You share a home. You share meals. You may share a bathroom, a bed, a dog, and occasionally a toothbrush if your relationship has reached a level of intimacy I personally do not understand.
But are you also sharing your microbiome?
New research suggests that the communities of microbes living in and on our bodies may be more socially connected than we realize. People who live together—including family members, roommates, and romantic partners—can share strains of microbes.
And romantic partners appear to have an especially interesting microbial connection.
In a new episode of Causes or Cures, I talk with microbiome researcher Dr. Nicola Segata, professor at the University of Trento in Italy, about what scientists are learning about how our microbiomes are shared between people.
Do People Who Live Together Share Their Microbiomes?
Our microbiome isn’t one single collection of microbes. Different areas of the body—including the mouth, gut, and skin—have their own microbial communities.
Researchers are increasingly interested in another question: How much of our microbiome comes from the people around us?
Dr. Segata and colleagues have studied microbial sharing among people living together and across different kinds of relationships. Their latest research adds to evidence that microbes can be shared between people—and that our social relationships may help shape the microbial communities we carry.
That means the people you live with may be influencing your microbiome in ways most of us never think about.
Yes, even your roommate.
Do Couples Share Their Oral Microbiomes?
Romantic partners are particularly interesting because they often have close and repeated physical contact.
In our conversation, Dr. Segata explains why romantic partners show particularly high levels of oral microbiome sharing and what might account for it.
Which brings us to the obvious question:
Is it the kissing?
We talk about what the research can actually tell us about kissing and microbial sharing—and where scientists still have unanswered questions.
Apparently romance comes with microbes.
Your Mouth and Gut May Be More Connected Than You Think
One of the more fascinating parts of the research involves the relationship between the oral microbiome and the gut microbiome.
We tend to talk about “the microbiome” as if the gut is the entire microbial universe. It isn’t.
Microbes found in the mouth can also show up elsewhere in the body, raising interesting questions about how microbial communities move between body sites—and between people.
Dr. Segata explains what researchers are discovering about this oral-gut connection and why it could matter for understanding human health.
Does Sharing Microbes Mean Sharing Health Risks?
This is where things get especially interesting—and where it’s important not to get ahead of the science.
If people share microbes, could they also share microbes associated with health or disease?
We discuss what this research does and does not tell us about cardiometabolic health, whether certain microbes appear better at spreading between people than others, and why finding a shared microbial strain isn’t the same thing as proving that one person’s microbiome caused a health outcome in another.
In other words: interesting signal. Lots of questions. More science needed.
My favorite kind of research.
Can You Actually Change Your Microbiome?
Of course, once we start talking about the microbiome, another question inevitably appears:
Can we control it?
Probiotics are now everywhere, accompanied by plenty of promises about what changing your gut bacteria might supposedly accomplish.
But how much can probiotics actually change the microbial ecosystem already living inside us?
Dr. Segata explains what we know about probiotics, how stable—or unstable—our microbiomes may be, and how much influence we really have over the microbial communities we carry.
And What About the Dog?
Naturally, I had one more question.
If we’re sharing microbes with our spouses, partners, children, and roommates…
Are we sharing our microbiomes with our dogs, too?
As someone who spends a considerable amount of time with a dog, I needed an answer.
We get into that, too.
Listen: Are We Sharing Our Microbiomes With the People We Live With?
In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Nicola Segata and I talk about how microbes may move between people, why couples share so much of their oral microbiomes, the possible role of kissing, the surprising connection between the mouth and gut, probiotics, cardiometabolic health, and what happens when pets enter the microbial mix.
About Dr. Nicola Segata
Dr. Nicola Segata is a professor and microbiome researcher at the University of Trento in Italy and a principal investigator at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan. His research group brings together computational scientists, experimental biologists, statisticians, and clinicians to study the human microbiome, its diversity, and its potential role in human health and disease.
Read the research: Article here.
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