Gut Health Explained

Although scientists lack a definition of a healthy gut, this expert provides a functional definition of gut health related to gut disease, diversity, and digestion.

The digestive tract's landscape shapes the microbiome. We acquire our unique set of microbes, as unique as fingerprints, through many factors.

The slow scientific method, with Koch's postulates and Dr. Hanage's work, affects the study of the vast human microbiome.

With consumers wanting quick answers, people find it easy to fall for microbiome pseudoscience. Learn to recognize it and its popular but unscientific terms like "leaky gut."

Science doesn't support labeling microbes as "good" or "bad." A microbe can be beneficial for one person and a pathogen for another. We explore several relationships between microbes and disease.

Explore the innate and adaptive immune systems that protect the gut from pathogens. These two systems work differently but accomplish the same goal: gut homeostasis.