We all have a slightly different mix of microbes inside us Nobeastsofierce Science / Alamy

The microbes that live inside you hint more than your genes do about your likelihood of having health conditions ranging from asthma to cancer and schizophrenia, according to a new analysis.

The finding suggests that monitoring the ecosystems of bacteria, viruses, protozoa and fungi that live inside us could help diagnose or even prevent some conditions. “That’s going to change medicine,” says Braden Tierney at Harvard Medical School, who worked on the analysis.

However, it also raises privacy issues, because information about this microbiome …