From digestion to immunity, the gut microbiome plays a central role in keeping you healthy—and it may be within your control.
The community of microbes living in your intestines—collectively called the gut microbiome— is an active ecosystem with extraordinary influence over your body’s health. These microbes help you digest food and generate energy, protect you from harmful pathogens, and produce essential molecules such as vitamins and antioxidants. Remarkably, about 70% of your immune system is regulated by what happens in the gut.
Every person’s microbiome is unique, almost like a fingerprint. While it tends to stay relatively stable throughout life, it varies widely between individuals. A healthy gut is generically defined by the absence of disease or symptoms, but scientists also look at specific markers—such as the ability to produce beneficial compounds efficiently and a rich diversity of bacterial species—as signs of a thriving microbiome.
When compared to healthy controls, alterations in the gut microbiota occur in a number of disease states, including cardiovascular diseases, various cancers, and digestive and neurological diseases. Although much remains to be discovered about how these changes contribute to the start and progression of disease, one thing is clear: diet and medication strongly shape the gut microbiome.
Gut microbiota even influences response to chemotherapy and immunotherapy.
The good news? Your microbiome can respond to one's diet within days. Even though a healthy microbiome is resilient and often returns to its baseline after temporary shifts, nutrition is a powerful, modifiable factor that we can control.
And that’s why gut health matters. By making intentional nutrition choices today, you may help reduce your risk of chronic disease tomorrow.
At Coprata, we believe knowledge is the first step toward action. That’s why we’ve developed a rapid at-home test that makes it simple to measure key indicators of gut health. With results in minutes, you can track changes, make informed nutrition choices, and see how your gut is thriving.
Take charge of your gut health today.
Sources
The gut microbiome in health and in disease. Curr Opin Gastroenterol. (2015). https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4290017/
What defines a healthy gut microbiome? Gut. (2024). https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11503168/
Role of the gut microbiota in nutrition and health. The BMJ. (2018). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29899036/
