Why Gut Heath is Important for People with Allergies
"Our ancestors weren’t consuming McDonald’s, so our diet has changed, and our gut bacteria now eats what we eat. Altering their food source has changed them, seemingly for the worse.”
- Catherine Nagler, Lead Researcher in the Microbiome Field.
MICROBES exist everywhere, in water, air, soil, plants and animals and according to microbiologist Brett Finlay, there are more bacteria on Earth than there are stars in the sky. The human body contains trillions of bacterial cells, most of which are in the gut and according to researchers, they might help us solve the mystery of why more and more people are living with food allergies.
In some areas of the world, asthma and allergies are almost non-existent. If we could understand what’s going on in our gut, could we change the impact allergens have on our bodies?
Apparently, YES! The head of the asthma and allergy division at the Munich University Children’s Hospital reported that the rate of positive allergy tests among non-farming Swiss children was 44%. Yet in Amish children who grew up on farms in the same region, the rate was roughly 8%. That's a big difference! The Amish, don’t use industrialised farming techniques, they interact closely with the animals. What’s more, when the researchers took extracts from cowshed dust and put them into mice, they found they could prevent allergic asthma altogether!
A 2016 study in the US found that babies who were lacking particular gut microbes at 1-month-old were 3 times more likely to develop allergic reactions by age 2, and asthma by age 4. Those missing microbes play a crucial role in curbing the body’s allergic response.
The microbiome is an area of research we at Natasha's Foundation are really interested in finding out more about. More research is needed in this area, it's exciting because it could be life-changing for millions of people around the world living with allergies.