Introduction
Welcome to Gui Gu 101. I'm Yushan. In this episode, we're delving into a topic of great concern related to everyone's health: the role of microorganisms. Millions of people around the world interact with bacteria, germs, and viruses, which usually live in harmony with us, helping to remove food residues and influencing our physical and mental health. Malnutrition can disrupt this balance and lead to disease. Our lifestyle, including diet, exercise, and sleep, also impacts our health through its effect on microorganisms.
Guest Introduction
Our guest today is Han Duo, a post-doctoral student at Stanford University. He previously covered the AlphaFold program on our show. Han Duo's research focuses on long-distance microorganisms, specifically how different chemical substances affect various long-distance groups and, in the long run, human health.
Understanding Long-distance Microorganisms
Definition and Scope
Long-distance microorganisms are a broad concept encompassing bacteria in the human intestines, as well as other single-celled organisms like viruses. In a healthy adult, there are about hundreds of billions of bacteria, with the number of bacteria cells equivalent to or even exceeding that of human cells. In terms of genes, the genetic complexity of these bacteria is much higher than that of the human body.
Location and Function
Most of these bacteria are located in the intestines. The small intestine is mainly for absorbing food nutrition, while the large intestine deals with food residues. These residues nourish many different organisms, which in turn return waste products to the human body.
Impact on Health
Nutrition
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Good Bacteria and Weight Loss: The concept of good bacteria is well-known. Many products claim that good bacteria can aid in weight loss and improve nutritional absorption. Scientific evidence supports these claims, especially regarding weight loss. Different types of intestinal bacteria affect people's metabolism. For example, two people eating the same food may have different calorie extraction rates due to their distinct intestinal bacteria.
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Mechanism of Action: The food we eat is either directly digested by the human body or remains undigested, like food fiber. Microorganisms, with their high genetic complexity, can digest substances the human body can't. After digestion and decomposition of fibers, some are reabsorbed by the human body. Different microorganisms in different individuals lead to variations in decomposition, digestion, and absorption, resulting in different metabolism products. Some products promote metabolism and energy use efficiency, potentially leading to weight loss, while others may contribute to weight gain.
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Short-chain Fatty Acids: Short-chain fatty acids are a key area of research. They are a type of small molecule, with examples like lactobacillus, a metabolite of glucose. Acetic acid is also an important short-chain fatty acid. These fatty acids are produced after eating fatty foods and have multiple effects on the human body, such as promoting energy consumption and improving muscle use. Top athletes often have a strong metabolism of fatty acids.
Immune Regulation
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Direct Immune Function: The long-distance immune system has a significant impact on the body's immune system. For example, the sputum infection syndrome, which is common in the human body, is usually kept in check by a healthy long-distance army in the body.
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Training the Immune System: Many immune cells are located on the upper skin of the intestines. Daily contact between these immune cells and long-distance bacteria helps the immune system learn to distinguish between normal and harmful bacteria. A healthy long-distance military group is crucial for the maturity and stability of the immune system. For example, children with less exposure to bacteria may be more likely to have immune system problems in the long run.
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Impact of Delivery Method: The method of childbirth can affect a baby's initial exposure to bacteria. Babies born via cesarean section are mainly exposed to hospital air and skin bacteria, while those born vaginally are exposed to bacteria near the birth canal. This initial exposure can influence the development of the immune system. Some hospitals and doctors are now recommending interventions, such as adding specific medical bacteria to cesarean - born babies, to make their intestinal bacteria more similar to those of vaginally - born babies.
Mental Health
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Levels of Evidence: The evidence regarding the impact of long-distance microorganisms on mental health is relatively weak compared to nutrition and immune regulation. In medicine, the highest standard of evidence is the random double-blind experiment, followed by non - double-blind liver baths, related research, animal experiments, and in - vitro experiments.
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Current Research Findings: In animal experiments, certain long-distance groups in small white mice may cause anxiety or depression. In in - vitro experiments, a considerable amount of organ can produce molecules related to mental health, such as blood glucose. Additionally, some psychological drugs can affect the growth of long-term bacteria in the test tube, leading to the speculation that these drugs may work indirectly through intestinal bacteria to affect emotions. However, more research is needed to establish a clear link.
Verifying the Link between Microorganisms and Mental Health
Experimental Design
To verify the link between microorganisms and mental health, a series of experiments would be required. First, healthy people would be invited to take certain spiritual medicines to observe changes in the long-distance army. Then, it would be measured whether these changes in the intestinal bacteria have caused changes in blood cells or similar molecules, both in the intestines and in the human body's blood circulation. Finally, it would be tested whether directly injecting blood cells can achieve a similar effect of reducing depression or anxiety symptoms.
Defining a Healthy Long-distance Microecology
Characteristics of Unhealthy Intestines
Defining a healthy long-distance microecology is challenging. Unhealthy intestines are often similar in that the long-distance army becomes simpler, with decreased diversity. The ability of the long-distance army to produce short-term fatty acids also decreases. Additionally, unhealthy intestinal bacteria are more easily affected by the outside world, leading to larger and less reversible changes.
