Five Amazing Facts About The Microbiome
Here are five amazing facts about your microbiome.
You are more bacteria than human! There are ten times more bacteria than human cells in your body!
Your gut is known as your second brain, and actually communicates back-and-forth with your brain via the gut-brain-axis.
As a general rule, the more diverse the microbiome, the healthier the host (that’s you!). You can encourage diversity by eating the greatest variety of plant foods that you can manage... a good aim is 30 different types a week.
Everybody has their own unique microbial composition. Although there are certain microbes that are thought to be more beneficial (e.g. Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium), two healthy people can (and probably will) have a completely different ratio of species.
Your microbiome plays an important role in so many aspects of your health....your immune system, the nervous system, and circulatory system. A healthy gut may protect you against things like depression, dementia, obesity, allergies, type 2 diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease.
It’s definitely worth looking after your microbes. Here are five basic steps to get right to ensure your microbiome stays balanced and healthy!
Eat lots of plant foods! Fibre feeds the microbes, which then produce postbiotics, which are beneficial to our health in many different ways.
Sleep! Try to sleep 7-9 hours every night.
Drink less alcohol. Although a glass or two of red wine a night has been shown to be beneficial to gut health, drinking more than that starts reversing the benefits. Try to have at least two alcohol free nights a week and stick to a maximum of 10 standard drinks per week.
Move your body for 30 minutes every day.
Manage your stress levels! No amount of healthy eating can delete the effect that stress has on your microbiome. Exercise, meditation, or finding a hobby can all help.
References
Singh RK, Chang HW, Yan DI, Lee KM, Ucmak D, Wong K, Abrouk M, Farahnik B, Nakamura M, Zhu TH, Bhutani T. Influence of diet on the gut microbiome and implications for human health. Journal of translational medicine. 2017 Dec;15(1):1-7.
Durack J, Lynch SV. The gut microbiome: relationships with disease and opportunities for therapy. Journal of experimental medicine. 2019 Jan 7;216(1):20-40.
Mohammadkhah AI, Simpson EB, Patterson SG, Ferguson JF. Development of the gut microbiome in children, and lifetime implications for obesity and cardiometabolic disease. Children. 2018 Dec;5(12):160.
Wang XQ, Zhang AH, Miao JH, Sun H, Yan GL, Wu FF, Wang XJ. Gut microbiota as important modulator of metabolism in health and disease. RSC advances. 2018;8(74):42380-9.
