The organisms that make up your microbiome impact how your body processes food and your overall health. Here's how you can keep your microbiome healthy. The instant you take a bite of food, Medic GLP Official your body begins the work of turning it into energy. After you swallow, the food travels further and further down into the dark recesses of your digestive tract and into the territory of the microorganisms that live in your gut. Scientists have recently discovered that these tiny creatures are vital players in turning your food into energy. So while a balanced diet and regular exercise are essential for maintaining health, these lifestyle choices explain only part of the story. Your body’s metabolism is also regulated by the hidden players in your digestive tract-referred to collectively as the gut microbiome. This relationship means that damage caused to our microbiome by a typical low-fiber, high-additive Western diet can impair our metabolic health in several ways, including reduced immune function and excess inflammation.

However, there’s good evidence that we can also take a proactive role in improving our metabolic fitness by improving our metabolic health through diet and targeted probiotics. There are trillions of microorganisms that reside on and inside our bodies. Most of them have evolved to live in harmony with humans over thousands of years-so much so that some critical functions of our system are dependent on these microorganisms’ presence and activities. Unlike infectious germs, these microorganisms are partners to human cells, providing mostly harmless and often useful functions. Laboratory mice raised to be completely free of any microorganisms, called germ-free mice, show impairment in various metabolic and immune functions, demonstrating that the microbiome is crucial in developing and maintaining normal physiology. Researchers generally believe that the gut microbiome-the richest and most diverse of all the microbe communities occupying human body niches-is first seeded at birth. However, some suggest that we encounter trace amounts of microbes inside the mother’s womb.

Our delivery method at birth, our initial feedings, and our early hygiene can all dynamically shape our infant gut microbiome. Microbiota growth tends to stabilize in adulthood, yet environmental factors such as medications (especially antibiotics), geography, and diet continuously influence the composition. Studies of populations unaffected by the Western lifestyle (notably those with diets high in fiber) show that long-term dietary patterns result in fundamental differences in gut microbiome composition. Dietary intervention studies also show that even short-term changes in diet can rapidly change the microbial makeup. Significant changes in the diversity, composition, and density of the microbiome within the gastrointestinal tract are associated with many diseases. That’s because the gut microbiome essentially functions as an additional internal organ. Naturally, scientists have been investigating ways to maintain-or when damage occurs, revert to-a "healthy" microbiome. There is no quick solution to this challenge, as the definition of a healthy microbiome varies widely based on location and population. In the context of metabolic diseases, we see distinct pattern differences in the microbiome of lean versus obese people, and in individuals with Type 2 diabetes.

Moreover, successful interventions show that we can modulate the microbiome for metabolic benefits. These interventions include fecal matter transplants, administering probiotics (live microorganisms that perform specific functions), and prebiotics (substances, mostly fiber-derived complex carbs, that feed the bacteria that confer a health benefit). In other words, changing your gut microbiome can change your metabolic health. How can the gut microbiome, which is physically separate from human cells, influence human physiology? The microbes speak the same language as human cells and communicate by producing metabolites, or products of metabolism, that cells can read. One example is short chain fatty acids (SCFA), produced by the bacterial fermentation of dietary fiber in the gut. SCFA exist in many forms-acetate, propionate, and butyrate are the most common-and Medic GLP Official support metabolic and immune functions, among others. Different types of fiber and bacteria present in the gut determine the types and amounts of SCFA produced. People with obesity and diabetes seem to have fewer bacteria that produce butyrate, which suggests a link between the lack of butyrate and the pathologies behind these conditions.