A new research reveals that you can age in a healthy way by having a healthy gut. This study was carried out by the Health Research Institute of Western University in Ontario, Canada along with Tianyi Health Science Institute in Zhenjiang, China.
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Here's all you need to know about this research:
1. A thousand healthy candidates belonging to the age group of 3 and 100 years were part of this study who reported no ailments in themselves or in their family. The gut microbiota of these partakers was studied by the researchers.
2. The participants followed a healthy lifestyle and did not consume alcohol or smoke. No moodiness was reported by the partakers, they were not prescribed any antibiotics past three months. Their family had no history of cardiometabolic, gastrointestinal, or neurological ailments.
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3. Gaorui Bian, of the Tianyi Health Science Institute is the first author of the study and ProfGreg Gloor at Western University's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry was the senior investigator of the study. They used 16S Ribosomal RNA sequencing to assess the composition of micro organisms present in the gut of the partakers.
4. It was found that the microbial composition of seniors who were extremely healthy was similar to the composition of those who were fit and decades younger in age. The microbiota composition appeared to be same for the people between the age of 30 and 100. Major variations in the composition were found for people who were less than 20 years of age.
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5. The composition of the microbiota in males appeared to be "more variable" than that of the female participants.
"Taken together the present findings suggest that the microbiota of the healthy aged in this cross-sectional study differ little from that of the healthy young in the same population," the researchers stated.
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6."The aim is to bring novel microbiome diagnostic systems to populations, then use food and probiotics to try and improve biomarkers of health," stated study co-author Gregor Reid, a professor at Western University's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and a scientist at Lawson Health Research Institute.
"It begs the question — if you can stay active and eat well, will you age better, or is healthy ageing predicated by the bacteria in your gut?" Prof Reid throws a question.
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7. And Prof Gloor elucidates: "Whether this is cause or effect is unknown. This demonstrates that maintaining [the] diversity of your gut as you age is a biomarker of healthy ageing, just like low-cholesterol is a biomarker of a healthy circulatory system."
"By studying healthy people, we hope to know what we are striving for when people get sick," stated Prof Reid.
The research concluded that health could be improved by resetting an elderly microbiota to that of a 30-year-old.
