Can your gut microbiome influence inflammation in your body?
Your gut microbiome can influence inflammatory processes throughout your body via the gut wall. Eating more fibre and exercising regularly are the most well-supported ways to influence this favourably.
Your gut microbiome has a direct connection to your immune system, and a disrupted microbiome can fuel low-grade inflammation throughout the body. When the composition of your gut bacteria becomes unbalanced and the gut wall becomes too permeable, bacterial waste products can enter your bloodstream. Your immune system recognises those substances as intruders and responds with a persistent, smouldering inflammation.
That smouldering inflammation is linked in multiple reviews to a broad range of chronic conditions: obesity, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune diseases and brain disorders. Caution is warranted, however: in most cases it remains unclear whether the disrupted gut microbiome is the cause or rather a consequence of those diseases. The association is consistent, but true cause-and-effect relationships have not yet been conclusively proven in humans for most of these conditions.
What you eat plays a major role. A high-fat, western diet damages the gut wall and disrupts the bacterial composition, after which that low-grade inflammation sets in. Conversely, one randomised study in people with type 2 diabetes showed that increasing dietary fibre improved the gut microbiome and lowered inflammatory markers in the blood. That is promising, but it was one study in one specific patient group.
In older adults, epidemiological research indicates that regular physical activity combined with a Mediterranean diet supports the diversity of the gut microbiome and thereby helps to maintain immune defences. These are associations for now, not proven causal effects. In people with chronic kidney disease there is a similar pattern: bacterial toxins leaking through a disrupted gut wall can worsen inflammation and kidney damage, but here too clinical trials that directly prove this are lacking.
In practical terms: most of the evidence points to fibre, polyphenols (from vegetables, fruit and olive oil) and regular physical activity as the practically achievable levers for favourably influencing your gut microbiome and, with it, your level of inflammation. That is no guarantee, but it is the area with the best substantiation so far.
Based on multiple narrative reviews and one randomised clinical trial. Causal evidence in humans remains limited for most outcomes.
Can your gut microbiome affect your cholesterol?
Your gut microbiome influences your cholesterol through bile acid conversion and the fermentation of fibres. Eating more fibre is the most concrete and safe step to take; supplements such as berberine are not yet sufficiently substantiated for daily use.
Can your gut microbiome influence how long you live?
There are clear indications that the composition of your gut microbiome is associated with how long and how healthily you age, but whether modifying your microbiome extends your life has not yet been demonstrated in humans.
Can your gut microbiome influence your risk of heart disease?
Your gut microbiome influences your heart health through metabolic by-products that can promote arterial hardening, high blood pressure and blood clots. The association is plausible, but how best to modify the gut microbiome to protect your heart has not yet been sufficiently proven: always discuss major interventions with your doctor.
Can a disrupted gut microbiome weaken your immune system?
A disrupted gut microbiome demonstrably dysregulates your immune system and increases the risk of chronic inflammation. Eating fermented foods is the best-supported way to do something about it.
Is there a real connection between your gut microbiome and your mood or brain?
There is a biologically plausible and, in animal research, robustly supported connection between your gut microbiome and your brain, but causality has not yet been proven in healthy humans. A varied, fibre-rich diet is the most concrete step you can take right now.
Can your gut microbiome affect your memory and concentration?
Your gut microbiome can influence your memory and concentration through several routes, but most of the evidence still comes from animal and laboratory research. What you can concretely do right now is support your gut health through diet, as direct supplementation or probiotics for cognition have not yet been sufficiently proven in humans.