Cutting-edge research helps unlock the “mystery benefits” of the microbiome

Just a few years ago, I wrote a book called Boost Your Health with Bacteria. At the time, I included all the latest science. And it’s still a great place to start if you want get a better understanding of just how important these bugs are to your health. But since then, so much research has come out on the human microbiogenome, my poor little book isn’t completely up to date.

Of course, I did predict in that book that there would be a lot more studies to report on as time progressed — and I wasn’t kidding you.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve reported on how probiotics help regulate blood pressure, boost immunity, enhance your mood.  regulate your weight, and even help to beat colon cancer (as I mentioned in the May issue of my Logical Health Alternatives newsletter).

But even with all of the new science out there, the truth is, we’ve still barely scratched the surface when it comes to unlocking all of the mysteries of the microbiome.

In fact, today, I want to tell you about another interesting new study showing that decreased gut microbial diversity is strongly associated with high body mass index (BMI) and triglyceride levels, as well as a low level of HDL (good) cholesterol.

And guess what that means? We can now add gut bacteria to the list of risk factors for heart disease.

But this study took that discovery even farther by pinpointing some specific strains of intestinal bacteria that have a direct association with BMI and lipids.

This wasn’t possible in past years because state-of-the-art, deep sequencing technology hadn’t been developed yet.

But now that it has, the researchers examined the gut bacteria of 893 people from the Dutch LifeLines-DEEP study and singled out certain strains to see if they were associated with BMI and blood lipids.

All in all, they found the higher the microbial diversity, the healthier the blood lipids were. And when diversity was reduced, the microbiome was found to be strongly associated with a high BMI, high triclycerides and low levels of HDL.

Some of the specific bacteria associated with a low BMI, lower triglycerides, and higher HDL are called:

• genus Akkermansia
• phylum Firmicutes,
• phylum Tenericutes

And those people with higher BMIs had lower amounts of these bacteria:

• families Christensenellaceae and Rikenellaceae
• class Mollicutes
• genus Dehalobacterium
• kingdom Archaea

The researchers also discovered the genus Eggerthella was associated with increased triglycerides and decreased HDL. And the family Pasteurellaceae plays a role in decreased triglycerides.

These specific strains and classes of bacteria are probably ones you’ve never heard of — which reinforces what I’m always telling you: That true gut health goes way beyond acidophilus and lactobacillus.

That’s why I recommend Dr. Ohirra’s — it is the only probiotic I know of that is able to rebuild your body’s own naturally occurring microbiome. Instead of flooding it with billions of CFUs of one or two particular strains.

Studies like this one that help unlock the mysteries of the microbiome are important because who knows how many diseases or disorders the gut plays a role in? It’s mind-boggling to think that organisms we’ve never even heard of are inhabiting our bodies and controlling our health in ways we don’t even know about yet.

And here’s some food for thought — every time your doctor prescribes an antibiotic willy-nilly, for no good reason, you are literally wiping out the “life givers” that keep you healthy on so many levels.

But just imagine being able to prevent — or even cure — serious diseases simply by taking a diverse probiotic that helps heal your unique microbiome.

This is personalized medicine at its best, and I say bring it on!

Resources:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/850858#vp_1

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/850858#vp_2

http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/bmi/adult_bmi/index.html