To improve your gut microbiome, spend more time in nature

Microbes in our The gut can have a profound impact on our health, but research shows that those around us in our environment – ​​what is known as the natural environmental microbiome – can also have a big impact. This suggests that we should all spend much more time interacting with nature, both outdoors and indoors.

I was first introduced to this emerging area of ​​science by Professor Gretchen Daily from Stanford University. She mentions a Finnish research project that showed how letting kindergarten-aged children play in a garden containing “dirt” from the forest floor resulted in a significant positive impact on their gut microbiome. Seventy-nine children participated, all of whom live in urban environments and spend most of their days in various childcare centers around Finland. The only difference between them was that these daycare centers had three different types of outdoor areas.

The first type was a fairly standard outdoor playground, consisting of concrete, gravel, and some plastic mats. The second was the type typically found in nursery environments that are already oriented towards nature, with grass, soil and planted areas for children to play. These two acted as a control against which to compare the third experimental space, where the concrete. and gravel were covered with segments of the forest floor and soil from the local coniferous forest.

The children were encouraged to play only in one of the three types of yard every day on the 28 days of the experiment (note that some kindergartens have several play areas). Before and after play periods, the children’s skin and gut microbiota were measured using genetic sequencing of bacteria taken from skin swabs and stool samples, along with changes to T cells and cytokines in their blood . These cells and proteins play a critical role in the prevention of autoimmunity and autoimmune diseases; their levels are often used as an indication of how well the immune system works.

Remarkable results emerged. Children who played in the experimental playground showed a great increase in the diversity of the microbiota on their skin and in their gut compared to children who played in urban and natural areas. Importantly, these were the “good” types of microbiota—those associated with health benefits. There was also a significant increase in the children’s immunity markers, indicative of having acquired enhanced immunoregulatory pathways, which is indicative of a reduced risk of immune-mediated diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis.

The importance of this study cannot be overstated. It implies that even short-term exposure to nature’s microbial diversity has the potential to radically change the diversity of microbiota on our skin and in our gut. Furthermore, it suggests that altered gut microbiota can modulate the function of our immune system.

A healthy microbiome is made, not born

Everyone has one distinctive community of microbes in their gut – a person’s ethnicity, the food they consume, the use of antibiotics, body size, and the amount they exercise all leave a clear signature on their microbial diversity intestinal The role of these microbiota communities is significant. Our organs can only synthesize 11 of the 20 essential amino acids we need, so the rest, along with 13 essential vitamins, are recovered and synthesized by our gut microbes.

And these microbial communities don’t just help our gut extract nutrients from food. Microbes also produce some of the most important compounds for our health, including immuno-suppressors, anti-cancer, and anti-inflammatory compounds. They seem to be associated with the functioning of our immune system, the central nervous system, and associated health outcomes, so that clear correlations have been found between particular intestinal microbiota – so called “sick” microbiomes and certain diseases. Those with a distinctive gut microbial signature include irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, celiac disease and colorectal cancer, as well as non-gut disorders such as obesity and diabetes Type 2.