Full Transcript Introduction to the Microbiome 0:00 Hi everybody, I'm so excited to share this lecture with you. 0:03 I just wanted to pop in and say hello and for this lectures, since it's so science focused, i wanted make a slideshow instead because this will help explain 0:15 things hopefully in a lot more clarity. 0:17 So this module is all about the microbiome and I first want to give a shout out to my mentors and colleagues and people that I've trained with who have 0:29 learned a lot about the microbiome from them. 0:31 So a big thank you to Dr. 0:33 Andrea Macbeth, Dr Heather Zwicky, and Dr David Lashid for inspiration on this lecture. 0:38 They've done so much great research in the field of the micro biome. 0:42 And after attending several of their lectures, this was really just a conglomeration and and Cliff Notes version of a of pearls of wisdom that they've 0:52 imparted on. 0:53 So let's dive in. 0:55 So what is the microbiome? 0:57 The microbiomes is a combination of bacteria, protozoa, viruses, all of that and yeast that create this world in, on, and around us. 1:11 Now, certainly in the world of new research today, we're looking a lot at the micro biome in intestines.
What the Microbiome Is and Where It Lives 1:19 But I want to remind us that the microbiome is so much more than just in the intestines. 1:25 It is on our skin, it is inside the nose, It Is in and on. 1:31 Our genitals. 1:32 it Is even on the bottom of our feet. 1:34 So on Our whole body, we have about three to five pounds of microbiomes, which is just amazing. 1:42 And that's including in The intestines too. 1:45 So there's certainly a lot in the intestines, but we can't forget about the rest of the microbiome in and on us as a whole. 1:53 And then around us, of course, there is so much life outside of just the the micro biome. 2:00 In and On our bodies. 2:01 We've got microbiomes on the surface of our desk on, the lip of, The glass you're drinking out of. 2:09 the plants around us, the whole ecosystem is full of life that we can't see with the naked human eye. 2:20 So this is a very exciting time to get to dive into the gut microbiome, because that's specifically what we'll be talking about today, 2:29 being the the Gut-Brain connection. 2:32 But the microbiomes are so much bigger than just the pieces in our intestines, but it's fascinating that the research is showing so in these tiny little worlds. 2:42 So just a small history about bacteria and the Microbiome. 2:48 In the 1860s, Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch first showed that bacteria can cause disease. 2:55 This is where germ theory came from. 2:57 They're noticing that. 2:58 Bacteria can. 2:59 Cause people to feel feel ill. 3:02 So bacteria got labeled as bad during that time.
History of Bacteria and Terrain Theory 3:07 In the 1870s, sanitation and sterilization techniques were developed because we saw that bacteria can cause disease. 3:14 So we think, well, we should get rid of the bacteria. 3:17 Then in 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered the first antibiotic or first modern day antibiotic, penicillin. 3:24 And from here, this is where things started to get really exciting. 3:28 But before we dive into the world of the research and starting to discover more. 3:34 There are two people that I want to pay homage to for terrain theory. 3:39 This was also in the 1800s, mid to late 1800's and then into the early 1900s where Claude Bernard first came up with the thought of terrain theory, 3:52 which is thinking about the bacteria in and on our bodies as something where we can hone for balance and homeostasis. 4:02 And if everything is well balanced and our ecosystem is healthy, then the healthy terrain equals a healthy human. 4:09 It's not just that the germs are bad, but a whole terrain piece can create more health in a human." And then that idea was expanded upon in the few later 4:20 years with Antoine Beauchamp. 4:22 And that's who's pictured on the right here with the bow tie. 4:26 That is thought about this theory of terrain versus terms. 4:32 Truthfully, they're all right. 4:34 Bacteria can cause disease, and a healthy terrain leads to a healthier human. 4:38 Then in 1995, the first two bacterial genomes were sequenced at the Institute for Genomic Research, which was very exciting. 4:45 The first one was Haemophilus influenza B, also known as Hib. 4:49 And then the second one is very small genitalia microbiome. 4:54 And in 2003, the Human Genome Project came about. 4:57 This was so exciting. 5:00 Being able to see DNA sequenced to almost 90% accuracy at that time was really quite the win for science. 5:09 And this was the tipping point to being able to see into the microbiome with all the detail that we can now and seeing these small structures coming into life. 5:18 And then 2006, the Human Microbiome Project came around. 5:21 This was small at the time. 5:24 There were 300 quote unquote healthy people that were getting to look into their microbiomes, people ages 18 to 40. and this is really the start of it all. 5:34 Now it's just budding and nearly certainly every year, but nearly every month is something new is coming out about the microbiome. 5:42 Microbiome is influenced by a lot of things. 5:44 Now, we're scaling it back a little bit now to just thinking about, uh, the micro biome in and on the human body. 5:52 Genetics plays a huge piece of it. 5:55 Age, where you live, stress levels, exercise. 6:00 Diet is big. 6:01 We're seeing a lotta pieces coming up here with, it's not even just the type of diet that you have. 6:07 Or not even just the food that you eat specifically, but is it organic or versus not organic? 6:13 If you're having pesticides and herbicides, if those kill bugs and invasive herbs, what could it do to the inside of our bodies? 6:20 So organic versus non-organic if you are eating a lot of plants versus if your eating animal products. 6:26 Even if you're doing more of a fasting pattern than eating regularly scheduled meals in small amounts, we're showing that all of those have influence on
