The Microbiome May Be The Key To Anti-Aging
The interaction between the microbiome and the body is complex.
Research is showing how changes in the microbiome are associated with disease, or with health restoration.
Conversely, the microbiome is influenced, for better or worse, by our lifestyle and the environment in which we live. This relationship is central to health and longevity and is such an important area of expanding research.
Considering the accumulating microbiome research, we can’t help but wonder if the microbiome itself holds the key to longevity and anti-aging.
Keep reading to learn more about:
- What the microbiome is and why it is important
- How the microbiome is connected to human disease
- What factors influence the microbiome
- The connection between the microbiome and aging
- How to support your individual microbiome for all the health and longevity benefits
What Is The Microbiome?
The microbiome refers to the trillions of microorganisms – bacteria, fungi, archaea, protozoa, viruses – and their collective genetic material, that inhabit humans and all mammals.
We have co-evolved with these organisms and the relationship is passed down through generations.
When talking about the microbiome, we are typically referring to the gut microbiome, where most of these microorganisms live.
However, there is also a skin microbiome, oral microbiome, ocular microbiome, urinary tract microbiome, vaginal microbiome and so on.
Your microbiome is like your fingerprint; it’s unique to you.
The microbiome plays a role in physiological processes that are vital to the health of the host.
In fact, the health of the microbiome impacts nearly all aspects of human health. These include:
- Homeostasis
- Metabolism
- Gut health
- Immunity
- Neurobehavioral development
- Genomic functions
- Hormone balance
- Brain health: mood, cognition, pain perception
- Healing processes
- Fertility
DNA from the microbiome allows our cells to do things that we can’t do on our own. In this way, the microbiome is an active participant in life as we know it.
The relationship between the microbiome and the human host is bidirectional, meaning that not only the microbiome is required for health, but that the health of the human also influences the microbiome.
We need these microorganisms, and they need us. Together, a human plus their microbiome is referred to as a “superorganism.”
A key example of this bidirectional relationship is known as the gut-brain axis, which explains how the microbiome influences brain health and how the brain influences the microbiome.
Therefore, in Functional Medicine, when there is a brain-related symptom or disease such as anxiety, depression, Autism spectrum disorder and others, we always look to the gut to investigate the root causes.
The Microbiome And Human Disease
As a healthy microbiome helps to create robust and resilient health, a damaged or imbalanced microbiome contributes to the development of disease.
While we are continuously learning more about specific microbiome patterns and changes, in general disease seems to be related to a loss of diversity in the microbiome.
Inflammatory, immune, and nervous system-related diseases are associated with such changes in the microbiome.
These include:
- Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis
- Asthma
- Obesity
- Metabolic syndrome
- Cardiovascular disease
- Autoimmune disease, such as Type 1 diabetes
- Autism Spectrum disorder
- Cancer
- Behavioral disorders
- Depression
- and more…
What Influences The Microbiome?
While the microbiome is essential for health, it is also greatly influenced by the environment in which we live, our behavior and habits, the microbiome of our mother and more.
Some factors that influence the microbiome, whether positively or negatively, include:
- Exposure to mother’s bacteria in the womb and birth canal. While we once thought that microbiome colonization happens during the delivery itself, we now know that bacteria and other microorganisms begin colonization in utero.
- Breastfeeding and skin-to-skin contact as infants. Exposure to microorganisms through breast milk and maternal (and family) contact helps to build the microbiome in the early months and years of life.
- Exposure to plants, animals and soil. People who have pets, garden or live more closely with nature in some way tend to have more robust and diverse microbiomes, which may translate to better immunity.
- Diet. What you eat influences the microbiome and dietary change can produce microbiome change in as little as a couple of days! Compounds in plant foods provide specific food to feed beneficial microorganisms.
- High stress. Not surprisingly, stress negatively impacts microbiome health, which may be one reason that stress is linked to just about every chronic disease. Meditation is shown to help reverse these changes and help recover health.
- Toxins. Toxins like chlorine, heavy metals, PFAS, sunscreen, glyphosate, mycotoxins, and others all impact the microbiome and may kill beneficial bacteria.
- Antibiotics and other medications. Antibiotics and their overuse contribute to dysbiosis, or microbiome imbalances, as they directly kill bacteria. Often beneficial microorganisms are killed along with the pathogen that the antibiotic is trying to treat. Other medications like birth control pills and proton pump inhibitors also impact the microbiome.
