The Gastrointestinal Tract, The Immune System And Mental Health

There are major effects in the United States and Europe to help identify the role of microbial communities in the human body. The colon requires a balance of microbial agents that assist with various functions of the body. An imbalance can lead to C.diff., irritable bowel disease (IBD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), neurological disorders, and obesity just to list a few. Many of these problems have grown to an epidemic proportion. Both the United States and Europe have started projects aimed at the microbial communities of the body and their roles in our health.

Unique microbiota could suggest a human’s current health or if there is any forthcoming chronic disease (Ley, 2006). Families with shared healthy microbes may be able to help relatives who suffer from gastrointestinal disease; but the extant to which the microbiome is shared across generations is not readily known and more research is needed. The core trends for current research revolve around control of obesity, treatment of gastrointestinal diseases such as Crohn’s, and hormonal manipulation in cases of depression. It is imperative to learn to eat for optimal health, to evolve along with the commensals (Turner et al., 2013) as human diets influence diversity of microbes present (Ley et al., 2008). This is a relatively new field with exciting prospects of positive outcomes for some of society’s more chronic

The study intended to look at the gut microbiome that is naturally present within the gut. The research team of the Louisiana State University designed an experiment with lab rats to predict how the manipulation of the gut microbiome with a high fat diet would affect their brain

The hindgut is not only a fermentation vat, but it also stimulates immune responses, protects against pathogens, production and neutralization of toxins, and gene expression in host epithelial tissues (Milinovich et al., 2010). The cecal microbiome is extremely sensitive and can be affected by factors like gastrointestinal disease and dietary changes, which can lead to systemic consequences and even death (Costa et al., 2012). Therefore, healthy and balanced microbiota is vital for the overall wellbeing of the animal. By understanding external factors and how they affect the gut microbiota, this could help in diagnosing medical conditions and provide better treatment and prognosis of gastrointestinal diseases resulting in

Zhang et.al. did a study with the aim of assessing the relative contributions of host genetics and diet in shaping the gut microbiota and modulating metabolic syndrome related phenotypes. They fed wild type mice C57BL/6J) and Apoa-1 knockout mice normal chow or a high fat diet (HFD) for 25 weeks. The knock out mice had impaired glucose tolerance and high body fat at baseline. They measured food intake and body weight evert 2 weeks and measured glucose tolerance and gut microbiota composition and population at baseline and at the end of the intervention at 25 weeks. According to their findings the wild type mice that were fed a high fat diet gained the most weight followed by the gene Apoa knockout mice. The same results were also seen for glucose tolerance test with the wild type mice on a high fat diet showing a larger spike in blood glucose. Significant differences in microbial composition was seen between animals on different diets rather than animals with genetic differences. HFD eliminated bifidobacteria and increased the abundance of endotoxin producing desulfovibrionaceae. Diet differences accounted for

The use of the first form of microbe-based therapeutics, probiotics, is beneficial for preventing disease. These live microorganisms are known to strengthen the equilibrium of the gut flora by the development of healthy gut

Studies have identified different genera of bacteria which are present in the microbiome and their role in nutrient intake. Gut microbiota has 3 main enterotypes Prevotella, Bacteroides and Ruminococcus, there is a strong correlation between the concentration of each bacterial community and the dietary constituents. A diet high in carbohydrates and simple sugars would also indicate and reveal a greater concentration of Prevotella whereas a diet high in protein and animal fats would present a higher concentration of Bacteroides in the gut. A long term change in the diet would permanently shift the concentration of bacteria in the gut to accommodate the new nutrient uptake. This would then change the bacterial barrier in the intestine which could make it more vulnerable due to reduced species richness.

