The latest advances in gut microbiota research and its impact on health was discussed by experts at the Gut Microbiota for Health World Summit in Miami, FL, USA in March 2014.
The discussions throw light on the amazing power the gut microbes have on our health. More and more studies are being conducted to determine if the kind and type of tiny microorganisms in our gut influence the state of our health and disease, ranging from obesity, diabetes, arthritis and even depression.
Large scale studies are also being conducted in India. Scientists in the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences , Lucknow, and CMC Vellore are studying samples from different patient groups trying to gain a better understanding of the gut microbiomes and how they influence health and disease.
Our bodies contain 10 times more bacteria than cells! Around 100 trillion microbes are crawling inside us and on our skin. Over a kilo worth microbes have been found in the stomach and the intestine, with over 1000 species of bacteria.
Gut health is believed to play a major role in the chronic lifestyle diseases that plague the modern world, including type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Fecal transplants are being tried out in Amsterdam to see if just by replacing the gut with healthy bacteria from the faeces of another person, could clear up harmful bacteria such as clostridium difficile that causes colitis (inflammation and ulcers in the intestine). A study found that c. difficile was cured 94 % of cases, while antibiotics could cure only 31 %. Another study in Netherlands tried the fecal transplant to see if weight loss could be achieved with a healthier gut. Although weight was not reduced, it did alter insulin sensitivity and triglyceride levels.
The role of antibiotics
Antibiotics have been used widely since World War II and prescribed for everything from a simple cold to a sore. The average child is subjected to at least a dozen courses of antibiotics before the age of 18! Antibiotics destroy both the harmful and beneficial bacteria, and because the numbers of good bacteria are suppressed, potentially harmful bacteria can overgrow and cause many diseases.
Antibiotics are being studied as being a possible cause of obesity! In a study published in the journal Nature, scientists have found that mice fed on sustained low doses of antibiotics became fat. A similar process is believed to occur in children exposed to non organic milk from cows fed antibiotics in huge doses. Scientists studied around 11000 children and found those exposed to antibiotics before 6 months of age had consistently higher BMIs later in life.
What can we do to improve gut health?
What can we do to improve our gut health? About half of the gut microbial genes are common across populations, it is the other 50 % that we have control over. An increased intake of foods with high amounts of animal fat, as well as of greasy and fried foods is not recommended, since they prevent growth of good bacteria. Fruits, vegetables and whole grains pack in dietary fiber that travels to the colon, which is a fermentation factory for this fiber. Microbes love this fermented carbohydrates, and eat it up, thereby making the gut acidic and resistant to harmful pathogens. Probiotics too confer many health benefits, including strengthening the immune system by stimulating immune mechanisms inside and outside the gut, helping to regulate the gut motility, and acting as anti-inflammatory compounds in the gut, with an impact beyond the gut. Moreover, according to several prevention studies, probiotics, such as the thoroughly investigated Lactobacillus rhamnosus, may support disease prevention in children who tend to have reduced microbiota diversity as they are not breast-fed, have been exposed to antibiotics or are born via Caesarean section.
While scientists are studying specific strains of bacteria that may be targeted for use to prevent or cure diseases, it is good to pay attention to increasing overall gut health by eating a plant based diet, avoiding antibiotics and meat.