Gut Health
Recent research reveals how gut microbiota profoundly influences our health—from depression and Alzheimer's to cancer. These fascinating discoveries about gut bacteria and probiotics are revolutionizing our understanding of health.
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The role of the gut and its inhabitants in our health is still overlooked or misunderstood by many.
We remember times when everything we definitively know today was dismissed as nonsense or labeled as «alternative medicine.»
Today this research is published in the most prestigious scientific journals in the world. As it has always been and always will be: those who once mocked it or flatly denied it... are now silent.
So we recently read in the science magazine ScienceDaily [source no longer available] with the title «Gut Health May Influence the Likelihood of Developing Alzheimer's»:
«Most microorganisms in our gut are considered good, health-promoting bacteria, but an imbalance of these bacteria can have toxic effects on a person's immune system and has been linked to various diseases such as depression, heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer's.»
Researchers describe how certain «bad» bacteria produce specific acids and toxins that locally degrade the intestinal mucosa, thinning it and making it permeable, which can then interact with the Alzheimer's risk gene variant APOE4.
This can potentially trigger a «neuroinflammatory reaction that impairs brain health and numerous immune functions, and may promote the development of neurodegenerative disorder.»
Conversely: those who have the right bacteria in their gut not only have a healthy gut flora, but may also enjoy better overall health.
In just the past few months, there have been three remarkable publications on this topic – all published in the prestigious journal Cell or Cell Metabolism.
In March, a study [source no longer available] was published showing that in the gut microbiota of depressed women (premenopausal), one bacterium – Klebsiella aerogenes – appears in increased numbers, producing an estradiol-degrading enzyme. Rather counterproductive, since animal studies allowed researchers to prove that this enzyme breaks down estradiol in the animals' bodies. Estradiol is notably an antidepressant-acting female hormone.
In April, another study [source no longer available] showed that the well-known probiotic L. reuteri has anti-tumor effects in animal studies: it travels from the gut into tumors, establishes itself there, and breaks down the essential amino acid tryptophan into Indole-3-aldehyde, which strengthens local cancer-fighting immune cells and thus improves tumor therapy. Groundbreaking, right?
Just recently in May, researchers discovered [source no longer available] that L. plantarum L168 – also a well-known probiotic – produces substances, particularly Indole-3-lactic acid, which in a mouse model for colorectal cancer inhibits intestinal inflammation, suppresses tumor growth through immune cell function, and improves dysbiosis. A simple bacterial strain.
We find this absolutely fascinating.
The thing with the gut and microbes is a bit like everything that affects our health.
You can say, «eat healthy» (e.g., more fermented foods, more raw fruits and vegetables, etc.) and «move more» – or you can break everything down biochemically in such detail that ordinary people can barely understand it anymore.
We know this from sports: everyone knows they should move more. Or you describe hundreds of myokines, signaling molecules that muscle releases during movement, and their complex effects on biochemical signaling... and their effects in turn on the cell and organism.
Yet everyone in the wild knows nothing about any of this... and still remains above-average fit and healthy.
We have the privilege of combining both worlds. That is, the simple action, the straightforward use of common sense – and the joy of engaging with the complexity behind it, distilling essential knowledge for ourselves, and sharing it.
That's precisely what we stand for :-)