The human gut microbiota has become the subject of researches in recent years and our knowledge of the resident species and their potential functional capacity is rapidly growing. Our gut harbors a complex community of over 100 trillion microbial cells. Therefore, our gut microbiota evolves with us and plays a pivotal role in human health and disease. This has clear effects on physiologic, immunologic, and metabolic processes in human health, aberrations in the gut microbiome and intestinal homeostasis have the capacity for multisystem effects. Changes in microbial composition are implicated in the increasing for a broad range of inflammatory diseases, such as allergic disease, asthma, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), obesity, and associated

Over two-thirds of adults, or nearly 69 percent are considered overweight or obese. Of those, more than one-third are considered to be obese, while more than 1 in 20 are classified with extreme obesity.1 The main causes of these overwhelming rates of overweight and obesity are all too familiar: an unhealthy diet, a sedentary lifestyle and to a lesser extent perhaps genes play a role as well. In recent years, however, researchers have become increasingly focused on a potential additional contributor to the obesity epidemic that lives inside us all: billions and billions of gut microbes or microbiota.2

In this article I read that microbes and their colonies play a huge role in our immune system and are literally everywhere on us, a large and very important part are in our gut. The ones in your gut help with diseases and with your health conditions. The epidemic of CDI in Europe and the USA has caused many people to request the treatment of fecal microbiota transplantation because it eradicates CDI. The new interest has been awakened by the investigation into gut microbiota, which is very important in resistant and energy metabolism. Some diseases result from microbiotic related dysfunctions and that is why we should check into FMT for other disorders also.

Mullin in this article discussed correlation of diet, gut flora, and weight. Standard American diet (SAD) that is a high fat and carbohydrates, and low fiber diet negatively affects gut microbiota. Avoiding inflammatory fat and decreasing sugar intake helps to good bacteria to grow more in the intestine. According to Mullin, when a person cut back the SAD gut start to fertilize more normal flora that will help in losing weight (p. 161). The overgrown bad gut microbitas produce more harmful byproducts that can increase intestine inflammation, promote fat accumulation in the stomach area, and increase insulin resistance (p.

There has been an increased curiosity on how exactly the stomach and brain communicate with each other which lead to the research of the Gut- Brain Axis. The role of intestinal micro biome is key in the HPA axis and the interaction of these two diverse organizations. In this experiment they used adult germ free Swiss Webster Mice and compared them to specific pathogen free mice. These groups of mice were to run through a maze and then had their stress levels monitored after.

A number of studies, predominantly conducted in mice, have established a link between gut microbiota and obesity and have documented that a change in gut bacteria can have an effect on body weight. A 2004 study by Bäckhed et al. study was one of the earliest studies done on this topic and provided some of the first evidence that gut microbiota may play a role in energy balance and subsequently obesity.6 Conventionally raised mice were fed a polysaccharide rich diet and gained 40% more weight than germ-free mice fed the same diet.6 When gut bacteria from the conventionally raised mice was transplanted into the germ-free mice, the germ-free mice experienced a 60% weight gain in 2 weeks despite reduced food intake.6 Researchers attribute the weight

In the abstract, The microbiome: stress, health and disease, it says that bacterial colonisation has a great roles in the gut, the role is the development and maturation of the key systems that influence the CNS programming and signaling, this also consists of the immune and endocrine systems. Alone, they have involved neuropathology of several CNS disorders and form an important communication between the microbiota and the brain in health and disease. Moloney, R.D. et al.’s (2014) write that “research has focused on how the microbiota communicates with the CNS and thereby influence brain function” (Moloney, 2014). These communications are not yet explicated but have neural, humoral, immune and metabolic pathways. The studies on germ-free animals

The relationship between microbiota and human well-being is being recognized increasingly. Microbial communities are crucial to human health as they regulate immunological and metabolic pathways and alteration to them predisposes individuals to various diseases.4 This heavy dependence on microbes begins in the early stages of life, even before birth. Microbes colonize various sites in the body through many different processes. The gut microbiota is formed when the vaginal microbes, associated with preterm birth, access the placenta through the bloodstream and penetrate the intestinal epithelial barrier of the fetus.4 This was proven by two pioneer studies which investigated the microbial colonization of the fetus of pregnant mice by injecting a genetically labelled bacteria in the mice which was consequently found in the amniotic fluid of the offspring after a cesarean section.4 This proved maternal microbial transmission in mammals.