There has been a huge increase in studies being done on the human microbiome in recent years, starting with the Human Microbiome Project conducted by the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) research initiative, first launched in 2007. Initially, it focused on identifying and characterizing the components of the human microbiota. The second phase, known as the Integrative Human Microbiome Project, was launched in 2014 to shed light on the roles of microbes in health and disease.
As a result, human microbiome studies have gone from being fringe science twenty years ago to cutting-edge scientific studies with a focus on data-driven diagnostics and medical intervention coming in the near future.
What is the Human Microbiome?
The human microbiome is simply the collection of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites in our bodies, but mostly found in our digestive tract. Most of our microbiome is made of bacteria, with over 100 trillion bacteria found in our digestive tract. In fact, we have more non-human DNA inside our bodies than we do our own human DNA.
What Makes a Healthy or Unhealthy Microbiome?
The microbiome is made of beneficial and harmful bacteria, and countless studies have now proven that the old saying “you are what you eat” has some truth.
When we eat a healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables and low in animal protein, particularly processed meats, but all meats in general, then we will have a healthy microbiome with more beneficial bacteria and less harmful ones. On the other hand, a high-fat, high-sugar, high-protein diet, as seen in a typical “Western-style” diet, produces more unhealthy bacteria. This also causes inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract. Multiple studies have now shown that the changes to your microbiome can be drastically altered by diet in as little as one day. That is great news because it means you can adjust your diet and develop a healthier microbiome quickly.
Stress has also recently been linked through numerous scientific and clinical studies to disrupt the human microbiome and is, therefore, also closely linked to inflammation.
The Link Between Inflammatory Bowel Disease and the Human Microbiome
The link between the human microbiome and IBD is becoming increasingly clear. An unhealthy microbiome means that the internal layer of your digestive tract, called the mucosa layer, becomes permeable, allowing harmful substances and potentially harmful bacteria and viruses to pass through. This permeability is directly linked to inflammation. If ignored, that inflammation can trigger a flare-up of IBD. Whether it can cause IBD or just make it worse is still unclear.
However, when you eat a healthy diet, you promote a healthy microbiome, which in turn makes your gastrointestinal tract less likely to become inflamed. So, promoting a healthy microbiome is now being studied more and more as a method to aid in the treatment of all forms of inflammatory bowel disease.
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