By some estimates, you have more bacteria in your body than human cells that belong to you! Bacteria are an integral part of your body’s functioning, whether you are aware of it or not. Scientists suspect many things are being done by these microbes, both beneficial and not - from helping with food digestion to increasing our risks of certain diseases.

Here’s a list of 7 things that the bacteria in your gut may be up to:

1. Promoting both healing and disease in the gut. Bacteria in the gut may actually send signals to the stomach and intestinal cells - and vice versa. It is a sign of how intertwined our species are when we can actually “talk” to the bacteria that we host.
2. Influencing your mood. While this theory is still in the early stages, it is possible that bacteria that give us the stomach flu may also be “talking” to the human vagal nervous system, which sends neural signals from the digestive tract to the brain. If bacteria in our systems are somehow signaling sensory nerve cells in the walls of the intestines, it could influence your emotions.
3. Promoting or reducing asthma and allergies. This theory rests on the idea that bacteria in the gut directly affect our immune system. Gut bacteria can actually affect the kind of immune response that our bodies mount. In fact, changes in our internal flora and fauna can increase our risk of allergy.
4. Playing a role in weight regulation. The particular microbes that you have in your body, could affect whether you can absorb nutrients from your diet. This can influence your tendency to develop a weight problem. Overweight and obese people appear to have different microbes than their thin counterparts. It’s not clear yet whether taking special probiotics could actually help people lose weight.
5. Reducing the chance of kidney stones. One specialized microbe, Oxalobacter formigenes, can actually break down calcium oxalate in your digestive tract before your body absorbs it. People who are colonized with this bacteria actually have a 70 per cent lower risk of kidney stones.
6. Influencing cancer risk - both positively and negatively. Some microbes can increase cancer risk, such as H. Pylori which is linked to ulcers and stomach cancer. However, the same bacteria is also linked to protective benefits for esophageal cancer. So, a bacteria may not be all good or all bad.
7. Helping someone else. The healthy balance of bacteria can be restored to someone with C. Difficile through a “fecal transplant”. While it sounds gross, it is a lifesaver for those with recurrent C. Difficile infection. A healthy person donates bacteria through filtered stool, where the bacteria are separated from the rest of the stool and then delivered to the ill person via enema or feeding tube.

Source: US News