February 27, 2022
There is no question that successful aging lies partly in the gut. Your gut microbiota changes as you age and what you do to be healthier and live longer has a lot to do with your gut microbes.
While the gut microbiota tends to remain the same in adulthood, as people age, some patterns of decline become apparent. After age 60, the gut microbiota varies greatly from person to person with a decrease in diversity and an enrichment of bacteria that are potentially harmful.
Scientists found that those that showed the greater change in the make-up of the gut microbiome tended to be healthier and live longer, whereas the microbiomes of less healthy individuals remain relatively stable, and they tend to die earlier. As a result, it seems that gut microbes tend to adapt to the body, resulting in a particular composition when people are young and changing to another state as they age. So, age related changes in the gut microbiota are not necessarily harmful for everybody.
A decline in cognitive and immune function is common as people age but the role of the gut microbiota in this instance is not completely understood. It was found that fecal microbiota transportation from young to old mice slowed down cognitive impairments, restored some chemicals involved in learning and memory, and lessened inflammation. The hypothesis is that changes in gut microbiota composition in aging may be related to age-related changes in cardiovascular, immune, and gastrointestinal health. Successful aging might lie in the gut but first we must consider to what extent healthy aging drives changes in the gut microbiota or vice versa.
Age-related changes in the gut microbiota are important as they are related to physical and mental health, along with lifestyle, matter more than genetics in terms of having a gut microbiota in good shape.
