Think about it this way: we all have individual fingerprints on hands that function similarly. If we think about the classification of microbes as a description of what a hand looks like, we can envision how this classification can work on a functional level in our guts and how it can help us better understand … Continue reading →

The hope is that in examining what lives in our guts on a species level, we will discover just who lives in us and infer from that the functional ability of an individual’s metabolism. Just as in the animal world, microbes have a taxonomy. Humans belong to the phylum Chordata/Vertebrata which groups us with other … Continue reading →

Even though we all seem to settle into a similar pattern of microbiota after we start eating solid foods, it doesn’t mean that we are healthy. Just as early man’s farming practices left the soil progressively more salty over the years, eventually affecting agriculture in that area centuries later, our earliest gut homesteaders could shape … Continue reading →

Using metagenomic analysis[1] to look at 16S rRNA signatures, we know that our internal residents are either in the phylum Bacteriodetes or Firmicutes.  And many studies have been done to determine if there is a magic ratio between these types that confers more (or less) health to the host[i]. The logic here is that if … Continue reading →