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The secrets to healthy aging found in your gut
Every day, it seems we’re learning more about our gut’s role in the body and our health.
The bacterial “soup” in your gut (more technically known as the gut microbiome) helps facilitate communication between the gut and the brain via a two-way network known as the gut-brain axis.
That communication includes biochemical signaling that occurs between the gastrointestinal tract and the central nervous system, with impacts throughout the body — including how well, or how poorly, we age.
People who are destined for Alzheimer’s disease have a distinctly different gut microbiome from people who will not end up with the disease.
In fact, research has concluded that your body’s entire aging process may be linked to age-related changes in your gut microbiome.
Now, a large-scale study offers further proof that this is true…
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Gut bacteria get less diverse as we age
Scientists from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research Genome Institute of Singapore conducted the first large-scale study of over 200 octogenarians (people aged 80 to 89) to investigate how the gut microbiome changes with age.
Unfortunately, they observed a significant decrease in the diversity of bacteria living in the participants’ guts, including strains that play a key role in aging and could be targeted to promote healthy aging.
An important find was the decline of a specific bacterium, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, which produces butyrate, a crucial short-chain fatty acid essential for maintaining gut health. Butyrate reduces inflammation, supports the gut barrier and immune function and facilitates gut-brain communication.
They also discovered specific bacteria that may act as markers for inflammation, blood sugar and vitamin levels, including B12. For example, Parabacteroides goldsteinii is a probiotic associated with fasting blood glucose levels.
These bacteria could be used to monitor, with the help of non-invasive testing, whether a person is aging healthily or leaning towards chronic disease and frailty.
Associate Professor Niranjan Nagarajan, Associate Director, Genome Architecture, and Senior Group Leader, Laboratory of Metagenomic Technologies and Microbial Systems at A*STAR GIS, added, “Our findings lay the groundwork for future research aimed at developing targeted probiotic and prebiotic therapies to enable healthy aging through gut microbiome modulation.”
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Improve your gut, improve how you age
Clearly, the more diverse your gut microbiome is, the better your chances are of aging healthily into old age.
But how do you make sure that happens? Luckily, it’s not hard. It all comes down to what you feed your gut.
Basically, there are three key players that keep a gut microbiome healthy:
- Fiber. Want to grow old without the burden of disability, depression, dementia, heart disease or other chronic diseases? Fiber can make this happen. Australian researchers found that people with the greatest fiber intake had close to an 80 percent higher chance of living a longer, healthier life than those who weren’t consuming much fiber. Eat more fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
- Prebiotics fiber from carbohydrates is what feeds gut bacteria. Reach for bananas, flax seed, lentils and beans.
- Probiotics help replenish the good bacteria. You can take a probiotic supplement that contains live bacteria or consume fermented foods like yogurt, kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut and others.
To specifically improve your chances of retaining those helpful bacteria that produce butyrate, reach for polyphenols.
A polyphenol-rich diet improved intestinal permeability (supported the gut’s barrier) in older people, according to a European study published in September in the journal Clinical Nutrition.
They saw that consuming up to three daily portions of apples, cocoa, dark chocolate, green tea, cranberries, oranges or pomegranate juice improved intestinal permeability by making specific changes in the intestinal microbiota.
“A higher intake of fruits, vegetables and foods such as those described in this paper provide fiber and polyphenols that could help counterbalance the damage of permeability due to aging,” notes Cristina Andrés-Lacueva, lead author of the study.
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Sources:
The secret of healthy aging may lie in our gut — Eureka Alert
Gut metagenomes of Asian octogenarians reveal metabolic potential expansion and distinct microbial species associated with aging phenotypes — Nature communications
Gut microbiome — Cleveland Clinic
By Joyce Hollman
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