Gut microbiome

Looks like

Trillions of bacteria, fungi and viruses living mainly in the large bowel, different in every person.

What it does

Ferment fibre into short-chain fatty acids, make some vitamins and train the immune system.

Keeping it well

A varied, fibre-rich diet supports it; antibiotics disrupt it and can let Clostridioides difficile take over — watery diarrhoea during or after antibiotics needs checking.

Related conditions

• Acute mesenteric ischaemia (gut stroke)
• Appendicitis
• Bowel obstruction
• Chagas disease
• Chronic constipation
• Clostridioides difficile colitis
• Colon polyps
• Colorectal cancer
• Crohn's disease
• Diverticular disease
• Food poisoning
• Gastroenteritis
• Gastrointestinal bleeding
• Hereditary cancer syndromes (BRCA, Lynch)
• Infant colic
• Intussusception & pyloric stenosis
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Liver abscess (pyogenic and amoebic)
• Microscopic colitis
• Necrotising enterocolitis
• Typhoid & cholera
• Ulcerative colitis