The gut microbiome significantly influences long-term health, akin to physical fitness. As individuals age, the balance of microbial populations shifts unfavorably—one of the early detriments of aging. By the time someone reaches their mid-30s, meaningful changes become evident. Beneficial species that produce metabolites contributing to tissue function decline, while harmful species associated with chronic inflammation increase. Thankfully, interventions can restore a more youthful microbial balance. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) from a young donor to an older patient is one such approach. In short-lived species, FMT improves health and extends lifespan. Although FMT is currently used in a limited clinical context, the broader availability of therapies to reverse gut microbiome aging remains uncertain. At present, self-experimenters are the primary recipients of this treatment. Research on the gut microbiome’s role in aging and neurodegenerative diseases has intensified. As the global population ages,…
Omics Points to a Role for the Gut Microbiome in Aging of the Hippocampus
Some of the metabolites produced by the gut microbiome aid function in the brain. For example, there is good evidence for butyrate produced by the microbiome to improve neurogenesis in the brain via modulating expression of BDNF. Unfortunately, the amounts of a number of beneficial metabolites produced by the gut microbiome declines with age, while harmful metabolites and inflammatory signaling increases. Researchers here gather data to support a role in the hippocampus specifically for a number of metabolites that originate in the gut microbiome, the area of the brain most involved in memory function. This and many other lines of research suggest that more attention should be given to the development of therapies capable of lasting restoration of a more youthful gut microbiome, such as fecal microbiota transplantation. Aging is an intricate biological event that occurs in both vertebrates and…
Cholesterol-Consuming Gut Microbes Lower Heart Disease Risk
Read More at Fight Aging! Variations in the relative proportions of microbial species making up the gut microbiome apparently contribute to variations in LDL-cholesterol in the bloodstream. Lower LDL-cholesterol sustained over a lifetime produces a slower development of atherosclerotic plaque, and lower risk of consequent cardiovascular disease. While it seems likely there is no one optimal gut microbiome, there are certainly specific improvements that can be achieved for most older individuals. Fortunately, producing lasting changes in the balance of microbial populations making up the gut microbiome is an achievable goal. Fecal microbiota transplantation works well, for example. This is a little explored but potentially quite useful area of medical development. Researchers analyzed metabolites and microbial genomes from more than 1,400 participants in the Framingham Heart Study, a decades-long project focused on risk factors for cardiovascular disease. The team discovered that…
For Years, I Thought My Gut Issues Were From Dairy—Then I Got a Surprising Diagnosis
Read More at Well+Good [[{“value”:” There’s an ongoing joke among my close friends and family, and it’s that, well, I’m gassy. For most of my adult life, I’ve experienced gas, bloating, and overall stomach discomfort after eating. At home, my father would tease me that I took after his side of the family when I would stink up the living room. After a dinner out with my close girlfriends while living in New York City in my 20s, I passed gas on the subway, and they all hurried away from me, plugging their noses. Years later, my loving husband stowed Febreze spray in the drawer of his nightstand for when my tummy was upset. For years, I wondered why I was the stinky one in my circle. After doing Whole30 (a monthlong elimination diet) at the age of 25, I self-diagnosed…
Gain or Loss of Specific Microbial Species May Be a Better Measure of Gut Microbiome Aging
Read More at Fight Aging! It now costs little to determine the contents of the gut microbiome, producing a list of microbial species and their prevalence. Numerous companies offer this service. This data can be sliced in numerous ways, but as researchers note here, it is the gain and loss of specific populations with advancing age that produces contributions to aging. More general measures of diversity or change, those that give little to no weight to which specific microbial populations alter in abundance, do not produce good correlations with degenerative aging. It is important to consider the actions and mechanisms of specific microbes: are they causing chronic inflammation, are they generating beneficial or harmful metabolites, and so forth. The gut microbiome is a modifier of disease risk because it interacts with nutrition, metabolism, immunity, and infection. Aging-related health loss has…
Correlation Between a Worse Gut Microbiome and Aging of the Heart
Read More at Fight Aging! The state of the gut microbiome may be as influential on health as exercise. The balance of microbial populations changes with age, in detrimental ways, for reasons that are not fully understood. The decline of the immune system, responsible for gardening the gut microbiome and defending intestinal tissue, may be one of the more important factors. With age, microbial populations producing beneficial metabolites decline in number, while populations contributing to chronic inflammation grow in number. There are interventions, such as fecal microbiota transplant, that can reverse these changes in a lasting way to improve health in animal studies, but as yet this strategy has yet to be introduced into human medicine as a treatment for aging. Measurement of the gut microbiome is now readily accomplished via metagenomic techniques, and so scientists can begin to correlate…
Targeting the Gut Microbiome to Treat Aging
Read More at Fight Aging! The distribution of microbial populations making up the gut microbiome changes with age in ways that are harmful to health, causing a reduction in production of beneficial metabolites and an increase in chronic inflammation. Animal studies make it clear that some approaches to restoring a more youthful gut microbiome, such as fecal microbiota transplantation from young donors, can produce a sustained rejuvenation of the gut microbiome and consequent improvement in later life health. Given the comparatively simplicity of this approach, and that the state of the gut microbiome can accurately measured via low-cost assays, this seems a cost-effective, near-term approach to the treatment of aging. The link between human health and the gut microbiome is profound and has been speculated upon for thousands of years. In 400 B.C., it was suggested by Hippocrates that “bad…
Two Year Update on a Study of One with Flagellin Immunization to Adjust the Gut Microbiome
Read More at Fight Aging! This post is an update for an earlier report on a self-experiment with flagellin immunization, tested as an approach to adjust the balance of microbial populations in the aging gut microbiome in a favorable, more youthful direction. Commentary and data from the earlier report are repeated, with the addition of a new assessment of the gut microbiome taken two years after the end of the experiment. In summary, changes from this short and simple intervention were largely favorable, and largely sustained over this period of time. Flagellin is the protein that makes up bacterial flagellae, and it is hypothesized that there is a sizable overlap between populations of gut microbes that possess flagellae and populations of gut microbes that are harmful rather than helpful. The harmful microbes are largely a problem because they contribute to…
More Data on the Effects of Aging on the Gut Microbiome
Read More at Fight Aging! The gut microbiome changes with age, a shifting of microbial populations that increases chronic inflammation and reduces the production of beneficial metabolites. These changes may be largely due to the age-related decline of the immune system, responsible for removing unwanted microbes, but significant changes occur early enough in life, in the mid-30s, for there to be other factors involved. Researchers are actively engaged in mapping the differences between an old microbiome and a young microbiome, work that will likely lend support to various approaches to therapy intended to rejuvenate the gut microbiome, forcing its balance of microbes towards a more youthful configuration. Probiotics are an obvious strategy, but much more data is needed to validate the specifics of such an approach, and it is far from clear that presently available probiotics, even in large amounts,…