Gut health isn't just about your gut. It's about your whole body.

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Neal Templin , Barrons Bacteria help digest food, produce essential nutrients, and fight cancer and heart disease. Diets full of whole foods and fiber produce a more diverse biome, which is good. (Image: Pixabay) Gift this article
Your body has around 37 trillion cells, and they play a crucial role in your health. It has even more bacteria cells, mostly in your gut. They also play a crucial role.
Your body has around 37 trillion cells, and they play a crucial role in your health. It has even more bacteria cells, mostly in your gut. They also play a crucial role.
The bacteria in your gut help you digest food, produce key nutrients, fight off life-threatening maladies including cancer and heart disease, and are linked to mental health. Scientists are investigating whether gut bacteria may play some role in neurological diseases like Parkinson's or autism.
Research on the gut microbiome has exploded over the past 15 years. 'Now it's recognized that virtually all disease can be impacted by your microbiome," Michael Snyder, a professor of genetics at Stanford Medicine, tells Barron's.
Snyder led a six-year study of the gut, mouth, nose, and skin microbiomes of 86 people. Our bodies harbor key bacteria in all these locations, but the most numerous and important bacteria are in the gut. For example, people with Type 2 diabetes had a less stable and less diverse microbiome.
'Our results underscore the idea that we each have individualized microbiomes in our bodies that are special to us," Snyder told the Stanford Medicine publication. 'Your genetics, your diet and your immune system are all shaping this ecosystem."
Some elements of your biome are shaped in the early years of your life. Others can be affected by what you are eating now. Diets full of whole foods and fiber produce a more diverse biome, which is good. As in so many areas of health, the Mediterranean diet—which emphasizes whole grains, legumes, fruits, vegetables, and nuts—is believed to be beneficial for gut bacteria.
Want to improve your biome? Up your fiber intake, says Snyder. The government recommends that women eat 25 grams a day of fiber, and that men eat 38. The best way to hit those numbers is to eat more whole foods and fewer processed foods. But if that proves too difficult, fiber supplements will help produce a more diverse biome, Snyder says.
In a 2018 study, scientists were able to produce measurable drops in LDL cholesterol, the fat that causes plaque buildups in our arteries, by giving study participants regular doses of psyllium, a plant fiber used to treat constipation.
No one knows for sure why there has been a surge in colon cancer cases among young adults in recent years. One theory is that they eat too much processed food, which encourages the growth of unhealthy gut bacteria. Another theory is that heavy use of antibiotics during childhood harmed gut bacteria.
In the future, your doctor—whether she is a cardiologist, nephrologist, or endocrinologist—may prescribe treatments for your gut microbe that will help your heart disease, kidney disease, or diabetes.
'I think that is where the future lies," says Dr. Stanley Hazen, chair of the department of cardiovascular & metabolic sciences at the Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute. 'Understanding what the microbes in your gut are making and how it affects you."
Some of the strongest links between the microbiome and disease come in cardiology, Dr. Hazen says. Consider trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), a metabolite that is produced by gut bacteria and the human body. 'It is a waste product of the foods we eat, especially the animal products," Dr. Hazen says.
High TMAO levels in your blood are linked to arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, heart failure, and aortic aneurysms, Dr. Hazen says. You can reduce TMAO levels through the foods you eat, but its precursors are present in many foods, making it difficult to control by diet alone.
Cleveland Clinic researchers are developing drugs that block gut microbes from producing TMAO. When given to mice, these drugs reduce heart disease, says Hazen, who led the Cleveland Clinic team. He expects versions of the drugs to be approved for humans eventually, and says they could change heart disease treatment.
Hazen says he changed his own diet because of what he learned about the gut microbiome. 'I dramatically reduced the amount of red meat I eat. I used to eat meat in some form almost every day. Now it's a rarity."
Gut bacteria help humans digest food. The human body doesn't have enzymes to break down all the nutrients and fibers we eat. It relies on bacteria to break down certain ones.
'Gut bacteria do have a strong role in modulating gut function," says Dr. Purna Kashyap, a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist who studies the interaction between gut bacteria and dietary carbohydrates and how they influence the human digestive system. 'It's logical. They live there. They want the environment to be as conducive for their survival as possible."
Despite research showing growing links between gut bacteria and various illnesses, Dr. Kashyap cautions that it doesn't necessarily mean the microbiome is the culprit.
'When we say the gut biome has been linked to a plethora of diseases, it means there is an association," he says. 'It doesn't mean the microbiome is causing all these diseases."
Babies are born with a small amount of bacteria in their biome. Through exposure to their mother, to different foods, and to their environment, their biome quickly develops. By the age of three, it can be close to that of an adult.
Once you have a complete biome, it takes more work to change it. For example, if you eat a lot of meat, you will have lots of bacteria linked to meat consumption. If you adopt a vegetarian diet, it will take time for your biome to change over to the bacteria needed for the consumption of plant products.
'It doesn't mean you can't change your microbiome," Dr. Kashyap says. 'It just means it will be much harder."
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