You Think Activia’s Great? Wait Till You Try This!:
Probiotics that improve health have been the focus of fancy yogurt commercials we’ve all seen once or twice.
Some of them have verged on uncomfortable disclosures by Jamie Lee Curtis on the exact details of her very own G-I functionality. Fascinating.
But fewer people will have read up on the human microbiome & all the strange interactions science is learning about the bugs on us & in us.
And a team in Texas used modern DNA-wizardry to find out something even more interesting. One day, it just might save your life…
Probiotics Research Gets Serious:
So a lot of research can seem a bit “out there”.
And sometimes, it seems to exist without a clear and attainable benefit.
The closest we’ve gotten with microbiome research seems to be getting dirty to prevent allergies, and maybe some obesity guesses or Forest Bathing to recharge the soul.
When we think about tangible benefits, it always seems to mean, drugs, diet, and exercise.
Bacteria Brings The Bang:
But this time is different?
So using human-based microbes as their diving-board, Dr. Meng Wang’s team took a more serious look.
Starting with the idea that our microbes look like they’re affecting more and more of our total health, from feel-good brain chemicals on up,
They thought: What can these little guys do for something more important?
–Like Longevity?
If their experiments are any guide, probably a lot.
Probiotic Benefits Go Stratospheric Thanks To Modern Gene-Therapy:
So one of the things they did was to look at a bacteria we all hear about when it comes to guts, and start messing around with it.
In these tests, they tried a whopping 4,000 different variations to the DNA of this one type.
And in several-dozen tests it did something amazing.
For just 29 of them, the change in bacteria that live inside the test-subjects,
Ended up extending their freakin’ lifespan!
Now, although the abstracts available don’t say exactly how much longer, or by what percent, this is still amazing.
They Even Found The Key Chemical Change!:
And in-addition to that, one of the common-products of these changes was a big increase in something called Colanic Acid.
This little chemical turned out to be the real star of the show.
Because even when they gave it to several different types of test-animals without the modified microbes, it also extended their lives.
The way it seems to work is by changing how the power-station of each cell works.
Communication With The Power Station:
And on a still-weirder note, that little piece of every one of our cells, called mitochondria, used to be a type of bacteria itself a billion years ago!
So in a weird way, bacteria is communicating with a living thing’s whole body, through a tiny piece of it that’s very similar to bacteria itself.
-Just like your brain knows how much Serotonin the bugs in your gut are making through a nerve that runs all the way down there.
But wait, there’s more; -and weirder!
12 More Examples Of Weird-But-Awesome:
12 VERY important more trials.
So there’s no easy way to explain these, because it’s so hard to know DNA changes in 1 microbe could have these effects on its much-bigger host.
And it’s probably important to understate results that could seem this big but,
12 of these genetic changes in that tiny little bug that lives in a gut, look like each one of them may prevent Alzheimer’s Disease.
-And also Cancer.
I know. Stupefying beyond words but with some caution, it appears to be true.
The Craziest Way To Prevent Disease:
Those changes were said to both protect against tumor growth, and also impede the accumulation of Amyloid Beta, the most famous bad brain-component of Alzheimer’s.
However in these trials there has not yet been an increase of an identifiable chemical that could then be given to unmodified animals to verify, like Colanic Acid.
So, as crazy as it sounds, some day in the future you may absolutely either be drinking a shake, or taking a capsule that keeps you sharp, disease-free & allows you to live a significantly-longer & healthier life.
TO ACTIVIA AND BEYOND!:
All thanks to those weird little bugs in that wacky new study-area the human microbiome.
I’ll plead the fifth on Jamie-Lee Curtis’ G-I tract,
But maybe those crazy 100-year-old Bulgarians and their yogurt-addiction giving birth to modern probiotic study were really on to something after all!
Details on probiotics that might make you live longer & healthier are just out at the Links:
Photo Credits: “old man #2 dragan effect”, by Roberto Romanato
Links:
• Source: Baylor
• via: TheAtlantic
• Source Study: Cell-Microbial Genetic Composition Tunes Host Longevity
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