Humans, acting as hosts, have co-evolved with microorganisms for hundreds of thousands of years, and each person's body has its own unique population of bacteria. Microorganisms live on our skin, in the corners of our eyes, in our fingernails and in our gut, and we live together symbiotically for much of the time.
Within the human gastrointestinal tract, also known as our gut, there is huge variability in the number, type, and function of bacteria; but many are located in the large intestines where they happily spend their time fermenting non-digestible food components. And we are able to benefit from their work!
This bidirectional relationship between the gut bacteria and the Central Nervous System is known as the gut–brain axis. This axis provides crosstalk between the gut and the brain, and we are learning more and more how the microorganisms within us are actually directing much of the conversation.
The basic understanding is that an increase in the diversity of our gut bacterial population improves our health (via metabolic and immunological functions); while a reduction or alteration is associated with negative health effects.
Throughout our life numerous factors influence the gut-biome's health; and this can include genetics, health status, environment, diet, age, lifestyle and even mode of birth.
When our gut is modified by these influences (whether negatively or positively) it impacts numerous facets of our body and mind. Gut health is clearly impacted by the gut-microbiome, but the real key to understanding the gut-brain axis is seeing how gut health alters our overall health, including areas of the body not directly located around the GI tract.
Dysbiosis is basically an alteration of a healthy biome. It can mean a reduction of good bacteria, an increase in bad bacteria, or an overall lack of biome diversity; and a state of dysbiosis impacts the bodies ability to maintain homeostasis.
Eating for gut-biome health may seem like it'd be challenging, but it's really not. Incorporating VARIETY into the diet is an easy way to attempt targeting gut-biome health.
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Gut - Biome Series References
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13) Tu, P., Chi, L., Bodnar, W., Zhang, Z., Gao, B., Bian, X., Stewart, J., Fry, R., & Lu, K. (2020). Gut microbiome toxicity: Connecting the environment and gut microbiome-associated diseases. Toxics, 8(1), 19. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics8010019
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