Gut health has an importance that goes beyond the digestive and assimilation processes carried out on it. There is more and more evidence of its importance in the development of diseases that apparently are far from what happens in the intestine. Given the importance of proper intestinal health for the maintenance of general health, the gut is also known as the second brain.
In our gut cohabits a bacterial flora that is known as microbiota. We have more than 100 trillion bacteria (1×1014), which are not equally distributed throughout the gastrointestinal tract. They pass from 10 to 1000 bacteria per gram in the stomach to more than 1 trillion per gram in the intestine (1×1012). In fact, we have 10 times more bacteria than cells in our body. In addition, these bacteria have their own genes that represent 100 times the total human genes. The term microbioma refers to this set of genes present in the microorganisms that inhabit our gastrointestinal tract.
Despite bacterial flora is specific to each person, it can be said that these bacteria are distributed in 150 species of the more than 1000 species that may be present. This bacterial diversity is important for our health.
Increase in the number of bacteria along the intestinal tract
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