Pediatric Gut Microbiotia
I was driving one day and a story came on NPR (national public radio for those of you outside the US) about a research study using mice and probiotics.
- Mice were dropped into a cup of water. The mice became stressed in the water and after certain amount of time became so stressed they gave up fighting.
- Then they took another group of mice and gave them a probiotic, lactic acid bacteria, ( Lactobacillus rhamnosus). Again, they dropped the mice back into the water. However, the mice that had taken the probiotic didn’t give up when dropped into the cup of water, which meant something about the probiotic was helping keep the mouse’s stress level down (you know most of your serotonin is in your gut. I believe they were measuring their stress levels).
- Next, they altered the mice by cutting their vagal nerve, the connection between the gut and brain. They gave these mice the probiotic and put them back in the water. These mice (with the probiotic) became stressed again. Anyway, I thought this sounded interesting and got me thinking about our patients because many of our kids have gut pain, anxiety and are in general stressed with the idea and process of eating. And there is information that certain probiotics can reduce colic. That paper is on the web and available for free at:
In the last year, I have also attended 2 interesting workshops, one on the gut brain connection and another called Using Nutrition to Improve the Biochemistry of Development, Learning and Mood by Kelly Dorfman, www.kellydorfman.com, which both touched again on gut microbiotia.
This all prepared me for a lecture I attended recently, given by one of our pediatric gasteroenterologists/researchers on pediatric gut microbiotia. It’s exciting but complicated information. From what I can tell we are going to be hearing a lot more about this area of research. I thought it would be best if I put a blog together with some definitions and links to get you started.
Researchers are now linking gut mircobiotia to many different disease processes. Research is studying the interaction between microbiotia and cancer, obesity, colic, autism, intestinal diseases, and behavior (including anxiety and depression) among other things.
Here is a good website to get you started:
Definitions from the website:
Microbiota represents an ensemble of microorganisms that resides in a previously established environment.
Gut microbiota (formerly called gut flora) is the microbe population living in our intestine consisting of tens of trillions of microorganisms, including at least 1000 different species of known bacteria with more than 3 million genes .
Gut microbiota key data and figures…
- Gut microbiota plays an important role in our lives and in the way our bodies function.
- The composition of gut microbiota is unique to each individual, just like our fingerprints.
- Our gut microbiota contains tens of trillions of bacteria – ten times more cells than in our body.
- There are more than 3 millions microbial genes in our gut microbiota –150 times more genes than in the human genome.
- More than 1,000 different known bacterial species can be found in human gut microbiota, but only 150 to 170 predominate in any given subject.
This paper was referenced during the GI talk:
By Rob Dunn, Scientific American
- This blog article explains the microbes living on us through references to Lady Gaga songs.
Authors studied the relationships of gut microbes and malnourishment in children.
“Moreover, the severity of a child’s malnourishment was tied closely with the degree of immaturity of his or her gut microbial community, and this immaturity could not be durably repaired with standard treatments.”
I am curious as this research develops, how this information will relate to some our feeding patients, particularly since there is a high rate of GI disorders such as gastroesopheageal reflux, constipation and food allergy and intolerance in this group. I am also interested in why so many of our patients with limited diets choose highly processed carbohydrate diets and avoid fruits, vegetables, and most proteins. I wonder what is going on with their gut microbiotia?
Let me know what you’re hearing about microbes!