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A bright meng of microbes remains inside the human intestine – a few thousand different species are counted. Most residents of this intestine microbiom are not diseases causing diseases. In fact, many useful work, such as breaking some carbohydrates, fiber and protein that the human body will struggle to dig. Some also produce essential compounds that the body cannot form on its own, such as B vitamins and short-chain fatty acids, which help regulate inflammation, affect the immune system and affect metabolism.
As an awareness of microbiome has increased, the shelves of health-food shops have been stocked with products designed to promote good bacteria. These usually fall into two categories: probiotics, capsules that contain live (but freeze-dry) bacteria, which in principle, once in life inside your intestine, spring back in life; And prebiotics, fiber bullets that feed beneficial bacteria.
There are good scientific reasons for one’s microbiom. With a lot of well, being a diverse classification of intestine insects, provides comprehensive health benefits. By competing with them for nutrients and location, a diverse microbial population E. Can close pathogens like coli. Low variety, by contrast, is associated with obesity, type -2 diabetes and irritable bowel syndrome. There is also evidence that more and more microbiome variety, as well as the total number of microbes, are associated with better recovery from gastrointestinal surgery.
The effect of microbiome is spread well beyond the intestine. A diverse microbiom also appears to be important for the health of the brain: people with depression have a low microbial variety in their courage, for example without any work. A 2023 study published in the Journal Brain found that the rat caused rats to develop memory problems by transplanting patients with Alzheimer’s into a rat. An off-cilter microbiome has also been linked to respiratory infections: mice with low intestine germs are more likely to catch pneumonia or influenza.
To keep microbiome healthy, diet is important. Microbobes thrive on foods rich in fiber and digestive starch, so there is a good place to start fresh fruits, vegetables, legumes and nuts. Ferred foods and beverages, such as yogurt, sackerkrat and combcha, also contain favorable micro -organisms such as lactobacillus. It is important to avoid unnecessary antibiotics, as they erase good bacteria with bad.
Supplements look equally attractive, but because they are not regulated as drugs, many have not been strictly tested. “This is a full shepherd area in the context of marketing”, Ted Dinan, a psychiatrist of the University College Cork, says, who studies the effect of microbiom on mental health. Fortunately for consumers located in the US, Britain and Canada, academics in countries have developed apps (each called probiotic guide) that can be used to search probiotic products and to check what scientific evidence, if any, returns them. Nothing wider exists for prebiotics, as yet.
Taking the wrong product may not be very good, but it probably will not do much harm. “You can’t really overdose on probiotics,” Glen Gibson says, a microbiologist of the University of Reading. However, taking a lot of prebiotics can temporarily disrupt microbiomes. Possible side effects? “Gas”, they say. “But it is more anti -social than anything.”
© 2025, The Economist Newspaper Limited All Rights Reserved. From The Economist, published under license. The original material can be found on www.economist.com
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