We often talk about the human body as though it exists on its own.
But no human being is biologically isolated.
We breathe gases produced and cycled through other forms of life. We eat plants. Our skin, mouth and digestive tract contain vast communities of microorganisms. Plants depend upon microbes, fungi, insects, soil and sunlight. Entire ecosystems are built from relationships.
Herbert M. Shelton used an unusual term for the normal cooperative relationships of life: normosymbiosis.
The word has almost vanished, but the idea behind it opens up a very different way of thinking about health.
What does normosymbiosis mean?
The term combines the idea of normal with symbiosis — living together.
In Shelton’s wider Natural Hygiene discussion of life and environment, normosymbiosis referred to the normal relationships and associations through which living things coexist.
The central principle is simple:
Life does not exist independently. Living organisms exist in relationship with other life and with their environment.
This places normosymbiosis naturally inside Shelton’s concept of Orthobionomics — the correct adaptation of the conditions of life to the needs of the organism.
You are not a completely separate organism
The idea may have sounded unusual when Shelton was writing, but modern biology has made the interconnectedness of life impossible to ignore.
The human body is home to complex microbial communities. The gut microbiome alone contains enormous numbers of microorganisms whose presence and activity interact with digestion, metabolism and the intestinal environment.
Our relationship with microbes is therefore not accurately described as a permanent war between “us” and “them”.
Some organisms are harmless in one context, useful in another and capable of contributing to disease under different circumstances. Relationships change according to location, environment, population balance and the condition of the host.
Biology is contextual.
The body as an ecosystem
Thinking in terms of normosymbiosis encourages us to view the body less like a sealed machine and more like an ecosystem.
An ecosystem is not healthy because one species has defeated every other species.
It functions through relationships, boundaries, competition, cooperation, resource availability and environmental conditions.
The same broad principle applies to the microbial communities associated with the human body.
Change the environment and you can change which organisms flourish.
Environment shapes biological relationships
This is where normosymbiosis connects particularly strongly with Natural Hygiene.
If living relationships depend partly upon their environment, then changing the environment can alter those relationships.
Food changes the chemical and physical environment of the digestive tract. Sleep changes hormonal and neurological conditions. Stress changes physiology. Movement changes circulation and metabolism. Hygiene practices alter the skin and oral environment.
The biological terrain is never static.
Rather than seeing every unwanted organism as an isolated enemy, Natural Hygiene has traditionally asked a broader question: what conditions allowed this biological situation to develop?
Symbiosis does not mean everything is friendly
It is important not to romanticise the concept.
Nature contains cooperation, competition, predation and parasitism. Microorganisms can cause serious disease, and some biological relationships are harmful.
Normosymbiosis is therefore not the claim that every organism is beneficial.
The more useful insight is that biological relationships cannot be understood properly without considering context.
An organism exists within an environment. Change the environment and its behaviour, abundance or effect may also change.
From germ theory to ecology
For much of modern medical history, microorganisms became strongly associated in the public imagination with disease.
That association was understandable. Discovering specific infectious agents transformed medicine and saved countless lives.
But microbiology has continued to develop.
Today we also study microbial ecology, microbiomes, commensal organisms and the complicated relationships between microbes and hosts.
The picture is therefore far richer than “microbe equals enemy”.
In that respect, Shelton’s emphasis on symbiotic relationships is an interesting historical idea to revisit — even though modern microbiology uses different terminology and is supported by evidence that did not exist in his era.
The digestive tract is a remarkable example
The gut demonstrates just how dependent life can be upon biological relationships.
Microorganisms interact with food components that reach the colon, producing metabolites and participating in an extraordinarily complex ecosystem.
Different diets create different substrates and therefore different ecological conditions.
This gives us a very practical example of the principle behind normosymbiosis: what we call an organism’s environment helps determine the relationships that develop within it.
This also connects with Orthotrophy, Shelton’s term for correct feeding within the wider Natural Hygiene framework.
Humans depend upon life outside the body too
Normosymbiosis is bigger than the microbiome.
Human life depends upon relationships extending far beyond our skin.
- Plants convert solar energy into food.
- Plants and microorganisms participate in atmospheric cycles.
- Soil organisms help maintain fertile ecosystems.
- Pollinators support the reproduction of many plants.
- Forests influence water cycles and climate.
- Countless organisms recycle biological material.
The boundary between “our health” and “the environment” is therefore less clear than it first appears.
Human health ultimately depends upon functioning ecosystems.
The illusion of independence
Modern life can make us feel unusually separate from nature.
Food arrives in packaging. Water comes from a tap. Waste disappears through pipes. Temperature is controlled indoors. Artificial light replaces daylight. Technology occupies much of our attention.
Yet none of this removes our biological dependence upon the natural world.
We remain organisms.
We still require air, water, food, appropriate temperatures, sleep, movement, light and a functioning environment capable of sustaining life.
This is precisely the sort of relationship Shelton was trying to emphasise through Bionomy and Orthobionomics.
Normosymbiosis and physiological compensation
Living systems can tolerate considerable disruption.
But tolerance often depends upon adaptation.
Our article on physiological compensation explores how the body adjusts when conditions are less than ideal.
The same broad principle can apply ecologically. Disturb an environment and organisms reorganise around the new conditions.
Sometimes the new state remains functional. Sometimes diversity is reduced. Sometimes previously minor organisms become dominant.
Again, the environment matters.
A different question about microbes
Instead of beginning every conversation with:
What organism should we destroy?
Normosymbiosis encourages another question:
What conditions encourage a balanced biological relationship?
Those questions are not mutually exclusive. There are circumstances in which dangerous infections require medical treatment.
But ecological thinking adds an important layer: understanding the conditions in which organisms are living may be as important as identifying the organisms themselves.
The Natural Body Intelligence perspective
Natural Body Intelligence begins with the body as a coordinated living whole.
Normosymbiosis extends that idea beyond the individual.
The human organism exists within larger biological systems and also contains complex living communities within itself.
Health cannot therefore be understood entirely through isolated parts.
Relationships matter. Environment matters. Conditions matter.
Perhaps the forgotten lesson of normosymbiosis is that life succeeds not through isolation, but through countless relationships that we are only beginning to fully understand.
Explore the forgotten language of Natural Hygiene
- Bionomy — the laws, functions and adaptations of living organisms.
- Orthobionomics — adapting the conditions of life to biological needs.
- Orthotrophy — correct feeding within Natural Hygiene.
- Physiological Compensation — how living systems adjust when conditions are imperfect.
- Biogony — Shelton’s term for active remedial physiological processes.
Historical context
Shelton discussed NormSymbiosis and Internal Symbiosis within his wider writing on Orthobionomics and the relationship between life and environment. The terminology belongs to his historical Natural Hygiene framework and should not be confused with modern technical terminology in microbiology or ecology.
Nevertheless, the question behind the term remains compelling: if living things evolved within networks of other living things, can health ever be understood without considering those relationships?