Your Microbiome & You: An FAQ for Better Health
What the heck is a 'microbiome'?
Your microbiome is basically an ecosystem made up of all the bacteria, fungi, viruses, and their genes that naturally live in and on your body. All of these microorganisms work together to support your body’s basic functions, helping you to digest food, ward off illness, and develop and adapt your immune system to the environment around you.
Does everyone have one, and are they all the same?
Yes, we all have one, and no, they are not all the same. In fact, everyone's microbiome is unique, and changes all the time. It's initially formed during your first few years of life, but will adapt over time due to diet, medications, your age and your environment—to name just a few factors.
If everyone has one, why should I care about my microbiome?
Certain foods, lifestyle habits, medications and environmental exposures can disrupt your microbiome. And a disrupted or poorly functioning microbiome can increase your risk of developing health conditions like diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, allergies, and inflammatory bowel disease.
It's also important to know that it doesn't take a lot to disrupt your microbiome. In fact, the standard American diet isn’t great for your microbiome, as it tends to be high in saturated fat, refined carbs, and low in fiber.
OK, so how do I take steps to improve it?
There are two types of foods that can help to boost your microbiome—prebiotics and probiotics. Prebiotics act as food for the healthy bacteria that already live in our guts, naturally. Foods high in prebiotics include garlic, onions, leeks, asparagus, bananas, barley, apples and flaxseed.
Probiotics, on the other hand, are the healthy bacteria themselves. A good number of these exist naturally in our bodies—especially if we have a diet that's rich in probiotics. (See above.) However, some of those same bacteria can be found in certain fermented foods like kimchi, kefir, yogurt, and sauerkraut. Some studies have shown that consuming probiotics can significantly reduce glucose, HbA1c, and insulin in those with diabetes.
So if I add these foods to my diet, my microbiome should be healthy, right?
That's a great place to start, but simply adding beneficial foods isn't necessarily going to be enough to ensure a healthy microbiome. Because much of our standard American diet is detrimental to gut health, you may also want to explore reducing or eliminating foods that work against the bacteria in your body. That may mean reducing the amount of wheat and gluten you consume, as well as processed meats, dairy, refined oil, artificial sweeteners, and alcohol. These foods tend to be proinflammatory and can negatively affect healthy gut bacteria.
Fabulous. I'm feeling better already. What else can I do to help my microbiome function optimally?
Increasing your fiber intake is almost always a good idea. In addition to promoting gut health, fiber slows down digestion of foods so you stay fuller longer as well as help control blood sugar and cholesterol. Fiber rich foods include beans, fresh vegetables, nuts, seeds, fruits, and whole grains.
Managing stress can also help to boost your gut health, as research has shown that chronic stress can disturb the gut microbiome in mice (Gao et al, 2018). It's also important to start moving, and to keep moving. One study suggests that exercise promotes compositional and functional changes in gut microbiota independent of diet, but this only works if you keep at it.
Finally, get some sleep. Short sleep duration and/or disruption of sleep are associated with gut dysbiosis. Interestingly, there's some evidence to suggest that probiotic supplementation has been shown to improve sleep quality.
References
Claus, S., Guillou, H. & Ellero-Simatos, S. The gut microbiota: a major player in the toxicity of environmental pollutants?. npj Biofilms Microbiomes 2, 16003 (2016)
Sun J, Buys NJ. Glucose- and glycaemic factor-lowering effects of probiotics on diabetes: a meta-analysis of randomised placebo-controlled trials. Br J Nutr. 2016 Apr 14;115(7):1167-77. doi: 10.1017/S0007114516000076. Epub 2016 Feb 22. PMID: 26899960.
Bian X, Chi L, Gao B, Tu P, Ru H and Lu K (2017) Gut Microbiome Response to Sucralose and Its Potential Role in Inducing Liver Inflammation in Mice. Front. Physiol. 8:487. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2017.00487 & Qin, Y., Roberts, J.D., Grimm, S.A. et al. An obesity-associated gut microbiome reprograms the intestinal epigenome and leads to altered colonic gene expression. Genome Biol 19, 7 (2018).
Jacob M. Allen et al. (2018) Exercise Alters Gut Microbiota Composition and Function in Lean and Obese Humans, Med Sci Sports Exerc
Matenchuk BA, Mandhane PJ, Kozyrskyj AL. Sleep, circadian rhythm, and gut microbiota. Sleep Med Rev. 2020 Oct;53:101340. doi: 10.1016/j.smrv.2020.101340. Epub 2020 May 13. PMID: 32668369.
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