How can your microbiome impact your fight against cancer?
Each person has a distinct group of bacteria, viruses and other organisms located in their gut that are known as the microbiome. While it may sound scary that there are collections of bacteria living inside of you, much time and research is continually concentrated on learning more about it’s impact on the body. Current research suggests that one’s microbiota may potentially have a large impact on one’s health, development of diseases, and the effect of certain drugs on your body. Recent studies have shown a positive relationship between gastrointestinal microbiota and colon cancer immunotherapy. Immunotherapy is a type of therapy that attempts to improve the body’s natural defenses against cancer. It was discovered that contrary to previous beliefs, antibiotics can actually have a negative impact on cancer immunotherapy, while specific collections of microorganisms can have a positive impact on cancer immunotherapy. The gut microbiome is able to promote cell death in cells that trigger an immune response in the intestine. This shows that there can be many positive results in the health field that can come from studying the microbiome.
How can your diet impact your microbiome?
While our microbiomes are quite stable over time, they can be altered by the foods that are included in our diets. In humans, a large change in dietary fiber and fat can have a large impact on the composition of the microbiome. This is significant, because our microbiome impacts other parts of our health, such as our susceptibility to parasites and disease. Additionally, it was found that dietary supplements such as probiotics can impact ones microbiome. Probiotics are typically found in foods that naturally ferment, and are unique from our normal community of microorganisms that live in our gut. The probiotics impact the microbiota by acting as “food” for the gut bacteria. The bacteria that feed on them such as Lactobacilli, have been associated with prevention of human infection and an increased immune gene expression. Thus, it could likely be beneficial to pay to closer attention to our microbiome and how it may impact our future and health.
The Microbiome’s associated with Obesity
Another interesting thing about the microbiome is it’s association with obesity. Recent studies have shown that there are specific bacteria present in the gut bacteria of obese individuals, that differ significantly from the microbiome of non-obese people. This is significant because it has led to the development of probiotics that have been shown to cause weight loss in clinical trial. It was also found that the specific bacteria associated with obesity may also be linked to an increased risk of head and neck squamous cell, pancreatic, and colon cancer. Another interesting aspect of the study that had these results is that socioeconomic status was one of the factors considered when examining the patients. This shows that individuals with a lower socioeconomic status likely have less access to healthy foods and vegetables that likely promote a better microbiome.
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