Trusting your gut

Guts are having a renaissance. It’s 2021 and it’s now perfectly acceptable to bring them up in conversation. Look in the bookshop window and the shelves are groaning with guts. The gastrointestinal tract is merely a 4.5 metre tube, yet it’s the most densely populated spot on the planet. A place that 100 trillion microbes call home, housing 300–1000 different species, which together weigh in at around 2kg. That’s heavier than a brain. Our gut biomes are also rich in genetic information — the human genome has 23,000 genes yet the microbiome has over three million. And, just like snowflakes, no two biomes are the same.

We’re freighters on the high seas, our ships, of flesh and bone, bulging with cargoes of microorganisms. Free riders, you might think; but these bacteria, yeasts and fungi keep us happy and healthy. They’re vital to our functioning, breaking down food and toxins, creating vitamins and building our immunity. Our guts are busy places.

“There’s increasing evidence that gut microbiome quality is probably the number one factor that influences your immune system. If you get your diet in order, and you do all the things that are good for your gut microbiome, you will have the optimum immune system.” Professor Tim Spector on the Zoe app discussing Covid-19

In the journal Nature, Herb Brody (appropriate name) writes about diseases and how some might be…