You know, the science behind the race to defeat aging is amazing.
It seems like every week there are new advances that move the needle just a little bit closer.
And a study that came out a few months ago introduced a new intervention that hadn’t even occurred to me before.
And that’s taking probiotics to improve gut health as a longevity strategy.
Recent studies have identified some very specific probiotic strains
that appear to have the potential to slow down the aging process and extend the human health span.
This is great news.
It seems like the assault on aging is gaining momentum with each passing week,
and that the cure for aging is getting closer and closer.
This week, we’re talking about using probiotics and prebiotics as an tool in our arsenal to defeat the aging process.
We’ll be looking at what the microbiome is, the impact that it has on aging,
and what we can do to improve our gut health.
So when we talk about gut health and the microbiome,
we’re talking about the health of all the bacteria, the viruses, the protozoa, even the fungi that live in our gut
and help us with digestion and the absorption of nutrients.
As we’ve evolved, out gut microbiome has evolved along with us,
and we simply wouldn’t be able to exist without it.
But the little guys living in our gut do a lot more than just help with digestion.
They play a huge role in how effective our immune systems are.
This is where our bodies first encounter the outside world.
70 to 80% of our immune cells are located in the gut.
So developing a healthy microbiome early in life is crucial to a strong immune response.
I’ve heard that 90% of disease can be traced back to the gut microbiome.
A healthy gut not only controls digestion and benefits your immune systems,
it also play a major role in nutrient and mineral absorption, the synthesis of enzymes, vitamins and amino acids,
in the production of short-chain fatty acids, and in balancing our hormone production.
It can even impact how well our brain is functioning and determine how well we cope and interact socially.
The gut microbiome not only produces serotonin and neurotransmitters,
gut-friendly bacteria can also help manage neurotransmitter activity.
And a study just came out that links gut bacteria to specific brain conditions.
The study looked at hyperactivity seen in mice that lacked a gene associated with autism.
As a result of simply introducing a specific bacteria into their gut,
the mice generated more oxytocin in the brain and exhibited a more social behavior.
There’s a whole ecosystem going on in your intestines.
All of the bacteria interact with one another within their own communities.
But we can shape these communities, we can determine how healthy they are,
how balanced the good bacteria is with the bad bacteria.
The microbiota is very reactive to not only the food we eat, but also to how well we sleep,
our level of stress and our use of medications and antibiotics.
In addition to all the other stuff that gut health can have an affect on, it can impact the aging process.
As you get older, your gut immune response gets less effective.
And the older you get, the less effective it gets.
Studies have demonstrated that this decline in age-related immune response changes
with the ecosystem in your gut microbiome.
Inflammation, increase frailty and a predisposition to intestinal illness also accompanies these changes.
The complex and diverse communities of bacteria that inhabit the gut varies across the stages of a person's life.
Many fluctuations are natural and harmless.
But studies have shown that some disturbances in the gut microbiota can have important effects on health and disease.
Some of the most significant changes in the gut microbiota composition
occur at the beginning of life and at advanced age.
Now, these are also the same periods when the immune system is at its weakest.
But it’s not just the aging process that can impact the gut health as you age.
Years of eating pro-inflammatory, processed and refined, nutrient-deficient,
empty calorie foods can take a toll on your body…
and on your gut.
This can lead to a wide array of chronic diseases that never plagued our ancestors.
So can the burden of years of stress.
It can lead to changes in gastric secretions, the movement of food through the digestive tract,
intestinal impermeability, also known as “leaky gut,” and inflammation.
In fact, in times of stress, your body can slow digestion or even completely shut it down.
Finally, the older you are, the more likely it is that you have been exposed to various drugs and antibiotics
that can play havoc with your gut health.
Since antibiotics were developed to kill bacteria, taking a round of antibiotics can wipe out your microbiome.
Researchers at Babraham Institute in Cambridge, UK, found that it is possible to rejuvenate an older gut microbiome.
At least in mice.
Mice have a habit of nibbling each other's droppings, and after housing aged together with young mice,
the gut immunity of the older mice was improved.
Physically transplanting fecal pellets from young mice, along with the younger mice’s gut microbiota,
into the actual gut of older mice had an even stronger effect.
The younger mice obviously had a different microbiome from the older mice,
and restoring those gut bacteria in the older mice had a rejuvenating effect.
But you don’t have to snack on the droppings of teenagers to see this effect in humans.
Supplementing your diet with probiotics and prebiotics can have the same effect.
So, let’s stop for a minute and talk about the difference between probiotics and prebiotics.
Probiotics are the live microorganisms that live in our gut.
Prebiotics, on the other hand, are the foods that these microorganisms feed on,
which is typically indigestible fiber, the fiber that we consume that we just can’t digest.
This is the reason why you’ve always heard to eat more fiber.
It feeds your gut.
Turns out, the use of probiotics and prebiotics is a cost-effective intervention
to the aging process that is widely available to anyone,
and it can improve the homeostasis of gut microflora…thereby preventing unhealthy aging.
Now, because we’re all different, these health effects can differ between various probiotics and between individual populations.
However, there’s a lot of evidence that demonstrates the relationship between taking
pro- and prebiotics and good health outcomes as we age.
So much so, in fact, that there’s an increasing awareness of
the benefits of probiotics in maintaining health and improving quality of life for folks as they get older.
In a new study published in October of last year,
some specific probiotic strains have been identified that can have beneficial health effects on adults as they age.
Now, even though most of these effects are for things like immunmodulation and anti-inflammation,
there are a few unique strains that show the potential to have an effect on some of the hallmarks of aging.
These are big words, but I'll give it my best shot.
Lactobacillus paracasei PS23 and bifidobacteriumbreve B-3
have been shown to have a beneficial impact on mitochondrial dysfunction,
while lactobacillus fermentum DR9 shows a similar effect on telomere attrition.
If you take a look at this chart from the study,
it shows a number of different strains and the hallmarks that they impact.
This growing body of evidence has demonstrated that the aging process is tightly linked to the homeostasis of the intestinal microbiome.
This same study questions whether or not certain probiotic strains might target basic biological mechanisms of aging,
and it makes the point that those probiotics could possibly be used
to delay the onset of multiple age-related chronic diseases and thus effectively expand the health span.
A number of probiotics have been identified that posses anti-aging qualities in both invertebrate organism and rodent models.
There have even been some clinical trials on humans that have produced promising results.
This has all lead to the proposal of the term “gerobiotics” to be used when referring to probiotics
with potential to extend the human health span.
So it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see gerobiotics hit the market within the foreseeable future,
aimed at the longevity crowd.
However, allow me to add a caveat. Taking these gerobiotics won’t produce immediate results.
In fact, they’re not likely to produce measurable results for decades.
They won’t necessarily make you feel better or have more energy.
What they will do is stave off chronic diseases and allow you to live a longer and more healthy life.
OK, that wraps up this video about the impact of gut health on the aging process.
Now, since this is my first video on the microbiome, I can’t point you to any other videos,
but if you’d like to learn more about the aging process, I suggest this playlist.
That’s it for me, I’m outta here.
Catch ya next week.