GUT BACTERIA 'COULD PREDICT YOUR FUTURE HEALTH'
Scientists this year said looking at the levels of bacteria someone has in their gut may be able to predict their risk of developing inflammatory bowl disease, diabetes or having a premature labour if they're pregnant.
Inflammatory bowel disease
For a year, Harvard scientists tracked 132 people with conditions such as Crohn's disease and some healthy people for comparison. They took stool samples every two weeks, and checked how microbes affected the immune system or metabolism.
As the diseases wax and wane, so does microbial activity, researchers reported in the journal Nature. Surprisingly, many times a patient's gut microbiome changed radically in just a few weeks before a flare-up.
Some of the microbes produce molecules that keep the intestinal lining healthy, likely one reason the disease worsened when those bugs disappeared, Proctor said.
Premature birth
Researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University found a warning sign of premature birth in the vaginal microbiome, which changes over the course of pregnancy.
Tracking nearly 600 pregnancies, the team found that women who delivered preterm, especially African Americans, tended to have lower than normal levels of a type of Lactobacillus bacteria as early as the first trimester.
Type 2 diabetes
A Stanford University-led research team tracked 106 people for four years, some healthy and some pre-diabetic. Up to 10 per cent of pre-diabetics will develop diabetes each year, but there's little way to predict who.
The researchers found a list of microbial and inflammatory early warning signs of brewing diabetes.
People who are insulin-resistant showed delayed immune responses to respiratory infections, correlating with tamped-down microbial reactions.
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