Research mapping the digestive system’s bacterial flora seems to suggest that most people fall into one of only three different “gut types”.

A recent study published in Nature has found that our gut’s bacterial flora may not be as diverse or unique as once thought. Researchers deciphered the microbial life within each test subject’s fecal samples. What they found was that the test subjects fell into one of three different “enterotypes” (microbe ecosystems). Factors such as age, weight or nationality did not matter as far as who ended up with what enterotype. Essentially what this means is that it appears the life forms living inside of us aren’t as random as we might have thought in the past.

The impacts of a person’s enterotype has yet to be researched. For all we know there may be more enterotypes found as researchers continue to investigate & sequence the microbe life inside our digestive tracts. However we can speculate that if the notion of enterotypes holds true, it could be of great benefit for understand who may be more or less susceptible to diseases or illness as well as engineering antibiotics or drugs that work with a person’s natural bacterial flora rather than eradicating it.

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