A new study discovers 395 separate species of microbes in the human intestinal tract

These bacteria are vital to human survival, as they aid in digestion, deactivate poisons in food, and help fight disease. Thus, scientists are hoping that these rarely studied microbes may help them discover cures for everything from illness to obesity.

• One hundred trillion bacteria live in your gut - 10 microbes for every human cell in your body.
• In the first comprehensive survey of this realm, Palo Alto, Calif., scientists found 395 strains of bacteria living in the intestines of healthy people.
• They discovered that each person's collection of bugs was unique and varied from place to place within the gut, which is more than 30 feet long when uncoiled.
• Some bacteria cling to the intestinal wall, while others hitch rides on bits of undigested food, forming colonies that researchers jokingly call "Whovilles."
• Sounds gross, but it's actually a good thing, because we probably couldn't live without our microbes, said Dr. Paul Eckburg, a postdoctoral fellow at the Stanford University School of Medicine who led the research.
• They're so vital for our well-being that some researchers consider them an organ of the human body - one that helps us digest food, inactivate poisons and fight disease.
• The microbes, known as the intestinal flora, may also help guide the normal development of our guts.
• Other scientists suggest that the genes of all those bacteria constitute a second human genome, and that we will never fully understand the workings of our bodies until we understand them, too.
• Gordon said the report, published Thursday in the online edition of the journal Science, is the first comprehensive inventory of a microbial community so vast that it is "mind-boggling."
• In the new study they examined snippets of intestine and feces from three healthy people from Canada.
• A separate study at Washington University, reported last year, raises the intriguing possibility that intestinal bugs may help determine if a person is prone to getting fat.
• The normal mice had 40 percent more body fat - an indication that their gut microbes helped them wring more nutrition from their food.