Reference Number: 356
Year: 2016
Link: Link to original paper
Health: Ageing | Gut Microbiome - Creating Healthier Bread to Support Optimal Gut Health | Inflammation
Nutrition: Probiotic
Summary
Summary
The study of the extreme limits of human lifespan may allow a better understanding of how human beings can escape, delay, or survive the most frequent age-related causes of morbidity, a peculiarity shown by long-living individuals. Longevity is a complex trait in which genetics, environment, and stochasticity concur to determine the chance to reach 100 or more years of age. Because of its impact on human metabolism and immunology, the gut microbiome has been proposed as a possible determinant of healthy ageing. Indeed, the preservation of host-microbes homeostasis can counteract inflammaging, intestinal permeability, and decline in bone and cognitive health. Aiming at deepening our knowledge on the relationship between the gut microbiota and a long-living host, we provide for the first time the phylogenetic microbiota analysis of semi-supercentenarians, i.e., 105–109 years old, in comparison to adults, elderly, and centenarians, thus reconstructing the longest available human microbiota trajectory along ageing. We highlighted the presence of a core microbiota of highly occurring, symbiotic bacterial taxa (mostly belonging to the dominant Ruminococcaceae, Lachnospiraceae, and Bacteroidaceae families), with a cumulative abundance decreasing along with age. Ageing is characterized by an increasing abundance of subdominant species, as well as a rearrangement in their co-occurrence network. These features are maintained in longevity and extreme longevity, but peculiarities emerged, especially in semi-supercentenarians, describing changes that, even accommodating opportunistic and allochthonous bacteria, might possibly support health maintenance during aging, such as an enrichment and/or higher prevalence of health-associated groups (e.g., Akkermansia, Bifidobacterium, and Christensenellaceae).
Significance of this study for the baker
This finds that individuals who retain longevity had certain populations of beneficial bacteria still in existence. Further studies are required, however, it tells us as bakers, the importance of retaining a balance in the population of beneficial bacteria through the consumption of our sourdough bakes, rich in fermentable carbohydrates.
Learn more about how baking and eating sourdough bread could support our gut microbiome and immune health.
Also, check out our Botanical Blend flours. Made with hand-harvested herbs and flowers, our botanical blends make exquisitely soft and fragrant flour. The flours are an easy way to add another dimension of flavour and nutrition to your baking.