Characteristics of Healthy Intestines
In contrast, a healthy intestinal tract is thought to be diverse, capable of digesting a variety of substances and producing relatively large amounts of short-term fatty acids. It can also maintain stability in the face of external interference and fluctuations. However, there is currently no ideal composition of bacteria that can be defined as the healthiest.
Long-distance Army Tests
Reliability of Tests
Long-distance army tests are available on the market, with prices ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars. In terms of providing a precise result, most merchants can give an accurate report on the types and amounts of bacteria detected in a sample. However, the more complicated issue is whether these tests can provide health-related guidance. Since there is no scientific consensus on the healthiest long-distance army, these tests may not offer much information on how to optimize one's long-distance group.
Test Depth and Price
The price of the test mainly depends on the depth of testing, that is, the number of different types of bacteria tested. A more expensive test with higher depth can detect relatively low - content bacteria, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the long-distance army.
Diet and Lifestyle Changes
Impact of Diet
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Eating or Not Eating: Short-term fasting, such as two or three days, does not have a long-term impact on the healthy long-distance army. The 16 - 8 intermittent fasting diet also has little impact on the long-distance military group.
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Probiotics and Prebiotics: Probiotics are good bacteria that can be supplemented, but their effects are often short-term. Prebiotics, on the other hand, are fibers that cannot be digested by the human body but can be used by bacteria. Eating more prebiotics or high-fiber foods provides fuel for healthy bacteria in the body.
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Fermented Foods: Fermented foods, like yogurt, pickles, and fermented drinks, are a combination of probiotics, prebiotics, and short-chain fatty acids. They have a more comprehensive impact on the human body, promoting the development of long-term bacteria and providing nutrients.
Impact of Exercise and Sleep
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Exercise: Exercise has a positive impact on the long-distance army. Interventional experiments have shown that medium-strength exercise can improve the long-distance army's ability to produce fatty acids and enhance the overall immune system. Observational evidence also shows that athletes generally have a healthier long-distance army.
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Sleep: The evidence regarding the impact of sleep on the long-distance army is relatively weaker. Short-term lack of sleep can cause a short-term decline in long-term diversity, but most of these changes can be recovered with sufficient sleep. The impact of long-term lack of sleep on the long-term group is still a topic of concern.
Other Factors Affecting Long-distance Microorganisms
Living Together and Pets
People who live together, such as roommates or family members, may have relatively more similar long-distance military groups due to the exchange of bacteria in the shared living space and similar living habits. Pets also have an impact, especially on children. Children who play closely with pets may have a more similar long-distance group to their pets, which is associated with a lower chance of immune system problems.
Antibiotics
Antibiotics can have a significant impact on the long-term immune system, often causing diarrhea as a side effect. Although probiotics can relieve the side effects of antibiotics in the short term, they do not accelerate the long-term recovery of the intestinal tract. However, for most healthy people, the impact of antibiotics is a short-term process, and the long-term group will basically recover to the pre - antibiotic state after a few months to half a year.
Probiotic Selection
Form and Trustworthiness
When choosing probiotics, refrigerated products are generally more trustworthy as bacteria can live longer in a refrigerated environment. However, there is also technological progress in making probiotics more stable at room temperature.
Selection Criteria
When selecting probiotics, two main factors should be considered: the number of active bacteria and the specific bacteria. The more active bacteria, the better. Different bacteria have different effects, and some, like acetylsaldehyde bacteria, are more popular but more difficult to ensure activity and quantity. A better choice may be a combination of multiple probiotics.
Patent Protection and Regulation
Patent Protection
Some relatively new probiotics may be patented by manufacturers. These manufacturers need to prove that the bacteria are harmless to the human body through related experiments before packaging and selling them. However, common probiotics like lactic acid bacteria used in yogurt have a long history of use and are not usually patented.
Regulation
In the United States, the FDA regulates probiotics as dietary nutrition supplements (health care products). Health care products only need to be harmless to the human body and cannot claim to be beneficial to human health on the packaging. This system bypasses the need for manufacturers to provide evidence of health benefits.
Scientific Research Directions
Treatment of Diseases
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Fecal Transplant: Fecal transplant is a mature medical approach for recurrent sputum infection. It involves transplanting the healthy human body's feces to the patient's body after simple treatment. This method can also be used in other related diseases like ovarian infarction. However, it has some inconveniences, such as the risk of using someone else's feces and the need for strict testing.
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Developing Fixed Bacteria Drugs: Scientists are researching how to find fixed bacteria that can have the same effect as fecal transplant when transplanted into the human body. Some companies have made progress in this area, developing drugs to prevent recurrence of sputum infection.
Editing Long-distance Groups
- Introducing New Functions: Another research direction is to edit the long-distance group to give them new functions to improve human health. For example, introducing bacteria that can metabolize oxalic acid to reduce the risk of ventilation, or introducing specific metabolism in intestinal bacteria for patients with genetic diseases like Benvingtomiasis.
Conclusion
This episode has covered a wide range of topics related to long-distance microorganisms and their impact on health. From understanding their role in nutrition, immune regulation, and mental health to exploring ways to improve our long-distance microecology through diet, lifestyle changes, and scientific research, there is still much to learn and discover in this field. Thank you for listening.
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