Dark Matter: The New Science of the Microbiome

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And how the biome is affected by your social environment; the brain-gut axis looks to be key to our survival.

The human microbiome represents the most important new therapeutic target that we have for treating the greatest threats to human life in the 21st century and for preventing future pandemics of pathogens. This was not only important for Ray – it is critical for all of us: without a stable and diverse microbiome, we may well lose our minds. Behind all this is a simple message: microbes are not the enemy. It’s also becoming clear that samples from some donors are much more effective than those from others. These are known as “super donors” and their faeces seems to contain a magical ingredient that makes it particularly effective. But we don’t understand why this happens, or whose poo will be most effective.Our gut microbiome is being badly damaged in our early lives. This not only promotes inflammation and sensitises us to a poor diet, but our microbiomes are less resilient and diverse. That’s why at a population level we’re seeing alarming increases in the risk of colorectal cancer, asthma, allergies, rheumatoid arthritis and other chronic conditions. 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. 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. 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.

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.

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.” Engaging ... [ Dark Matter] stands out in revealing the microbiome through the eyes of a clinician who sees each patient not just as a human, but as a human entwined with a complex, dynamic ecosystem New Scientist I also exercise more and try to keep fit and mobile. Can you tell me about some of Imperial’s research on the gut microbiome?

If you want to learn more about what’s going on in your gut, the first step is to turn your poo blue. How long it takes for a muffin dyed with blue food colouring to pass through your system is a measure of your gut health: the median is 28.7 hours; longer transit times suggest your gut isn’t as healthy as it could be. We are only now beginning to understand the importance of the gut microbiome: could this be the start of a golden age for gut-health science?

An urgent investigation into the brave new world of the microbiome and how it shapes our lives and health. A very small Italian study using a similar commercial probiotic, Sivomixx, piqued his interest after it suggested acute Covid patients treated with it might be less likely to end up in ICU or to die, and eight times less likely to suffer respiratory failure. Bjarnason is hoping to start a larger study in the next few months. Books» Non-Fiction» Medicine» Other branches of medicine» Pathology» Medical microbiology & virology 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? A fountain of knowledge and sense in an overwhelming world of science Rhiannon Lambert, Registered Nutritionist and Sunday Times Bestselling Author