A study of more than 300 children has unveiled that it is vital to have good intestinal germs. By not having enough of them in early life, risk increases of developing asthma. The research paper published in the Science Translational Medicine is latest one to explore the mysteries of the microbiome.

A research paper published in the Science Translational Medicine has unveiled that if good intestinal germs are not present early in life then it may increase the risk of developing asthma among children. The researchers have based their findings on the study of over 300 children.

Asthma has become one of the most common diseases in the developing world. In the study, the researchers have assessed the stool of 319 Canadian infants. The researchers said that the children who have the highest risk of developing asthma were the ones who had low or non-existent levels of four specific bacteria.

The four bacteria are Faecalibacterium, Lachnospira, Veillonella and Rothia. The research team has kept it abbreviated the FLVR combination.

As per the researchers, the difference was witnessed at 3 months and it was not present when the children were going to be one year old. It could mean that the first 100 days of life are very important for babies.

Gut bacteria could affect a baby's risk of developing asthma. Asthma researcher Marsha Wills-Karp from Johns Hopkins University has termed the findings to be quite important. There is a need to carry out much larger studies so that the role of bacteria can be know. It has also to be find out how people naturally acquire the four bacteria groups.

"I want to emphasize that we're not ready for that yet," cautioned study co-author Dr. Stuart Turvey, a pediatric immunologist at the University of British Columbia and BC Children's Hospital. But a "vision for the future would be to prevent this disease."

"This is a really important study" because of that mouse evidence that altering bacteria affects symptoms, said Dr. Rachel Rosen, a gastroenterology specialist at Boston Children's Hospital who wasn't involved with the research. "Just knowing that's possible opens up a whole field of using bacteria as a therapy for lung disease."