The Microbiome Mystery

- babe, what is the chance that I actually start making a microbiome post and then it turns out it's the world first Microbiome Day?

- none. no chance. still love you

Now, who wouldn't have heard the importance of microbiome when it comes to your health. However, amusingly the perspective of knowing our microbiome in order to understand which ones are the most beneficial for us is relatively new in Western medicine. For the past century, the role of microbes as pathogens seemed to be an overwhelming trend while profound focus and specific studies of the microbiome as one of the pillars of wellbeing has mostly emerged in the past 10 years.

The term microbiome is defined as the collective genomes of microorganisms inhabiting a particular environment and especially the human body. Another related term is microbiota which in essence is similar but encompasses the microorganism themselves he inhabiting the environment

Ways and mechanisms how the microbiome affects our health

1. It is known that the microbiome affects our health through certain metabolic functions and metabolites. Many of the metabolites affect gut epithelial function, skin epithelium, or blood-brain barrier. For instance,

certain Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) in the human gut that are an important fuel for intestinal epithelial cells and are known to strengthen the gut barrier function. SCFAs are typically reduced in mucosa and faeces of patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease), as compared to healthy individuals. SCFAs also play a protective role in type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

2. Various complex interactions between host and microbes serve as a way of educating the immune system, for example, some bacteriae are associated

with promoting the development of regulatory T cells. An example of such immunomodulation might be a study where feeding non-digestible oligosaccharides (NDO), an important microbe substrate, reduces the development of atopic dermatitis in infants at risk of allergy. The result was associated with increased Bifidobacterium and Lactobacilli and rebalancing the immune system to a more T-helper 1‐type and Treg profile (T-helper 2 type profile is known to be more allergy-prone).

3. Under certain conditions, the normal gut epithelial barrier can become leaky, permitting the passage of microbes and microbial molecules into the systemic circulation, known as microbial translocation. This can result in inflammation, studies have also linked these processes to the development of food allergy, atopic dermatitis, asthma and in HIV-related cancer (non-Hodgkin lymphoma)

4. There are possibly many more mechanisms, one has yet to research more into the topic...

Specific types of microbiome

Interestingly, in a 2011 study, the 3 enterotypes were defined that were repeatedly found in the microbiome studies. Three enterotypes are characterized by three dominant bacteria clusters: Bacteroides (enterotype I), Prevotella (enterotype II), or Ruminococcus (enterotype III). One individual can have deviations from the original enterotype depending on the person's age diet and lifestyle, several other factors. Short-term diet changes don't affect the enterotype much, but long term diet changes have been proven to change the microbiome and sometimes the enterotype as well in many studies. An enterotype is a functional harmonious association of several bacteria species rather than a systematic addition of bacteria species. To be more specific, bacteria clusters of enterotype I derive energy primarily from carbohydrates using principally glycolysis and pentose phosphate pathways, whereas bacteria clusters of enterotypes II and III are able to degrade mucin glycoproteins of the gut mucosal layer. Understanding the origins and functions of enterotypes may improve the knowledge of the relationships between gut microbiota and human health.

The Ayurvedic perspective in microbiome studies

Ayurveda, being one of the ancient systems of medicine broadly possibly defines the microbiome through the concept of prakriti - the phenotypes which are determined on the basis of physical, psychological, and physiological traits irrespective of their social, ethnic, dietary and geographical stature.

You can read about the Ayurvedic basis more from here https://www.propaveda.com/post/translations-of-ayurvedic-principles

The human microbiome is considered the ‘latest discovered’ human organ and microbiome research reiterates the fundamental principles of Ayurveda for creating a healthy gut environment by maintaining the individual-specific microbiome.

A study of the microbiome of 135 individual using DNA metagenomics was performed in 2018 with a question of whether a person prakriti (dosha, vata and kapha) has any connections with the microbiomes. The results showed that the female microbiome was differently abundant in particular Prakriti, 49 taxons in female where specifically enriched in specific Prakriti categories. However, there were only 4 taxons specific to male prakriti. In females, Vata had an abundance of Bacteroides vulgatus while Kapha females had an overabundance of Prevotella copri and Pitta females had enriched Blauti genus presence as well as Butyricicoccus pullicaecoruma as well as Gemmiger formicilis.

Although further research is needed, it seems possible that the ways in which Ayurveda defines the constitution and the knowledge about enterotypes in western medicine might be complementary to each other. Could it even be beneficial to unify some of the principles of both worlds in order for better personalization and integration of healing ourselves?

References

1. AllergoOncology: Microbiota in allergy and cancer—A European Academy for Allergy and Clinical Immunology position paper. E. Untersmayr, H. J. Bax, C. Bergmann; Allergy. 2019 Jun; 74(6): 1037–1051.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6563061/

2. What is the Healthy Gut Microbiota Composition? A Changing Ecosystem across Age, Environment, Diet, and Diseases. E. Rinninella, P. Raoul, M. Cintoni et al, Microorganism 2019 Jan; 7(1): 14.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6351938/

3. A Study in Balance: How Microbiomes Are Changing the Shape of Environmental Health. Kellyn s. Betts, Environ Health Perspect. 2011 Aug; 119(8): a340–a346.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3237378/

4. Short Chain Fatty Acids (SCFAs)-Mediated Gut Epithelial and Immune Regulation and Its Relevance for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. D. P. Venegas, M. K. De la Fuente, G. Landskron et al Front. Immunol., 11 March 2019

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2019.00277/full

5. Stereotypes About Enterotype: the Old and New Ideas. M. Chenga, K. Ning, Genom Proteom Bioinf 2019 Feb;17(1):4-12

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1672022919300592

6. Understanding the Association Between the Human Gut, Oral and Skin Microbiome and the Ayurvedic Concept of Prakriti, D. Chaudha, D. Dhotre, D. Agarwal et al; J Biosci. 2019 Oct;44(5):112.

https://www.ias.ac.in/article/fulltext/jbsc/044/05/0112

7. Western Indian Rural Gut Microbial Diversity in Extreme Prakriti Endo-Phenotypes Reveals Signature Microbes. N. S. Chauhan, R. Pandey, A. K. Mondal et al, Fron Microbiol 2018; 9: 118.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5816807/

#microbiome #ayurveda #guthealth