The Bacteria We Share With the People We Live With
Who you live with may be shaping your health in ways you never expected. A new study out of the University of Trento, Italy, analyzed the gut and oral microbiomes of 430 people across 207 households and found that people sharing a home swap far more bacteria with each other than with anyone in the outside community, and it has nothing to do with being biologically related. On average, cohabiting people share about 19% of gut bacterial strains and 26% of oral strains. People in separate households share virtually zero.
What researchers found particularly interesting is which bacteria tend to spread most easily between people. The gut strains that moved most readily between housemates were the same ones associated with markers of type 2 diabetes and heart health. Some of the most transmissible species had ties to colorectal cancer. Researchers think the same qualities that help these microbes travel between people may also help them settle in once they arrive.
