Gut microbes

In the past not much attention was paid to the intestine (gut). We used to concentrate on the gut’s function of digestion and absorption of nutrients. New medical techniques for analyzing enzymes, sugars and proteins as well as methods for analyzing DNA mean that we now know that our body functions, not on its own, but with help from within.

Gut body crosstalk
The crosstalk between the human host and the gut microbes has numerous positive effects including (1):

• Barrier function – preventing undesirable molecules from entry
• Food digestion
• Immune cell development
• Fat metabolism
• Stem cell renewal
• Nervous system regulation
• Blood vessel growth

The more diverse your gut microbes the healthier you are. However, an imbalance between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ microbes, called gut dysbiosis, can promote disease.

Probiotics
The idea that we can cause beneficial changes in our health by altering the composition of the gut microbiota isn’t new. Scientist, Eli Mechnikov in the late 1800s working at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, developed a theory that aging is caused by toxic bacteria in the gut. He attributed the longevity of Bulgarian peasants to their yogurt consumption. This later inspired Japanese scientist Minoru Shirota Yakult to develop the well known yogurt drinks.(2)

The discovery of the mould, penicillin by Sir Alexander Fleming at St. Mary’s hospital in London (my old Medical School), and the subsequent mass production of antibiotics overshadowed the probiotic movement (forgive the pun) and the early knowledge of beneficial microbes was forgotten.

Chronic disease
The intimate relationship that your gut has with its microbiome is one of the key factors governing your health. This means that whether the disease is a condition of the gut like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or Crohn’s disease or a condition traditionally thought to arise outside the gut e.g. diabetes, or Alzheimer’s disease, the health of your microbiome will determine how well these conditions are managed or indeed whether you succumb to them at all.

Diseases that have clear links with gut microbiota:

• Allergy
• Inflammatory disorders
• Obesity
• Type 2 diabetes
• Heart disease
• Hypertension

Leaky gut
Gut dysbiosis leads to a phenomenon known as ‘leaky gut’. It’s likely that all of us, to some degree suffer with this. Harmful substances passing through the open gates of our gut, set off our immune system. The resulting inflammatory reaction can be at such a low level that we don’t really notice it. This relatively silent inflammation will gradually do damage to our health. What disease or condition we end up getting is likely to be partly governed by our genetics and partly governed by what other harmful substances (e.g. pollution) and microbes we come into contact with.

Conclusion
We ignore our gut microbes at our peril. The gut is an immune organ that is capable of causing low grade background levels of silent inflammation that eventually result in disease or dysfunction, such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Optimum health depends on Gut Eubiosis – a good and diverse mix of gut microbes.