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Dark Matter: The New Science of the Microbiome

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The “gut microbiome” is the name we have used to describe not only the wildly diverse collection of microbes that live there, but also what happens when they interact with each other and with our bodies. In other words, it’s an ecosystem made up of trillions of microbial life forms going about their business inside us, as we go about ours. Dr Ben Mullish, a clinical scientist at Imperial College London, was running a trial of FMT in patients with C diff infections. Ray was so unwell that Dr Mullish offered him the treatment. Heather understood that there are good and bad bugs and advised her husband to go ahead with it, but Ray was not having it. The idea of taking another human’s faeces was just too much for him, and he refused. Three days later, however, he had deteriorated so much that there was no other choice. Ray consented to the trial.

Everything we’re doing now is scratching the surface,” says Spector. “We are maybe 10% of the way there, because every week, we’re discovering something new. Humans want an easy answer [to improve our gut health], but you shouldn’t take anyone seriously who doesn’t say it’s complicated,” he says. “There’s a massive industry that needs a simple message to sell its products. They want to say all you’ve got to do is eat this bar, this yoghurt or this protein drink.” Yet it is only now, as we are beginning to discover the microbiome's enormous potential, that we are realising it is in grave danger, being irrevocably destroyed through the globalisation of our diets, the war on bugs and the industrialised world. The scale of the task is immense. The bacteria in the gut alone weigh close to 1.5 kg, they’re made up of about 100,000,000,000,000 bacterial cells (that’s 100 trillion) – equivalent in number to the total number of cells that make up the human body – and they speak millions of different molecular languages. Another major challenge in studying the microbiome is its physical distribution. The micro- biome is dispersed across our bodies in different niches, each with varying total abundances of microbes. Being clear about our anatomical definitions is important. With dazzling science and fascinating stories spanning from the dawn of humankind to the current race to develop personalised healthcare, and practical advice on how to nurture your microbiome through your diet and lifestyle, this pioneering book will change the way you think about human health forever. Books» Non-Fiction» Medicine» Medicine: General Issues» Public health & preventive medicine» Personal & public health

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Fermented foods are now thought to be integral to a healthy gut because they provide a vast amount of natural probiotics which can boost immunity and soothe the digestive tract. Johnny Drain is a materials scientist and a chef who believes in the benefits of fermentation, and has looked worldwide for innovations in techniques and flavours. Ray’s response to his FMT treatment was just like that in the reported literature. Within three days of receiving the microbiota transplant he was out of bed. Heather described it as a miracle. If I’ve spent longer than is entirely comfortable talking about faeces, that’s because FMT is a starting point for understanding the importance of the gut microbiome to human health. The extraordinary benefit of FMT in some patients has opened the clinical world to the idea that our microbes may have an important role in the causation and treatment of diseases where their involvement runs contrary to medical science.

Dietary and lifestyle changes in westernised societies which seemed a good, convenient, palatable (and, boy oh boy, profitable) idea at the time now emerge as causes of a mass of chronic diseases and damaging health conditions. You and people near you have almost certainly got some. If you're a young parent, this book is particularly crucial for you. The gut microbiome plays a significant role in the health of young children, and Kinross provides actionable insights on what can be done to ensure better health for our children in the future. What I particularly loved about this book is its strong scientific foundation. Kinross, a world-leading microbiome scientist and surgeon, offers a wealth of relevant insights drawn from his personal experience and over two decades in the field. The book serves as a much-needed, up-to-date summary of what is going on in this rapidly developing area of study.Ideally, we need to nurture our gut microbiome from birth. I think that this is so important, that it should be a given human right. One of the ways to do this is for women to breastfeed if they can and for children to have all their vaccinations – that way, they’re much less likely to need antibiotics. When used correctly, antibiotics save lives, but overuse causes more harm than good. We also need our children to play outside with other children and to have a diverse diet that is high in fibre and low in saturated fats. Have you made changes in your own life because of what you’ve learnt about our gut microbiome? Eat more fibre Most of us eat only half the recommended 30g a day. But start slowly – our guts don’t like rapid change Dr James Kinross is a consultant surgeon at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and senior lecturer in colorectal surgery in the Department of Surgery & Cancer at Imperial College London. His research interests include how the gut microbiome causes colorectal (bowel) cancer, how we can influence it to improve our health and the use of artificial intelligence for real-time decision support in the operating theatre. A spellbinding explanation of microbiology that will help you get to the bottom of health and happiness -- John Vincent, Co-Founder of Leon We're trying to engineer the microbiome to improve cancer therapy. I've got a really great PhD student looking at how bacteria might reduce the adverse side-effects of chemotherapy. The chemotherapy agents we use are toxic to all cells, not just cancer cells. We want to see if the microbiome may have a role in protecting normal cells.

