keep pH low.
Occupancy
Filled niches make it harder for some pathogens to attach.
Yeast neighbours
Malassezia is ordinary on sebum-rich skin. Bloom, not presence, is the usual complaint.
Not a gut clone
Skin communities share little with stool.
Washing is weather
Soap removes oil and transient dirt. Communities rebound.
Once you see skin as occupied, kill-99.9 ads look less like health and more like weather control.
Keep exploring
More in Beneficial allies
Gut microbiome
A diverse intestinal community fed by fibre — not a single ideal species list and not a wellness shop.
Familiarity 88Probiotics
Live microbes in food or capsules — strain-specific guests, not a whole microbiome and not medical advice.
Familiarity 90Fermentation
Microbes turning food into kimchi, doenjang, yoghurt and other living crafts — chemistry plus culture.
Familiarity 85Soil microbes
The hidden workforce of land — decomposers, mycorrhizae and a mostly uncultured majority.
Familiarity 48Nitrogen cycle
How microbes move nitrogen between air, soil, water and food — plus the industrial shortcut that feeds billions.
Familiarity 40