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Analysis and Health

Do we actually know what a healthy gut microbiome looks like?

The gut microbiome has tremendous potential for helping us treat, or even prevent, many different conditions - but first, we need to understand it better

By David Robson

20 January 2025

Our guts are home to trillions of bacteria

ARTUR PLAWGO/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Analysing one’s stools was once a niche interest. A quick look at Amazon, however, reveals dozens of home tests designed to test the composition of your faeces. You can even buy kits for your pets.

Such products reflect a surge in public appetite for information about the gut microbiome. “Regardless of the country you are in, a lot of patients are coming to physicians asking about microbiota testing,” says Gianluca Ianiro at the Catholic University of Rome.

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