Health 16 Jun 2026

Live with a partner? You may be sharing more microbes than you think

A large study finds you may share about a quarter of your oral and gut microbes with the people you live with. Should you worry? We asked the experts.

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A lot changes when you move in with. Your partner. when you go to bed, what. You eat for breakfast, and. Possibly your microbiome. the mishmash of bacteria that live in and. On you. A study published this week in Cell Press. Blue finds that cohabitating romantic partners share about. 44% of their oral microbiome and 19% of their gut microbiome. First author and computational biologist Vitor Heidrich of.

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