If you change their diet to one that is high in fat and protein but low in fibre, you see dramatic changes in the functions of the microbes that exist within their gut. These changes cause and drive inflammation and we think this increases the risk of cancer and other chronic diseases. What should we do to protect our gut microbiome? A fountain of knowledge and sense in an overwhelming world of science Rhiannon Lambert, Registered Nutritionist and Sunday Times Bestselling Author In this mindblowing book, scientist and surgeon James Kinross explains how the organisms that live within us have helped us evolve, shaped our biology and defined the success of our species. But just as we have discovered this delicate and complex ecosystem within us, it is being irrevocably destroyed through antibiotic addition, industrial food production, the globalisation of our diets and lifestyles, and the destruction of our environment.My general hypothesis is that we are experiencing a fundamental change in the type, number and function of micro-organisms that live within us in the developed world. That has happened over a very short timeframe and the reason for that is not just about diet and food. It’s also about our rapidly changing environment (particularly urbanised environments), which we call the exposome, and the fact that we are now taking lots of medicines, especially antibiotics. Clearly diet is a major driver too and in America and Europe, we now eat a kind of globalised, processed, white, gloopy diet which is very low in plant-based fibres and very high in animal fats and refined sugars. An Imperial surgeon specialising in the gut microbiome has published a new book to explain why it is important for our health. The logistics of preparing an FMT should not be underestimated. Faecal donors have to be found – harder than you might think. Most of us are squeamish about pooing in pots, and we struggle to do it on demand. Some studies use friends and families, others use members of staff, volunteers or “pooled” samples taken from lots of donors mixed together.

While an FMT might be a new idea to many of us today, the medical practice of faecal transplant is ancient, and it has been drunk as “yellow soup” since the 4th century AD for the treatment of infective diarrhoea. In 1958 an innovative surgeon, Dr Ben Eiseman, administered faecal enemas to his patients in Denver, Colorado, with severe and recurrent C diff infections. It was remarkably effective, but like all important medical discoveries, this intervention was largely ignored at the time of its first report. Eat more omega 3 New research suggests a relationship between gut microbes, omega 3 and brain health The final frontier for gut microbiome exploration is its relationship with our brains, something the new fields of nutritional psychiatry and psychobiotics are digging into. We already know the gut has its own nervous system, the enteric nervous system, and contains 100m neurons. We also know the gut-brain axis, via the vagus nerve, shoots neurotransmitters produced within the gut around the body and to the brain, which is why Cryan’s lab has studied the impact of particular bacteria on sleep and how certain types of fibre can improve complex cognitive processes. Spector’s 30-year-long study of 15,000 twins, TwinsUK, and his PREDICT studies have shown that even genetically identical people respond to the same foods very differently (our microbiomes are so variable that twins share only 30% of the same gut microbes). By feeding participants the same meals on different days, he was able to show that responses to the same meals also vary hugely between individuals, influenced by both the microbiome and genetics. This matters, says the ZOE team, because our response to food is linked to our risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and obesity, but also because it blows apart the tired and useless mantra “calories in, calories out”, which doesn’t make sense in a world where two people’s blood glucose levels can be hugely different after eating the same slice of cake. I knew the gut microbiome was important to our health and I wanted to focus my future career on understanding how": Meet James KinrossThe sense of revulsion we feel when we’re faced with human excrement (or even just the thought of it) is, in part, a response to the way it looks and smells. But that revulsion is also a psychological reflex, ingrained by potty training and social stigma. This aversion is an important safety mechanism: handwashing and sewer systems prevent the spread of diseases that have killed millions. In this ground-breaking book, surgeon and expert on the microbiome, James Kinross, takes us on a guided tour of our extraordinary inner universe, showing how our relationship with microbes may hold the key to why we are increasingly succumbing to diseases and conditions such as cancer, Alzheimer's, autoimmune conditions and allergies. He highlights how hyperglobalization and our addiction to antibiotics has transformed our internal ecosystems and why this matters so much to our future health and happiness. An urgent investigation into a brave new world in science - the microbiome - and how it could save our health.

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