Are modern rules around cleanliness, parenting, and social contact shaping your gut health more than you realise?
In this episode, Professor Tim Spector explains how gut microbes are shared between people - through relationships, daily contact, and the environments we live in - and why this matters for long-term health. You’ll learn how human contact may be influencing your gut in ways most of us never consider.
Tim explains why supporting gut microbiome is less about control and more about balance, and you’ll learn simple ways to support a healthier gut through food, social connection and lifestyle habits.
If your gut reflects the people you live with and the places you spend time, what small change could you make this week - in your home, your habits, or your social life - that might support your gut for the long term?
Timecodes 00:00 Why couples share more gut microbes than identical twins 04:12 Why birth is designed to be messy 08:32 Why your first microbes shape everything later 10:46 Can you replace microbes after a C-section? 13:05 Why the first few years matter more than the rest 15:54 Why antibiotics always come with a hidden cost 17:42 How families swap microbes without realising 19:06 Why microbes survive in some places, and not others 21:25 Why bigger social groups protect your immune system 22:30 How scientists can tell who you live with 24:15 Why closeness matters more than genetics 25:38 Can you catch bad gut bugs from other people? 26:29 Can anxiety spread through gut microbes? 27:55 How scientists now rank “good” and “bad” gut bugs 31:05 Why countryside living changes your gut health 33:49 Why getting dirty may improve mental health 35:33 Why sterilising everything can backfire 38:05 Why pets, especially dogs, boost gut health 42:18 Can your partner improve your health without dieting? 43:25 Why loneliness harms your gut microbiome 52:01 Why fighting germs may be harming your health
