Uploaded September 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
Are gut viruses sabotaging your probiotics? New research suggests bacteriophages — viruses that infect gut bacteria — may play an important role in the gut microbiome changes associated with fatty liver disease.
Most conversations about gut health focus on bacteria: good bacteria, bad bacteria, probiotics, prebiotics and microbiome diversity.
But bacteria are only part of the story.
Your gut also contains enormous numbers of bacteriophages, or phages — viruses that infect bacteria and can influence which bacterial species survive, multiply or disappear.
In this video, I look at research comparing the gut microbiomes of people with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD/fatty liver) with healthy controls.
The researchers identified changes involving both bacteria and viruses, suggesting that fatty liver may involve a much broader disruption of the gut ecosystem than simply having the “wrong” bacteria.
We look at:
• How bacteriophages can kill or alter gut bacteria
• Why gut viruses may influence microbial balance
• The relationship between Ruminococcus gnavus and bile acid metabolism
• How isodeoxycholic acid (isoDCA) may affect liver cells
• What happens to beneficial bacteria such as Faecalibacterium prausnitzii
• Why butyrate-producing bacteria matter for gut health
• How phages can interfere with bacterial metabolism
• Why simply adding more “good bacteria” with probiotics may not address the underlying gut environment
The bigger question is this:
What if your gut environment is determining whether those expensive probiotics ever get a chance to thrive?
Rather than viewing the microbiome as a simple battle between good and bad bacteria, this research suggests we may need to think about the entire ecosystem — bacteria, viruses, metabolites and the metabolic environment they are living in.
If you are trying to understand your own metabolic health and what may be driving your current physiology, you can learn more about my Body Audit here:
👉 betterbodychemistry.com/landingpage/unlock
Click here to join my email list.
dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/383415/84168808166589779/share
Are gut viruses sabotaging your probiotics? New research suggests bacteriophages — viruses that infect gut bacteria — may play an important role in the gut microbiome changes associated with fatty liver disease.
Most conversations about gut health focus on bacteria: good bacteria, bad bacteria, probiotics, prebiotics and microbiome diversity.
But bacteria are only part of the story.
Your gut also contains enormous numbers of bacteriophages, or phages — viruses that infect bacteria and can influence which bacterial species survive, multiply or disappear.
In this video, I look at research comparing the gut microbiomes of people with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD/fatty liver) with healthy controls.
The researchers identified changes involving both bacteria and viruses, suggesting that fatty liver may involve a much broader disruption of the gut ecosystem than simply having the “wrong” bacteria.
We look at:
• How bacteriophages can kill or alter gut bacteria
• Why gut viruses may influence microbial balance
• The relationship between Ruminococcus gnavus and bile acid metabolism
• How isodeoxycholic acid (isoDCA) may affect liver cells
• What happens to beneficial bacteria such as Faecalibacterium prausnitzii
• Why butyrate-producing bacteria matter for gut health
• How phages can interfere with bacterial metabolism
• Why simply adding more “good bacteria” with probiotics may not address the underlying gut environment
The bigger question is this:
What if your gut environment is determining whether those expensive probiotics ever get a chance to thrive?
Rather than viewing the microbiome as a simple battle between good and bad bacteria, this research suggests we may need to think about the entire ecosystem — bacteria, viruses, metabolites and the metabolic environment they are living in.
If you are trying to understand your own metabolic health and what may be driving your current physiology, you can learn more about my Body Audit here:
👉 betterbodychemistry.com/landingpage/unlock
Click here to join my email list.
dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/383415/84168808166589779/share
