#short-chain-fatty-acids

#short-chain-fatty-acids

Research increasingly demonstrates that healthy nutrition improves mental health, and an entirely new subspecialty has formed to support this. Nutritional psychiatry is expanding rapidly, with research growing 15-fold from 2000 to 2024, reflecting the increasing acceptance of diet's role in mental health.

Young, two-month-old lab mice housed with older, 18-month-old mice showed really impaired cognition. Researchers exposed young mice raised in a sterile, microbe-free environment to gut bacteria from old mice, causing the younger animals to perform worse on cognitive tests, as if they had prematurely aged, just like the cohoused mice.

The article from the journal argues that the gut-autism axis is a house of cards built on lousy studies with inconsistent data. They assert that the studies are contradictory and that too much emphasis is placed on dubious mouse models. It is notoriously challenging to nail down microbial causes of disease—it is hard enough to simply identify a normal microbiome.

There are some communities that are very unhealthy where the diversity is higher. Low diversity is not a universal marker. We found something that at first seemed surprising. That a healthy microbiome has lots of competition. These bugs are all going after the same food. In an unhealthy gut, on the other hand, you see tight cooperation - microorganisms are helping each other out.

Gut bacteria are crucial to ensuring healthy digestion and defecation. But two species of bacteria may also be the cause of constipation: according to a new study, Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron and Akkermansia muciniphila appear to work in concert to break down colonic mucin, the slimy coating in our colons that keeps our poo moving along. Too little mucin means a drier and more constipation-prone colon.

Rachel Swanson, a registered dietitian at LifeSpan Medicine and author of "Trying!: A Science-Backed Plan to Optimize Your Fertility," splits her time between New York City and Miami, spending about half the year in each. She also takes small-group workout classes three times a week, focusing on strength training. She says eating enough nutrients, especially protein for muscle-building, is crucial for her. She generally aims for around 0.7 grams of protein per pound of body weight, the protein intake usually recommended for physically active people.

Fecal transplants from old female mice appear to boost fertility and ovarian health in younger ones. The findings, detailed in a study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Aging, indicate a direct link between gut health and reproductive health in the animals. They could also hold implications for future research into how the microbiome influences ovarian function and fertility in humans.

The reason cabbage (and beans, for that matter) is a "musical fruit" is a complex sugar known as raffinose. Raffinose is especially hard for the human gut to digest because the small intestine cannot process it. So, by the time it reaches the colon, the bacteria used to break it down release gas that leads to bloating and flatulence. Furthermore, as a cruciferous veggie, cabbage also contains high amounts of sulfuric compounds,

He wasn't crazy. His body had literally turned into a brewery. Cases like this have been mere medical anecdotes for decades, but they have just received the most solid scientific validation yet. A study published in Nature Microbiology, conducted by researchers at the University of California (UC) San Diego and Massachusetts General Hospital, has finally identified what happens inside the gut of these patients. More importantly, it has found a treatment that works: a stool transplant.

Intermittent fasting within an eight-hour window can significantly reduce symptoms of Crohn's disease, a new study has found. Crohn's disease, according to the NHS, is a long-term condition where part of the gut becomes inflamed. It cannot currently be cured and the common symptoms include: diarrhoea, blood or mucus in your poo and stomach pain. Researchers at the University of Calgary found that time-restricted feeding can reduce disease activity by 40 per cent and halve abdominal discomfort in over 12 weeks in people living with Crohn's disease.