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(TRFW News) A new study shows that bacteria in the mouth act differently when the human body is diseased. This research may lead to better ways to prevent or even reverse the gum disease periodontitis, diabetes, and Crohn’s disease. (1)
Marvin Whiteley, professor at University of Texas, authored the study published in mBio. “What we were trying to figure out,” said Whiteley, “is how do these bacteria act when you’re healthy, and how do they act when they’re in a diseased state. The really big finding is that they do act very differently.” (1)
Study shows, bacteria’s metabolism changes with disease
The study explored 60 different species of bacteria. From these bacteria, more than 160,000 genes were analyzed which yielded 28 to 85 million reads of RNA snippets, including about 17 million mRNA reads for each sample. “The main thing that they change when they go from health to disease is that they change their metabolism,” Whiteley said. (1)
Whiteley reports, “You can manipulate bacterial populations numerically very easily. You feed them something else. So you might be able to shift them back. These are some of the ideas that we’ve been thinking about in our lab that might be more pervasive as we move forward.” (1)
The human body consists of over 10,000 different species of bacteria. Russian scientist, Eli Metchnikoff, discovered probiotics early in the 20th century when trying to figure out why Bulgarian peasants lived longer than normal lives. Through research he hypothesized that the fermented milk that they drank helped to “seed” their intestines with good bacteria that was then able to fight off harmful bacteria. Metchnikoff was the first scientist to suggest the possibility of changing the gut flora by replacing bad bacteria with good bacteria and earned a Nobel Prize for this finding. (2)
Probiotics and prebiotics reduce markers of colon cancer in already diagnosed patients
Science has continued to study the impact of healthy bacteria within the body. Research has shown that the gut bacteria of a thin person is different than that of an obese person. When an obese person loses weight, their guy bacteria also changes. Studies have also shown that the gut bacteria differs in children with autism. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported that foods that are fortified with probiotics and prebiotics reduce markers of colon cancer in patients who were already diagnosed with colon cancer. (2)
Probiotics are naturally found in fermented foods, which historically used to be a regular part of diet due to the use of fermentation in food preservation. Today, the market is filled with probiotic-enhanced foods. Foods that contain probiotics are kefir, kimchi, pickles, miso, sauerkraut, and buttermilk. It’s important to remember that heat kills probiotics, if probiotics are put in product prior to pasteurization, the probiotics will be killed.
In order to increase fermented food intake, try purchasing milk kefir grains, viili culture, water kefir grains or kombucha scoby’s. Fermenting foods is not complicated and could improve your health.
Sources for this article include:
Image source: https://flic.kr/p/9Dx6A1
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