Report Western guts have lower bacterial diversity

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Scientists analysed the faecal bacteria of people living in the United States and rural Papua New Guinea, and found that Papua New Guineans had a greater number of different gut bacterial species.

The study, published today in Cell Reports , shows while both groups still had many important gut bacteria species in common, the US residents were missing around 50 bacterial types that were dominant in the rural Papua New Guineans.

There has been growing interest in recent years about the impact of gut bacterial populations -- known as the gut microbiome -- on health.

Research is suggesting that changes observed in the gut microbiome of western populations may be contributing to the rise in diseases such as type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, obesity, allergies, and colon cancer.

Co-author Dr Andrew Greenhill, senior lecturer in microbiology at Federation University, says the study showed most of the lost diversity was in the bacterial 'fringe dwellers'.

"These make up somewhere between 5-10 per cent of the total number of bacteria in the gut," says Greenhill.

"Perhaps the [loss of] the organisms that lead to increased diversity in traditional lifestyles, may have some health impact."

Read more here. (ABC)
 
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