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Beneath the surface of the skin is a large internal ecosystem. About 100 trillion microorganisms – a mixture of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa – inhabit the intestine.
In the largest and most detailed study of its kind to date, researchers are exploring how this gut microbiome is linked to diet and disease. The team found that specific microbes associated with diet are associated with biomarkers of obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
The study suggests adjusting your diet to support your gut microbiome can be essential for a long and healthy life.
The findings, which may allow people to take control of their gut health, were published in the journal Tuesday. Nature medicine.
“Our results show that little of the microbiome is predetermined by our genes and therefore how much is modifiable by diet,” explains Sarah Berry, co-author of the study. Reverse. Berry is a research fellow at King’s College London.
The study also shows that it is possible to manipulate the microbiome through diet and, in turn, achieve significant health results, adds Berry.
LONGEVITY HACKS is a regular series of Reverse on science-based strategies for living better, healthier and longer without drugs. Get more in our Hacks index.
HOW THIS AFFECTS LONGEVITY – Over the past decade, a wave of studies have focused on the relationship between the human microbiome and longevity. What was missing, however, was a robust exploration of that bond in a large, diverse group.
To fill this research gap, scientists launched the PREDICT 1 study and analyzed the gut microbiomes, eating habits, and cardiometabolic blood biomarkers of 1,098 participants. PREDICT 1 is part of an international research project on personalized nutrition, making up one of the world’s richest data sets on individual responses to food.
The group gave stool and blood samples and responded to surveys. Researchers documented the participants’ body fat and blood sugar in response to food, physical activity, and sleep.
After analyzing the large data set, the researchers found that the makeup of people’s microbiome differed depending on what they ate. Diet determined the makeup of the microbiome more than other factors, such as genes.
“Although you cannot change your genetics, you can certainly modulate their gut microbiome. “
The researchers found that participants who consumed a lot of healthy, minimally processed plant-based foods had higher levels of beneficial gut microbes. An abundance of these “favorable” gut microbes was associated with a lower risk of developing conditions such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
More specifically, having a microbiome rich in Prevotella blanket and Blastocystis was associated with maintaining favorable blood sugar levels after a meal. Other species were linked to lower levels of blood fat after meals and markers of inflammation.
Conversely, people who are more processed foods – those that are full of sugar, salt, and chemical additives, and low in fiber – had very different microbes, colloquially called “insects,” living in their gut.
The team identified a “clear, pronounced and novel” segregation of insects based on their favorable and unfavorable associations with food, Berry explains.
The trends they found were so consistent that the researchers believe their microbiome data can be used to determine the risk of cardiometabolic disease in people who have no symptoms yet, possibly to prescribe a personalized diet designed specifically to improve someone’s health.
WHY IT’S A HACK – Evidence suggests that the gut microbiome is influenced by every meal. This study suggests adjusting your diet to support specific “good” germs and decrease “bad” germs.
There is not a single harmful microbe that will doom a person to develop disease or die prematurely. Plus, there is no “good” germ that is a silver bullet for longevity.
Instead, there is at least 15 favorable and unfavorable microbial clusters that influence health outcomes.
Ultimately, the fact that the microbiome is linked to certain metabolic markers is “really good news,” says study co-author Nicola Segata. Reverse. Segata is a researcher at the Center for Integrative Biology at the University of Trento.
“Even if we cannot change their genetics, we can certainly modulate [especially via diet] their gut microbiome, ”explains Segata. This can give more hope for therapeutic or preventive strategies which may indeed be very effective and do not require complex or potentially dangerous treatments. “
SCIENCE IN ACTION – Based on these results and other growing evidence, it’s critical to understand that “your biology and gut microbes are unique,” says study co-author Tim Spector Reverse. Spector is a genetic epidemiologist at King’s College London.
“You have to figure out for yourself which foods are best suited for your body and your germs,” advises Spector.
“You have to determine for yourself which foods are best for you your body and your germs. “
One way to do this is to test your microbiome using tests at home or at your doctor’s office. The researchers suggest using the gut health program they developed with digital health company Zoe Global by leveraging the results of the study. The program combines an individual’s specific microbiological makeup with data from PREDICT studies to design personalized recommendations on what to eat. (A number of study authors are consultants to Zoe Global or are / were employees of Zoe Global.)
“In the meantime, you can hedge your bets and try foods that are good for your gut, such as a variety of plants, foods high in fiber, fermented, avoiding ultra-processed foods and most importantly a wide variety,” Spector says. .
Like so many others in the health field, there is no single solution, especially when it comes to the gut microbiome.
“This is just the start and soon we’ll have ten times more data linking germs and food to provide even better advice,” says Spector.
HACK SCORE OUT OF 10 – 🍉🌶🥕🥦🥬🥑 🌽 (7/10 diversified foods favorable to intestinal health.)
Abstract: The gut microbiome is shaped by diet and influences the host’s metabolism; however, these relationships are complex and can be unique to each individual. We performed deep metagenomic sequencing of 1,203 gut microbiomes from 1,098 people enrolled in the Personalized Responses to Dietary Composition Trial (PREDICT 1), including detailed long-term diet information, as well as hundreds of measurements of Fasting and same-meal postprandial cardiometabolic blood markers were available. We found many significant associations between microbes and specific nutrients, foods, food groups, and general dietary indices, which were mostly due to the presence and diversity of healthy, plant foods. Microbial biomarkers of obesity were reproducible in external cohorts available to the public and in agreement with circulating blood metabolites which are indicators of risk for cardiovascular disease. While some microbes, such as Prevotella blanket and Blastocystis spp., were indicators of favorable postprandial glucose metabolism, the overall composition of the microbiome was predictive for a wide range of cardiometabolic blood markers, including fasting and postprandial glycemic, lipemic and inflammatory indices. The panel of gut species associated with healthy eating habits overlapped those associated with favorable cardiometabolic and postprandial markers, indicating that our large-scale resource can potentially stratify the gut microbiome into generalizable levels of health in individuals without clinically manifest disease. .
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