Winning the genetic lottery may be more advantageous than most people thought.

Attractive traits may give clues about a person's reproductive health as new research reveals a link between Body Mass Index and the amount of bacteria colonizing noses, Science 2.0 reported.

Researchers from the University of Wroclaw found that heavier men harbor more potentially pathogenic species of bacteria in their nose, compared with slimmer, more traditionally attractive men.

"According to an evolutionary point of view, traits related to attractiveness are supposed to be honest signals of biological quality," researcher Dr. Boguslaw Pawlowski said in a statement. "We analyzed whether nasal and throat colonization with potentially pathogenic bacteria is related to body height and BMI in both sexes."

For the study, researchers collected data from 103 healthy females and 90 healthy males. Heights and weights were self-reported while waist and hip circumferences were measured.

During the study, six potentially pathogenic bacteria were isolated and identified from nasal and throat swabs. The results showed that 'colonized' men were found to have a higher BMI than non-colonized males, although no differences were found in females.

"To our knowledge, this is the first attempt to study body morphology traits related to physical attractiveness in relation to bacterial colonization in young people," said Pawlowski. "The results confirmed our hypothesis, but only for BMI in males."

The new research was published in the American Journal of Human Biology.