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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – The human GI tract is one of the most densely populated microbial communities on earth with the large intestine housing the most microorganisms. The human microbiome can affect your health in both positive and negative ways. Manipulating the microbial contents of the gut shows promise to improve health, reduce the incidence of heart disease and cancer, and lower the incidence of obesity. The keys to how our internal microbes work, change, protect or attack our bodies is gradually being understood.
While we wait for researchers to slowly unpack the details of our microbial community, many are taking steps to enhance their health. Adding more fiber to your diet offers food to help our healthy microbes flourish. Though the human digestive tract cannot breakdown fiber, microbes in the large intestine can and do. Eating food rich in healthy organisms – yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi, fermented pickles and vegetables, miso, tempeh, natto and kombucha – introduces more microbes into the gut.
Taking over-the-counter probiotic supplements that you can buy at the drugstore, is unlikely to affect your microbiome in any substantial way. Supplements often offer too small a dose and may not have any viable bacteria. Live microbes do best in a moist, cool environment. And, most importantly, a one size fits all approach to supplementation may not be the best approach. We are a long way from understanding the differences and the doses of microbes that would be needed to reverse illness or prevent it in the first place. Why is that?
Changing the gut microbiome to beat illness does hold great potential according to Vanderbilt University biologist Seth Bordenstein, but first scientists must define what makes up a healthy gut microbiome and in whom. Bordenstein and his colleagues studied close to 1,700 Americans of different ages, genders, weights and ethnicities and what they found was a surprise.
Human genomes are 99.9% the same between any two people but differences in the gut microbiome depend on your ethnicity. And, ethnicity is the most consistent factor when looking at which microbes and in what number inhabit your GI tract. From person to person within the same ethnic background there are stable and consistent features of the bacteria present in the gut.
These finding help to explain many things and the discovery holds promise in the growing field of personalized medicine. Many chronic diseases disproportionately affect certain ethnic minorities and the underlying causes for this increased risk are often difficult to explain. Perhaps some of the reasons may lie in the variations in the gut microbiome of that ethnic group and targeted changes could alter risk factors. When the Vanderbilt researchers analyzed data from the American Gut Project and Human Microbiome Projects, they found 12 particular types of bacteria that vary in abundance based on a person’s ethnicity.
Ethnicity captures more than a person’s genetic background. It takes in many factors such as social contacts, possible economics, cultural practices, lifestyle choices, diet choices, and geographical ancestry. Understanding which microbes are more abundant in different groups of people can provide tools that can be harnessed. It is much easier to manipulate a person’s microbial colonies than to alter one’s genes.
Many things affect your individual microbiome – your age, sex, diet, weight, and current health. Now we know that your ethnic background is also important. Defining the differences between different groups of people, may in the future, actually allow us to personalize treatment and prevention of diseases using your microbiome as an internal asset.
© NH Nutrition Consultants, Inc.
Jo-Ann Heslin, MA, RD, CDN is a registered dietitian and the author of 30 books.
Available as eBooks from iTunes and Kindle/Amazon:
Diabetes Counter – the most up-to-date information on managing diabetes
Calorie Counter – a weight loss guide that won’t let you down
Protein Counter – put the latest protein recommendations to work for you
Healthy Wholefoods Counter – planet-friendly eating made easy
Complete Food Counter – food counts and nutrition information at your fingertips
Fat and Cholesterol Counter – newest approach to heart-healthy eating
Available in print from Gallery Books:
Most Complete Food Counter, 3rd Ed.
Your Complete Food Counter App: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/your-complete-food-counter/id444558777?mt=8
For more information on Jo-Ann and her books, go to: www.TheNutritionExperts.com