How the Gut Microbiome Influences Healthy Aging

 How the Gut Microbiome Influences Healthy Aging 

The gut microbiome is defined as “the area in the digestive tract of animals that houses microorganisms like bacteria, archaea, yeast, fungi, and viruses that remain fully alive and functioning”. The gastrointestinal tract (GI tract) is where this is found specifically in humans, which means, this has been part of our body for millennia, but is still not fully understood! Yet, it changes over the lifespan of human lives, evolving to how well the human eats, sleeps, or stays active. When we age, the GI tract undergoes inflammation, impaired response to what was eaten last (sensitive stomach problems), and much more. This sporadic and less known gut microbiome gives the approach to the saying “you are what you eat” a new view and a deeper insight into what could make the future of human health more interesting. 

One scientific article that I was able to find related to the gut microbiome was from Dr. Yutao Chen et al. titled, “Identification of gut microbiome signatures associated with longevity provides a promising modulation target for healthy aging” which dealt with how the microbiome ages along with the person, but compared the gut microbiome from Chinese elderly to a younger control group. Also, they found that the Chinese men and women’s diet was filled with beneficial bacteria rich resources.  Data from an independent Italian cohort, which included a group of the long-lived people, was used to validate these findings. I found it so interesting to think of how different cultures could be up to something so beneficial. Then I realized, what about the cultures/societies who lack the basics of upkeeping a healthy microbiome? 

This study was very similar to our speaker Dr. Vitaterna, who specializes in topics pertaining to the gut microbiome (have it be humans, or any other animals). Dr. Vitaterna and colleagues examined the effects of prebiotic supplements of galactooligosaccharides (GOS) and polydextrose (PDX) on sleeping patterns in response to sleep disruptions in male rats for this study titled “A Prebiotic Diet Alters the Fecal Microbiome and Improves Sleep in Response to Sleep Disruption in Rats” (Bowers et al. 2022). Dr. Vitaterna and team go on to discuss and experiment on how the world’s evolving society, including activities like light exposure to electrical light, screen exposure (phones), workplace pressures, flying, and other food/drink stimulants like caffeine, is causing sleep to become disrupted. Their research demonstrates that feeding the experimental group of rats a prebiotic diet increased NREM and REM sleep, increased sleep during sleep disruption, and altered the fecal microbiome as a result of the diet (Bowers et al. 2022).

Tying in our amazing speaker, Dr. Vitaterna, and Dr. Yutao Chen et al., I found an amazing newspaper article titled, “A Changing Gut Microbiome May Predict How Well You Age”. This article dug deep into the new health benefits that the gut microbiome can unlock, and also includes how we as humans can age in a healthy manner. Anahad O’Conner, who was the author of this paper, stated, “People 65 and older who are relatively lean and physically active have a higher abundance of certain microbes in their guts compared to seniors who are less fit and healthy. People who develop early signs of frailty also have less microbial diversity in their guts” (O’Conner 2021). This to me was eye opening, giving me new insight into thinking, maybe we don’t have to have a downhill slope of aging, where it is miserable and have to say goodbye too early to the activities that we love, like running, or playing basketball. A question did arise from it though, would the increased amount of fiber play a role in helping defend against the aging of our microbiome, preserving it as a result? 

The two scientific articles help expand what we know about the microbiome, but only open the door for us. The world of the microbiome is barely scratched on the surface, and I cannot wait to see where this will be in 10-20 years. Maybe we’ll put some of the findings into use and be as active and “healthy” as any generation ever to have walked this planet. 

Works Cited 

Bowers SJ, Summa KC, Thompson RS, González A, Vargas F, Olker C, Jiang P, Lowry CA, Dorrestein PC, Knight R, Wright KP Jr, Fleshner M, Turek FW and Vitaterna MH (2022) A Prebiotic Diet Alters the Fecal Microbiome and Improves Sleep in Response to Sleep Disruption in Rats. Front. Neurosci. 16:889211.

O'connor, Anahad. “A Changing Gut Microbiome May Predict How Well You Age.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 18 Mar. 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/18/well/eat/microbiome-aging.html?searchResultPosition=. 

Yutao Chen, Hongchao Wang, Wenwei Lu, Tong Wu, Weiwei Yuan, Jinlin Zhu, Yuan Kun Lee, Jianxin Zhao, Hao Zhang, Wei Chen. (2022) Human gut microbiome aging clocks based on taxonomic and functional signatures through multi-view learning. Gut Microbes 14:1.