- Taking antibiotics
- Taking anti-inflammatories
- Moving to a different country
- Taking vitamins
- Fasting
- Eating a high fat diet
- Eating yogurt with live bacterial cultures
- Close contact with someone with an infectious disease
- Breastfeeding (affects the baby)
- Moving to another country:
Moving to another country could change a person’s microbiome over time through a change in diet and exposure to new microbes in the environment found in a completely different geographic and cultural population. This would include infectious microbes such as bacteria and viruses that the person’s body had not been exposed to. Upon exposure to new infectious microbes, the body will hopefully have a strong immune response to it. This most likely will cause inflammation, which can have a cascade effect of lowering microbial diversity, and increasing susceptibility to illness. Also, studies have shown a correlation between lower microbial diversity and a change in genetic sequencing of the immune system. In addition, exposure to a different cuisine, the types of food cooked and how they are cooked could also expose the person to a completely different variety of microbes. It would be interesting to compare gut biomes cross-culturally. It would make sense that healthy microbiomes in different countries may be very different from each other. I guess that points to the adaptability of our bodies and how our immune system, in many cases, can cater to whatever new “invader” comes along.
- Taking anti-inflammatories
If a person has a gastrointestinal disease or infection and they take anti-inflammatories, it can potentially change the microbiota in their gut. If that’s all they take it may not necessarily cure the disease. Still, inflammation in the gut has been linked to lower bacterial diversity and microbiome dysopsia. Reducing that inflammation with anti-inflammatories in combination with other dietary supplements has been shown to help bring back the microbiome to higher diversity and more normal levels. In a study led by Valeria D’Arginio, M.D., they showed that nutritional therapy including protein powder, antioxidants and anti-inflammatory fats significantly increased the gut microbiome diversity and decreased the high levels of unwanted proteobacteria in the patient’s gut.
Anti-inflammatories alone may also have some effect on the gut microbiome. Inflammation is a response by the immune system to invader microbes. In other studies a correlation has been shown between inflammation and the presence of a flagellin bacteria. The flagellin apparently took advantage of the intestinal tissue weakened by the inflammation and proliferated, significantly changing the microbiome. It would be interesting to see if anti-inflammatories could partially effect a decrease of the flagellin in the microbiome.
- Taking antibiotics
Taking antibiotics can greatly change the gut microbiome. Antibiotics are used to kill H. pylori, one of the most prevalent causes of gastrointestinal disorders including ulcers. Once the bacteria is killed off, the microbiome in the gut can return to a normal balance of bacteria. Antibiotics are powerful and can alter the gut biome. It is not uncommon to experience diarrhea, nausea and other gastrointestinal problems when taking strong antibiotics because they upset the microbiome so much in order to kill the offending microorganisms. It is usually recommended that a patient takes a supplement with live cultured bacteria, such as yogurt or a probiotic supplement to help keep the microbial growth in balance.