- Age. Microbiome health seems to decline as age advances. Let’s discuss this more next.
The Microbiome, Aging and Cognition
There is huge variation in microbiomes between communities and individuals, but some commonalities exist.
Microbiome development follows a predictable pattern from birth to around three years of age and then remains stable through childhood and adulthood. Then, in late adulthood, the microbiome begins to change again.
The microbiome and health develop together early in life and then decline together later in life too.
Aging is associated with changes in the microbiome that are accompanied by physiological changes in digestion, immunity, metabolic health, and age-related chronic conditions.
Inflammaging is the term that describes the increase in inflammation associated with age that may be influenced by the microbiome itself.
Previous studies in older adults suggest that those who are lean and active have more diverse microbiomes compared to those who aren’t. Lower microbiome diversity is associated with faster aging and becoming frail earlier.
With the increased availability and ease of genetic sequencing, scientists have been able to compare microbiomes.
In a study of nine thousand people between the ages of 18 and 101, those with gut microbiomes that had grown more unique with age (and therefore, more diverse) experienced better health, used less medication, and had better metabolic health markers.
A recent mouse study provides more insight.
In this 2021 study published in Nature Aging, the microbiome of young mice (three to four months old) was transplanted via fecal transplant into older mice (19 to 20 months old) and compared to a fecal transplant from older mice into other older mice.
Interestingly, the younger microbiome seemed to help the older mice!
Researchers saw a reversal of age-related differences between the mice, including:
- Slowing of cognitive decline, improvement of cognitive function
- Reversal of age-related brain deterioration
- Improved learning
- Rejuvenation of immune function
- Increased immunity in the brain
The study reports:
“Transplant of a microbiota from young donors reversed aging-associated differences in peripheral and brain immunity, as well as the hippocampal metabolome and transcriptome of aging recipient mice. Finally, the young donor-derived microbiota attenuated selective age-associated impairments in cognitive behavior when transplanted into an aged host”
So, what does this mean? Is it possible that modulating the microbiome to resemble that of a younger person, may become the key to anti-aging medicine? It will certainly be interesting to follow this research.
Anti-aging Action Steps
From what we understand now, here are some low-risk action steps that may provide a big reward in terms of healthy aging and cognition.
1. Improve gut health, at any age. This step is key and where Functional Medicine really shines. Functional testing, such as GI MAP, allows us to look at your microbiome diversity, beneficial bacteria, digestive function, and any pathogens that may be present. Then we can use a variety of tools including dietary modification, digestive support, and targeted supplements to rebalance and strengthen the microbiome.
2. Use food as anti-aging medicine. It’s likely not surprising that many of the same dietary strategies that help to promote longevity and healthy aging, also support the microbiome. And vice versa.
Here are some steps to consider:
- Eat a personalized Paleo diet to cultivate a more ancestral microbiome.
- Include an abundance and diversity of plant foods daily and weekly that include vegetables, starchy tubers, fruit, nuts, seeds, and seaweeds.
- Be sure to include specific nutrients such as coenzyme Q10, flavonoids and polyphenols for brain health.
- Add in fermented foods, such as fermented vegetables like sauerkraut, cultured coconut yogurt or kefir and low-sugar kombucha. Use these as condiments or accompaniments to meals.
3. Consider the fasting-mimicking diet (FMD). FMD is a 5-day mimicked fast linked to longevity, improved metabolic health, decreased inflammation and cellular regeneration. In addition, it helps to balance the microbiome.
4. Don’t underestimate the power of well-placed supplements. Every Life Well’s Memory Mag, Neuro Sustain, and the Better Brain Bundle provide targeted brain support to combat the effects of aging on memory and cognition.
Also consider, microbiome and digestive support for the prevention of age-related decline. Even a simple daily probiotic may be beneficial.
The microbiome changes with age in a way that is linked to declining health and frailty, but what if it didn’t have to be that way?
So many factors that influence the microbiome are modifiable and within our power.
What we eat and how we live can influence the microbiome in incredibly positive ways.
And keeping the microbiome young may just be the key to the longevity we desire.
References
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6580755/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8169080/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6004897/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5962619/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30843443/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5787212/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31558686/
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-021-00093-9
