New Year’s Resolutions for Your Microbiome

New Year’s Resolutions for Your Microbiome

Get dirty, sleep, eat a diversity of real food, avoid antibiotics The beginning of a new year is always a time for reflection and resolutions for lifestyle changes and New Year’s resolutions! I’d suggest if you want to improve your life and health, start with the very numerous, yet invisible portion of yourself – your microbiome.  The digestive system microbiome is best understood of all the human microbiomes. The importance of these invisible organisms for human health is increasingly apparent. However, scientists are still unraveling what makes up a “healthy” and “unhealthy” gut microbiome. It’s too early in the science to offer exact prescriptives, such as specific probiotics to take at certain doses or how many grams of fiber to incorporate in your diet. However, recent observational and even experimental research, points to general suggestions to improve gut microbiome health. Interestingly many of these suggestions often align with age-old healthy habits, but some may seem initially counterintuitive. 

The Secret is Out!

The Secret is Out!

In an (Invisible) Galaxy (Not) so Far Away The mirrored, twinkling hall of the exhibit The Secret World Inside You transports you to the fantastical world of your microbial self. This new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York educates young and old about the microbes that live in and on each of us and outnumber our human cells. What are these organisms? How do we get them? Where do they live? What do they do? How do they influence our health and behavior?  Curator Susan Perkins, PhD kindly invited and toured me, another science mom friend (Robin Munro), and our oldest daughters (ages 7 and 8) through the exhibit. We were all astounded at the fantastic features and information in the exhibit. It was one of those rare exhibits that appeals to all ages. Microbial Fun for Everyone The three years of planning by curators Susan Perkins, PhD and Rob DeSalle, PhD and AMNH staff are obvious in the attention to detail, scientific accuracy, and engaging content of The Secret World Inside You exhibit. The curators have developed the perfect exhibit to bring everyone together to this common table to learn about the quickly

The Vaginal Microbiome: “Healthy” Differs with Ethnicity

The Vaginal Microbiome: “Healthy” Differs with Ethnicity

What is a “normal and healthy” microbiome seems to differ among individuals and ethnic groups.  One of the goals with the Human Microbiome Project (HMP) was to characterize the healthy microbiome of different human body sites. The idea being that microbiome science needed to have a baseline of “normal and healthy” to compare to “dysbiotic and ill”. The ~200 individuals sampled for the HMP provided a surprising insight – there is no one healthy microbiome for a given site. Just as there are healthy people of a range of heights from 4’8” to 7’8”, so are there a range of healthy microbiome communities. However, the one body site thought to have a distinct microbiome across all women was the vaginal microbiome.

A Bacterial Scoop on Poop

A Bacterial Scoop on Poop

Changes in poop quantity, quality, and color is a concern to gut microbiome scientists and parents alike. In Science of Mom’s recent post “How Often Should a Baby Poop?” she discusses the amazing variability in pooping patterns between babies and also as a kid ages. I was, of course, excited to see that she mentioned a little about the influence of the gut microbiome, but her post inspired me to think more about pooping patterns from a microbiome perspective. Individual variability First, it’s not too surprising that there’s a huge variability between infants and pooping frequency. Several studies demonstrate that each individual’s gut microbiome is unique. In the guts of healthy adults, a single, unique bacterial strain can be used to identify each individual [1]. With each bacterial strain comes some unique abilities. Various bacterial taxa digest different foods and/or produce and transport different vitamins, amino acids, and other basic nutrients. So microbiome community A may process the nutrients faster, more efficiently, or completely than microbiome community B. That difference in the microbiome community function plus the differences in human gut anatomy due to human genetics could lead to a wide range in pooping frequency. Feeding differences Second, as Science

How does the probiotic LGG work?

How does the probiotic LGG work?

The probiotic LGG works by making resident gut bacteria produce anti-inflammatory products. How do probiotics work? Do they do anything or am I flushing money down the toilet? Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG), one of the most common probiotics available, can improve a variety of digestive disorders [1, 2], psychiatric disorders [3], and atopic dermatitis [4] in infants and children. LGG does not “move in” and establish residence in the gut [5]. It simply passes through. Findings from this study by Eloe-Fadrosh et al. suggests that probiotic bacteria may not need to take up residence in the human gut to be helpful, but that these effects are variable among individuals. Claire Fraser’s research group at the University of Maryland, Institute for Genome Sciences and colleagues at the Massachusetts General Hospital for Children examined samples from an open label study (people knew they were taking a probiotic) to assess safety of the probiotic LGG [6] in healthy, elderly patients. Fecal samples of 12 healthy adults (7 females and 5 males) ages 65 to 80 were collected prior-to, during, and one month after taking the LGG probiotic twice daily. The number of different types of bacteria and genetic activity of the microbiome was compared within and