Welcome back people!! Are you ready to talk about poop? Because I sure am! This week we are going to be discussing the ~microbiome~ of our good ol’ intestines. The microbiota in our intestines are super important for our health and helping us to prevent disease, and I don’t know about you, but anything that keeps me healthy is something I want to learn about. Let’s dive into this fun topic!
According to Nature’s reporting, the microbiome starts to develop in the moment of birth. In the mom’s birth canal there are many different microorganisms that are passed to the baby. In fact, they have in some cases used fluid from the mom’s birth canal and put it on a baby that was birthed through c-section. They also mentioned that your microbiome becomes pretty stable in early childhood, which is different than the previous years where it is changing constantly. The microbiome changes somewhat when it comes to the influence of environmental factors, but they stress that diet and use of drugs like antibiotics have the biggest effect on the gut microbiome. There is more diversity in higher fiber diets seen in indigenous communities rather than modern western diet. Because of all this, we have a good mutualistic relationship with our microbiota, but with antibiotics among other things, we are hurting our microbiome and leaving ourselves more susceptible to disease. Studies and samples of the microbiome of the gut of humans are still minimal and so we still don’t have enough information to say any conclusion is definite.
The second bit of research I looked at came from the US National Library of Medicine and they emphasized some of the same points that Nature did. They pointed out that the microbiome becomes relatively stable at 3 years old, similar to an adult’s. Similarly to my other source, they also emphasized that long-term diet plays a huge role on someone’s microbiome because what you put in your body is what the bacteria are eating. Certain actions or lifestyles can also affect some microbiota. People who exercise regularly are more likely to have a bacteria type in their microbiota that can convert lactate into propionate. Fecal transplant has also been pretty successful with some intestinal diseases like C. difficile. Although fecal transplant is able to be successful in most cases and give the recipient more healthy microbiota that helps with disease prevention, it can also prove consequential if a pathogenic bacteria or other microorganism is transferred. Finally, the article mentioned that there is a big push now to understand that antibiotics are not good for our overall health, unless they are absolutely necessary to take. The antibiotics can kill the good bacteria in your gut leaving you susceptible to pathogens. There is also an increasing number of antibiotic resistant genes in the gut which is a growing concern.
I have learned a lot today with these two articles about the gut microbiome. The microbiota in the gut obviously play a huge role in our health by protecting us from specific pathogens and helping us digest stuff. We depend on these microorganisms and they depend on us to survive. It is interesting how both articles emphasized the growth of the microbiome until 3 years old and how it stays stable after that for the most part, unless there are major changes when it comes to drugs and diet. This fact seems to me like it is important during our growth into adulthood, possibly protecting us from diseases that could be harmful. It is also crazy cool and a little weird that fecal transplants are taking place as I write this blog. The idea seems a little weird if I’m honest, but it seems to be working for the most part which makes sense. If you introduce microbiota that a person needs, it will be beneficial for them and more than likely contribute a lot to the prevention of diseases, as seen in the C. difficile research from the US National Library of Medicine. Lastly, in my opinion, the most important point we need to focus on is to NOT overuse antibiotics, it has a dangerous effect. If our own healthy microbiota is down because of antibiotics then we might get sick easier, and like I said before, that does not sound like a fun time. Overuse of antibiotics can have long term effects and have already contributed to antibiotic resistant genes like I mentioned previously. This is leading to a potential crisis because if antibiotics have no effect on bad bacteria……well I don’t want to think about that, you can probably guess that we would contract a lot more disease with no treatment options.
There you go! Our gut microbiome is SUPER important to our health and we need to take care of it by not overusing antibiotics!!!!! Thank you for reading this important information…and my ranting, as per usual!
Here’s your weekly dose of memes, enjoy!
Microbiology 