Microbiome composition and abundance

Microbiome composition relates to all the microbes that currently inhabit your gut. Abundance relates to their ratios, that is, the relative quantities in relation to all their neighbors. Understanding composition and abundance is key to understanding why something might work for someone but not for another. Why diet and supplementation may alter ratios for one person and not for another. And why the advice or treatments you receive from medical and health professionals may not work for you, though it may work for others.

The microbes you are exposed to after birth help lay a foundation that significantly influences and establishes your composition. In order to make adjustments to the ratios, you need to have a composition that permits for the kind of ratio adjustments you’re looking for. Your gut microbiome has gone through all kinds of ordeals and still manages to survive inside you. Therefore, unless the microbiome is significantly sensitive to what it is exposed to, it shouldn’t be expected that introducing new things will alter the ratios, let alone the composition.