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Microbes in our The gut can have a profound impact on our health, but research shows that those around us in our environment (known as the natural environmental microbiome) can also have a big impact. This suggests that we should all spend much more time interacting with nature, both outdoors and indoors.
I was first introduced to this emerging area of science by Professor Gretchen Daily of Stanford University. He mentioned a Finnish research project that demonstrated how letting kindergarten-age children play in a playground containing “dirt” from the forest floor had a significant positive impact on their gut microbiome. Seventy-nine young children participated, all of whom lived in urban environments and spent most of their days in different daycare centers throughout Finland. The only difference between them was that these daycare centers had three different types of outdoor spaces.
The first type was a fairly standard outdoor play area, made up of concrete, gravel, and some plastic mats. The second was the type typically found in daycare settings that are already nature-oriented, with grass, dirt, and planted areas for children to play. These two acted as a control with which to compare the third experimental space, where concrete and gravel were covered with segments of forest soil and soil from the local coniferous forest.
Children were encouraged to play in only one of the three types of playground each day during the 28 days of the experiment (note that some kindergartens have multiple play areas). Before and after the play periods, the children’s skin and gut microbiota were measured by genetic sequencing of bacteria extracted from skin swabs and stool samples, along with changes in T cells and cytokines in the blood. These cells and proteins play a critical role in preventing autoimmunity and autoimmune diseases; Its levels are often used as an indication of how well the immune system is working.
Remarkable results emerged. Children who played in the experimental playground showed a large increase in microbiota diversity on their skin and in their gut compared to children who played in urban and nature-oriented areas. Importantly, these were the “good” types of microbiota: those associated with health benefits. There was also a significant increase in the children’s immunity markers, indicating that they had acquired enhanced immunoregulatory pathways, which is indicative of a reduced risk of immune-mediated diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis.
The importance of this study cannot be underestimated. It implies that even short-term exposure to nature’s microbial diversity has the potential to radically alter the diversity of the microbiota on our skin and gut. Furthermore, it suggests that altered gut microbiota may modulate the function of our immune system.
A healthy microbiome is created, not born
Everyone has a A distinctive community of microbes in your gut—a person’s ethnicity, the foods they eat, antibiotic use, body size, and how much exercise they get—leave a clear signature on their gut microbial diversity. The role of these microbiota communities is significant. Our organs can only synthesize 11 of the 20 essential amino acids we need, so the rest, along with 13 essential vitamins, are recovered and synthesized by our intestinal microbes.
And these microbial communities not only help our intestines extract nutrients from food. Microbes also produce some of the most important compounds for our health, including immunosuppressive, anti-cancer, and anti-inflammatory compounds. They appear to be associated with the functioning of our immune system, central nervous system and associated health outcomes, to the point that clear correlations have been found between a particular gut microbiota (so-called “sick” microbiomes) and certain diseases. Those with a distinctive gut microbial signature include irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, celiac disease and colorectal cancer, as well as non-gut disorders such as obesity and type 2 diabetes.
