Our gut microbiome is closely related to the immune system. Discover how gut bacteria interact with immune cells and how this can affect your risk for long-term and inflammatory diseases.
Your gut is home to millions of bacteria called the microbiome. This community of microbes, which weighs as much as your brain and exceeds the number of human cells, is central to the health of your immune system and even trains immune cells to maintain immune homeostasis.
In addition, depending on the diversity and balance of your gut bacteria, the microbiome can either calm the immune system or trigger an immune response.
Your microbiome is what you eat.
Although individual species may differ from person to person, researchers agree that diversity and balance are important indicators of microbiome health.
On the contrary, low diversity and imbalance are associated with numerous inflammatory diseases, including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.
Think of the microbiome as a forest, with many different species of bacteria working together to keep the system stable; if there are too many of one species or too few of others, the forest can suffer.
Diversity is beneficial because it makes the ecosystem more resilient; a forest with many species has a better chance of recovering if it is destroyed by fire, for example.
Likewise, balance is important to the health of the forest because it prevents one species from taking over; it's okay if there are a few weeds among the trees, but too many would jeopardize the careful balance of the ecosystem.
Your microbiome is no different, although you control the weather and shape the ecosystem in your inner jungle.
The gut microbiome is closely linked to the immune system; not only do gut bacteria play a key role in the formation of immune cells, but bacteria and their metabolites can both stimulate and calm our immune response.
In addition, a microbiome that lacks diversity and is dominated by pathogenic bacteria can increase our risk for inflammatory diseases. In contrast, a microbiome characterized by balance and enriched with probiotic bacteria can protect against chronic inflammation and disease risk.
Unlike our genes, the microbiome is dynamic and responds to our diet and lifestyle. With this in mind, we can support our immune system by eating a diet rich in plant-based prebiotic fiber and low in fat. In this way, we promote the production of anti-inflammatory metabolites such as butyrate.