Imagine if there were an organ in your body that weighed as much as your brain, that affected your health, your weight, and even your behavior. Wouldn’t you want to know more about it? There is such an organ — the collection of microbes in and on your body, your human microbiome.
Web interview: Michael Pollan
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From the course by University of Colorado Boulder
Gut Check: Exploring Your Microbiome
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From the lesson
What's in the American Gut
We will wrap up the course in this module by discussing what's in the American Gut. Rob will walk us through results from the American Gut Project and compare results from Jeff Leach and Michael Pollan. We will also hear from Michael Pollan on the importance of microbiome research and how it has changed the way he thinks about his health and what he eats.
Meet the Instructors
Rob KnightProfessor
Pediatrics and Computer Science & Engineering. Director, Center for Microbiome Innovation, University of California, San Diego
Dr. Jessica L. MetcalfSenior Research Associate
BioFrontiers Institute
Dr. Katherine R. AmatoPostdoctoral Research Associate
Department of Anthropology, BioFrontiers Institute
I got interested in research into the microbiome during my
experience researching my last book called Cooked.
And as part of that research I explored the whole subject of fermentation.
The book is a series of accounts of the different transformations of
nature into meals and culture that we perform.
And, one of the most important of those is, is fermenting food and
beverages and and, and baking bread and things like that.
So I began learning a lot about microbiology which is
central to whether you're baking a loaf of bread or making sauerkraut.
And there is a a very interesting ecological succession that goes on,
and so I go acquainted some microbes for
the first time and began to get over my, inherited bias against microbes.
I mean, I was brought up in a house where germs were considered the enemy, and,
and I certainly had all my, many courses of antibiotics along the way and, and
we were told always to wash our hands, and fear any food that was left out,
and milk that had soured, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
So, in the course of researching fermentation and learning how to do it, I,
I started changing my relationship to bacteria.
Started regarding them on, on somewhat friendlier terms.
And [COUGH] and then I started learning about the,
the relationship between the bacteria we ingest and the bacteria in our own bodies.
And that we are inhabited by trillions of these, of these little organisms.
And they represent about 90% of the the cells in your body.
And that there is a very important relationship going on
between the bacteria out there and bacteria in here.
And, and that’s when I, got the idea of,
of writing something, about microbiome in particular.
Just around that time, I was contacted just completely serendipitous
by Jeff Leach who's involved with the human microbiome project.
And he was looking for someone who might be willing to
try one of the early protocols and be sampled and and
have his results put up on your website and things like that.
And my assistant pulled Jeff's email out of a giant pile of,
of public emails that I get and said, you now,
this sounds like, up your alley, and, and, and similar to what you're working on.
So, I, I got in touch with Jeff, he organized a call with Rob Knight,
and I learned about the project, and immediately wanted to participate.
And that was the beginning of that journey of exploration.
I think the American-Gut project is important because it's a,
it's an opportunity for lots of people to fairly cheaply get their,
their gut bacteria and other bacteria sequence and learn something about it, and
not only that compare it to a large sample of the public.
And you can actually look at where you stand vs-a-vie other people and
what, what, what microbes are predominant in you.
And how those might correlate with your lifestyle and your diet and
all that kind of thing.
So it's very different than just going to the doctor and getting a a sample done.
You're participating in, also in citizen science.
I mean you're contributing to a database that hopefully will have some use.
I mean the more people who, who participate, the more with,
with say particular conditions or you know, people with diabetes, or
people who are overweight, or underweight and, and correlations will emerge.
It's a, it's a form of populist epidemiology in the making.
And so I think it has a lot of value for the individual participating in
that you get this snapshot and hopefully it'll have value for the science as well.
Well, nobody's, nobody's microbiome looks quite like Jeff Leach's I think.
I haven't had, I haven't looked at his but, but
knowing what he's been up to in the last year or so I, I can bet that it's
far more exotic than mine and yours and just about anyone else we know.
But one of the things that was striking about my
microbiome when we first sequenced it is that it had a lot of Prevotella.
Which is a microbe that is often found in non-western diets.
People who eat a lot of, whole grain carbohydrates and
is, a little atypical for someone on a, on a western diet.
I'm not exactly on a western diet because I'm pretty careful about what I eat.
I don't eat junk food.
I don't eat a lot of meat, not a lot of processed food.
And I do eat a lot of whole grains.
I mean I really do make an effort to eat a lot of whole grains.
Which might explain it.
But it might not either.
I mean I think it's very important to keep in mind that these
correlations between particular diets and lifestyles, and the predominance of
certain microbes are not yet set in concrete, or that firm.
I mean we're still learning.
I mean as I learn more about Prevotella, you know,
my initial reaction was, I thought it was pretty cool.
I was very proud of my Prevotella.
Now this is these are bacteria associated with traditional diets more than
the western diets.
But then I learned some other things, that,
that AIDS patients have very high levels of Prevotella.
And that you know, it didn't necessarily correlate with health.
And so I, I think we do, as exciting as making these correlations is, I think
we have to take them all with a grain of salt because we don't really know.
And how much of that too has to do with your diet and other factors including
genetics and, you know, where and how you were born and your early exposures.
So, there's a lot up in the air.
And and so, I'm, I'm always very careful not to draw big conclusions base on,
on this information.
At this point, we can't make really firm prescriptions and
say, if you eat this you'll be, you'll have a healthier microbiome and
that'll mean you'll have more health.
but, we can make some general I, I think, assumptions.
And the one is that, the microbes, like to eat fiber.
And which is a plant material, and that you will the more,
the greater diversity of plant material in your diet, the greater diversity you
will have of microbes in your gut, and that's probably a good thing.
We, we, we have reason to believe that more diversity is better than less.
So a plant based diet is, is definitely indicated.
And and this is further, but we knew that already.
This is further proof for that idea.
What else?
I think being aware of the importance of your microbiome, just,
just the mere consciousness that comes from, from, having it scanned and
and looking at it on a screen and realizing that this is part of me.
This is part of being healthy, is, is that this community, I have to take care of it.
And in general we know there's certain things that are good for it,
and certain things that are bad.
Antibiotics for example, are bad.
Once you, you have some consciousness if your microbiome and its importance to
your health I think you'll be a lot more careful about taking antibiotics,
about eating about exposing yourself to antibacterials of all kinds.
And you might be even a little more relaxed about exposing yourself to dirt.
And you know, how much you're cleaning your produce.
Maybe you won't do it as much if it's grown organically and it, or
in coming from your own garden.
So I, I find it's a, it's a, it's a subtle change in consciousness, that once your
microbiome is on your radar as part of you and as something to take, to take care of,
to garden in some sense you're bound to make better decision for its welfare.
I guess the questions that I'm most excited about this work finding
an answer to would be how to eat well,
what kinds of foods are conducive to the healthiest possible microbiome,
and which foods we should avoid?
And I'm also very interested in how the microbiome may
be effecting our well being in other ways in more psychological ways.
And there's some very intriguing evidence that
microbiomes mess with your mind in various ways, your microbiome.
And, and, and so that it may be possible to modulate
the populations in a way that will affect your psychological well-being too.
So those two areas, diet and psychology are the two that excite me the most.
And then, you know, but that's personal.
On a public level I think it's very important
that we explore the links between the microbiome and chronic disease.
We are struggling in society with very high rates of chronic disease.
Four of the top ten killers are chronic diseases linked to diet.
And it may well be that this research on the microbiome can help us
to predict predict these diseases and, and treat them.
And perhaps, treat them through diet.
so, I think that,
that kind of research is, is critically important and very exciting.
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