The Bugs In Your Stomach Define You As Much – If Not More – Than Your Genes

The Bugs In Your Stomach Define You As Much–If Not More–Than Your Genes
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Every creature on earth has their own microbial community. This internal ecology determines how we digest food and resist disease and can even affect behavior or how often mosquitoes bite us. Rob Knight, a microbial ecologist, has concluded that microbes are as critical as the brain–they make each of us who we are.

“The three pounds of microbes [we carry] may be more important for some health conditions than every gene in our genome,” Knight says. We share 99.9% of our DNA with the people around us, but our microbes share only 10% similarity. The diversity in our microbial communities is astonishing and can help us differentiate health based on our genetic makeup from our health based on the way in which we developed as children.

Knight’s most recent project is called American Gut, an initiative to map the unique microbe makeup of individuals around the country to discover how our lifestyle and diet affect our health. But his discoveries have already unfurled exciting possibilities in understanding our bodies. This “microbial GPS” has the potential to transform human health from the early stages of life onward.