Our keynote speaker for September’s Meeting the Microbiome CAM Conference has announced his synopsis. Dr Alessio Fasano will be taking the stage on 12th September to discuss how nutrition influences gut microbiome and metabolomic profiles in health and disease; read on for full details…
How Nutrition Influences Gut Microbiome and Metabolomic
Profiles in Health and Disease
Alessio Fasano, M.D.
The gut microbiome consists of more than 100 trillion microorganisms, most of which are bacteria. It has just been recently recognised that there is a close bidirectional interaction between the gut microbiome and our immune system. This cross talk, particularly during infancy, is highly-influential in shaping the host gut immune system function and, ultimately, the tolerance/immune response balance.
Increased hygiene and a lack of exposure to various microorganisms have been held responsible for the ‘epidemic’ of chronic inflammatory diseases (CID) that over the past 30-40 years have been recorded in industrialised countries, including the U.S. This is the essence of the hygiene hypothesis that argues that the rising incidence of these pathologies may be, at least in part, the result of lifestyle and environmental changes that have made us too ‘clean’ for our own good. Interestingly, increased hygiene in some developing countries has not led to an increase in CID as seen in industrialised countries, casting some doubts on the validity of the hygiene hypothesis.
This observation led to a revisitation of the possible causes of CID epidemics. With the appreciation that the gut microbiome plays a decisive role in either generating (mucosal) tolerance or leading the way to the development of inflammatory conditions, alternative hypotheses have been formulated. There is growing evidence that many CID are characterised by a change in microbiome composition. While factors such as modality of delivery, neonatal feeding regimens, the use of antibiotics, and infections can influence microbiota composition, diet is by far the most important variable affecting the ecosystem of the gut. Therefore, re-shaping gut microbiota through dietary manipulation is becoming an extremely active area of research for the prevention or treatment of a multitude of CID. This approach has already been clinically implemented for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.
To book your place at the Meeting the Microbiome CAM Conference, click here, or call the team on 01279 810080.
