“The gut microbiome has changed our understanding of human health,” he says Tim Spector at King’s College London, co-founded the nutrition app Zoe. “We now know that our microbes influence everything from metabolism and immunity to mental well-being.”
While this understanding has accelerated over the past 25 years, humans have long used microbes to influence health. Even though the Romans didn’t realize what they were doing, they used drugs derived from bacteria to “guard the stomach” for example.
On the 17Thursday century microbiologist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek first described the parasite Giardiafrom your own chair. Yet it took another two centuries for scientists to confirm his findings, and it wasn’t until the 21st century that they appreciated how profoundly the microbes that line our guts and skin affect our well-being.
In the 1970s, scientists made a breakthrough when they realized that gut microbes could affect how drugs are broken down and change their effectiveness. Experiments with fecal transplants have suggested how microbial communities can restore health. But it wasn’t until the 2000s, with rapid advances in genetic sequencing and computing, that the field was truly transformed. Early genome sequencing revealed that each person carries a unique microbial “fingerprint” that includes viruses, fungi and archaea.
In the early 2000s, several major studies showed that our the microbiome and the immune system communicate directly. This symbiotic relationship reframed the microbiome as an active participant in our wellness, and it was soon discovered to influence numerous systems, from the pancreas to the brain.
Surprising discoveries followed: faecal transplants could cure Clostridium difficile infection; microbes from obese mice can cause lean mice to gain weight; specific populations of bacteria could reverse autism-like symptoms in mice. Recently, there have even been signs that microbial dysfunction may trigger it diabetes and Parkinson’s disease. “Recent discoveries about the human microbiome reveal its influence far beyond the gut,” he says Lindsay Hall at the University of Birmingham, UK.
Today, scientists are gaining a clearer picture of how microbial diversity supports good health and how enhancing it can help treat conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome, depression and even some cancers. Studies are also investigating how to plant a healthy microbiome early in life, which Hall says could have “profound and lasting health effects.”
In just a few decades, the microbiome has risen from obscurity to become a consideration in all areas of medicine. We are now entering an era where careful testing is needed to separate overhyped products from those that have the potential to change the way we diagnose, prevent and treat disease.
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