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The Gut and Heart Connection
Published in Mark C Houston, The Truth About Heart Disease, 2023
The gut microbiome is a collection of bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other organisms that are often referred to as “microbes”. They inhabit the human intestine and play an essential role in human health and disease (Figure 11.1). There exists a very close information exchange between your body and the intestinal microbes, as they perform a vital role in digestion, immune defense, nervous system regulation, and metabolism. Studies have shown that the composition of the GM and the substances that they make are undeniably related to the occurrence of various diseases—especially CHD and MI. Many researchers have demonstrated that the intestinal microbiome is a “virtual organ” with endocrine function. The active substances produced by it can affect your physiology, health, functionality, and risk of cardiovascular diseases.
The Invisible Army
Published in Norman Begg, The Remarkable Story of Vaccines, 2023
Bacteria are single-celled, living organisms. They are tiny. Measuring between one and ten micrometres (millionths of a metre) across, they are only visible under a microscope. In comparison, human hair is between 17 and 180 micrometres thick. Bacteria can replicate themselves every twenty minutes, and have adapted to live in almost any environment. They have been found thriving in radioactive waste, boiling hot acid springs and deep in the earth’s crust. One gram of soil from your garden contains 40 million bacteria. The total weight of all the bacteria on planet earth exceeds the weight of all the animals (including humans). Our bodies are teeming with bacteria. We have 37 trillion of them, the same as the total number of cells in our body. If you were to lay all the bacteria in your body, side by side, they would stretch around the circumference of the earth. Your gut alone contains up to a thousand different species of bacteria. Most of these are harmless passengers and some are actually very helpful. We couldn’t live without the bacteria that inhabit our gut, helping us digest our food. The bacteria that inhabit our gut are collectively called our microbiome. A poorly functioning gut microbiome makes us prone to obesity, inflammatory bowel disease, and autoimmune diseases of the bowel. A bacterium that attacks its host is thankfully a rare event. Tuberculosis, whooping cough, diphtheria and tetanus are all examples of infections caused by bacteria that have decided to turn nasty.
Brain Health
Published in Carolyn Torkelson, Catherine Marienau, Beyond Menopause, 2023
Carolyn Torkelson, Catherine Marienau
Probiotics and prebiotics: We have said it before—a healthy gut is critical for a healthy brain. You can optimize your gut health by taking probiotics (the right bacteria for your gut) and prebiotics (the right food for those bacteria). In the Brain Maker, Dr. David Perlmutter discusses how healthy gut bacteria help control inflammation, bolster the integrity of the intestinal wall, and produce important chemicals for brain health.13 An unhealthy gut microbiome can make the microbial population become more inflammatory, producing specialized proteins that induce immune cells to damage neurons in the brain.
Resveratrol Attenuates Ankylosing Spondylitis in Mice by Inhibiting the TLR4/NF-κB/NLRP3 Pathway and Regulating Gut Microbiota
Published in Immunological Investigations, 2023
Ming-Hui Ding, Peng-Gang Xu, Ying Wang, Bao-di Ren, Jun-Li Zhang
Increasing evidence claims that the gut microbiota plays a critical role in AS pathogenesis (Babaie et al. 2018). The gut microbiota colonizes in the gastrointestinal tract and offers many benefits to the host health and immune responses (Babaie et al. 2018). Attributed to the rapid development of various novel sequencing technologies in recent years, gut microbiota has been proved to be involved in the pathogenesis of various inflammatory diseases and autoimmune diseases, including AS (Gill et al. 2015). A metagenomics-based study suggests that AS patients presented with imbalanced composition of gut microbiota and loss of microbial diversity and stability (Wen et al. 2017). Rath et al. stated that an aseptic environment failed to induce the characteristic of AS in rats (Rath et al. 1996). All in all, AS may be improved by modulating gut microbiota balance.
Compensatory intestinal antibody response against pro-inflammatory microbiota after bariatric surgery
Published in Gut Microbes, 2022
Torsten P.M. Scheithauer, Mark Davids, Maaike Winkelmeijer, Xanthe Verdoes, Ömrüm Aydin, Maurits de Brauw, Arnold van de Laar, Abraham S. Meijnikman, Victor E.A. Gerdes, Daniël van Raalte, Hilde Herrema, Max Nieuwdorp
The gut microbiome is a collection of microbial organisms, including bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and viruses in the gastrointestinal tract.6 A plethora of studies have highlighted the involvement of the gut microbiome in numerous diseases like obesity and T2D6. An increase in pro-inflammatory bacterial species, including proteobacteria, and bacterial components, such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and flagellin may be partially responsible for the so-called low-grade inflammation observed in metabolic diseases.6–8 A pro-inflammatory gut microbiome may also trigger an immune response via bacterial translocation or influx of LPS and flagellin into the blood circulation toward metabolically active tissues.6,7 Nevertheless, convincing evidence for this concept in humans is still lacking.
Microbial hydrogen economy alleviates colitis by reprogramming colonocyte metabolism and reinforcing intestinal barrier
Published in Gut Microbes, 2022
Li Ge, Jie Qi, Bo Shao, Zhenzhen Ruan, Yueran Ren, Shujing Sui, Xinpei Wu, Xueqiang Sun, Shuman Liu, Sha Li, Changqing Xu, Wengang Song
It is increasingly recognized that the gut microbiome plays a crucial role in human health, and the dysregulated microbiome has been implicated in a number of human diseases, including IBD, obesity, diabetes, cancer, and neurological disorders.12,13 Emerging evidence suggests the colonic microbial hydrogen economy is involved in the composition and homeostasis of intestinal microbiota.3 Thus, we wanted to determine whether HS administration modulated the gut microbiome in mice with DSS-induced colitis. To illustrate the temporal dynamics of the gut microbiome, we performed a comparative microbiome analysis of feces by performing 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) pyrosequencing in the V4 regions. Fecal samples were collected before (at the end of day 10, 10d) and after (at the end of day 17, 17d, before being sacrificed) drinking DSS water. We performed sequencing for a total of 92 fecal samples through 3 independent experiments before and after DSS (9 samples from the control group, 9 samples from the vehicle group, 15 samples from the DSS group, and 13 samples from the DSS+H2 group collected before drinking DSS water; 9 samples from the control group, 9 samples from the vehicle group, 15 samples from the DSS group, and 13 samples from the DSS+H2 group collected after drinking DSS water).