List of behaviors that could affect gut microbial communities:
- Unhealthy diet
- Increased energy intake without equivalent energy expenditure
- Smoking
- Stress
- Healthy diet and exercise
- Drinking unclean water
All these behaviors could lead to the dysbiosis of the gut microbiota which eventually leads to pathology in individuals. However, these behaviors could be disease inducing and then affect the gut microbiome.
For example, an unhealthy diet and the increase of energy intake could lead to obesity. Obese individuals have shown varying microbial communities from that of other individuals. The altered gut microbiome could lead to more weight gain or affect the host metabolism. Obesity has been shown to increase microbial communities like actinobacteria; while also decreasing microbial diversity of other microbes. This will eventually lead to the dysbiosis in the gut a known risk for multiple other pathologies (cancer, inflammatory diseases, etc.).
Another example would be stress or a stress-inducing environment. Stress is one factor that contributes to the prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes (T2B). This disease has been shown to increase detrimental opportunistic pathogens such as E. coli and Clostridium spp. This makes individuals more prone to other infections and pathologies related to T2D. On the other hand, T2D is also linked to the decrease in beneficial microbes.
Lastly, a beneficial behavior would be the practice of healthy eating and exercise. This behavior aids in maintaining eubiosis of the microbial communities. The stability provided aids in the prevention of pathologies and contributes to the optimal health of an individual. It prevents pathologies associated with the dysbiosis of the gut while also preventing dysbiosis as a risk of disease.
