Microbiome Diversity in Your Gut Affects Your Health

Lately, I've read a few books on how gut health affects your overall health, including your weight, mood, allergies, and immune system. My conclusion is that the diversity of species in your microbiome has a definite impact on your well-being, but as the authors of these two books admit, easy prescriptive advice is still a long ways away.

The first book, by Giulia Enders, explains a lot about the inner workings of the small and large intestine, and provides helpful tips for an optimum toilet experience (spoiler: put your feet on a stool). Her book explores how the gut modulates immunity, and why the presence or absence of various species of bacteria affect whether or not you are allergic to particular things. Increasing the amount of prebiotics (starch and fiber that are not easy to digest and therefore nourish bacteria in the lower intestine) in one's diet can lead to a reduction in levels of anxiety and obesity. There is also the option of fighting "bad" germs that cause disease with competitive "good" germs that fill the available ecological niches, in effect pushing harmful microbes out.

Unfortunately, the results of research in this area is not yet detailed enough to be prescriptive, but it does give you some ideas. Giulia managed to cure her own skin condition by experimenting on herself!

The Sonnenburgs, a married pair of physicians, adopt a somewhat less humorous tone in The Good Gut, but the main messages are very similar. These Stanford researchers cite many experiments that demonstrate a causal link between the species in our microbiota, and whether or not we suffer from depression or obesity. Diversity in our microbiota has been greatly reduced by antibiotics, industrial food, chemical toxins and the heavy use of cleaning compounds. Their recommendations include a more discriminating approach to antibiotics, consuming probiotics, and eating a greater quantity and variety of whole foods, such as vegetables and grains in less processed forms.

Again, the research is still too basic to be prescriptive, but at least it points you in the right direction. Someday, the science will get there.

For my own part, having struggled with allergies and issues related to too much candida albicans in my system, applying these lessons has yielded some good results. Compared to six months ago, I am slimmer, my joint pain is gone, and my mood is generally better. Was it the fermented cabbage, the extra vegetables, or higher Omega 3 levels as a result of eating more fish? Maybe it's just the arrival of spring.

In any case, no one ever felt worse as a result of moderate exercise and a healthier diet. Well, no reasonable person... Cheers!