What Shapes the Microbiome 6:37 our microbiome. 6:38 Exercise, whether it's amount, duration, intensity, whether it's outside or inside, all of these play a piece in our microbiome as well. 6:49 We saw some pieces with the stress levels about the gut-brain connection, but we'll discuss that even more in the next lecture here too. 6:58 And where you live, this is whether you in in country or the city, whether in a home with many people and pets versus if you lived by yourself. 7:11 whether you live in a more developed country or more rustic. 7:17 These all have big effects on the microbiome. 7:19 Smoking affects the microbiome, the pets piece is interesting too, because it's the type of pets, how often do you cuddle with them? 7:27 How are they indoor, outdoor pets? 7:29 And are you rubbing your face right on their faces while getting contact into their microbiomes? 7:35 Medications, we think about antibiotics as being big things for decreasing the bacteria in the microbiome. 7:43 Antifungals would certainly get rid of the fungus there too, and things that get out of parasites would decrease the parasites prevalence. 7:51 But it's not just those medications that kind of deforest the microbiome. 7:56 There is influence on the micro biome with any medication, including supplements. 8:03 So if you're having herbal supplements, that would certainly influence the microbial. 8:08 If you are eating or having supplements that are anything plant based, That would affect the Microbiome or even seeing any type of pharmaceutical medication 8:17 can affect The Microbium to the work environment you live in. 8:20 or excuse me, the work environment that you work in. 8:24 This can be partially the stress levels, but then also how many people are you coming into contact with? 8:30 Are you inside an office? 8:31 So you're working at home, are outside working construction? 8:34 are a massage therapist that your literally coming in to contact skin on skin with somebody else's microbiome on the daily. 8:42 All of these pieces have an effect on a microbiom. 8:44 Time outside and then home environment. 8:47 Stress levels, pets, siblings, how many people you live with. 8:51 Do you have roommates? 8:53 And all of these pieces come into contact with the microbiome and have a big influence as well. 8:58 So why do we care? 8:59 Why is this important? 9:01 Dr. 9:02 Macbeth shared this analogy in one of her lectures a couple years ago and just thought it was so good, so relatable. 9:09 So back in the 1920s in Yellowstone National Park, this actually happened within the park. 9:15 And I think it's a great analogy of a macrocosm of how this could happen with microcosms of what's happening in our bodies. 9:24 In the 1920s, they were thinking the gray wolf is causing too much havoc at the park. 9:29 It's our apex predator. 9:31 We should get rid of the Gray Wolf. 9:33 So they did. 9:35 And it triggered a whole ecosystem change that actually changed the course of flow of water in the parks. 9:46 Just from the change of one species. 9:49 So without the gray wolf as the apex predator, coyotes became the new apex predators. 9:54 And with coyote, they've each antelope and red fox and rodents and some birds. 10:02 They noticed that the population of those animals came down. 10:06 Then the grey wolf normally fed on elk.
Why Microbiome Diversity Matters 10:10 Without the great wolf, elk population exploded. 10:13 and they were overgrazing on willows and aspen and caused a lot of over grazing in the park but then the willow and Aspen that the elk were eating that's 10:24 the primary food for for beavers and their primary shelter and what they used to build dams and so the beaver population virtually disappeared it went 10:34 down to just one one pod of families, one colony, and then the beavers weren't there anymore so the dams started disintegrating and what used to be marshy 10:44 ponds turned into streams because there was more water flow there and that also affected a lot of plants and animal species. 10:52 This was just from one change at the top of this food chain. 10:58 Then in 1995, the Endangered Species Act said, we need to reintroduce the gray wolf. 11:04 So they did. 11:06 And coyote population got cut in half. 11:09 And that allowed more antelope, and more rodent, more fox to flourish. 11:14 And then the elk population also went down because the gray wolf was their main predator. 11:21 That helped with the aspen and the willows. 11:24 Then the beavers were able to come back. 11:26 What went from one colony bloomed to 12. The change of the flow of river went back to how it was pre-1920s. 11:37 I think this is fascinating. 11:39 And this IS a macrocosm. 11:41 If we change one thing in the microbiome, it has an effect on our whole system. 11:47 It's something that we're seeing, which is a little bit of doomsday. 11:51 prepare yourself is that as we're becoming more industrialized as humans, we are seeing a change in the diversity of our microbiome, 12:00 where the diverse and robustness of microbiomes is decreasing. 12:05 As you can see on the graph here, if you live in a jungle or the savannah, the microbiom has a lot more diversity, then it goes stepwise down as you get 12:14 into more rural areas and then even more so in urban areas. 12:19 And we're also seeing not only correlation, but we're seeing some causation too with more modern diseases. 12:26 We're saying more obesity than we've ever seen. 12:28 we are seeing more prevalence of asthma and food allergies, diabetes, even cognitive disorders. 12:35 And we were seeing perhaps it's just a correlation and it might be, but were also seeing that the microbiome has a huge play in this change of modern disease 12:50 and decreased microbial diversity. 12:52 Now, the one piece that I like to really remind people of is we can't grow this back. 13:00 Once we lose the microbiome as a human species, or once we decrease its diversity, it's very hard to get it back. 13:09 We can increase the amount of the existing microbial species that we have, but without other interventions, we can't get back what we've lost. 13:20 So it was very important to keep a healthy mouth. 13:25 The microbiome doesn't just affect our gut health, it affects almost all systems in our body.
Microbiome-Related Diseases and the Gut-Brain Connection 13:30 It affects the immune system, It effects our brain and behavior and our stress response, our HPA axis, which is hypothalamic pituitary axis. 13:40 it's in brain, into our adrenals and how well we respond with cortisol and stressful responses. 13:46 affects our heart, affects your blood flow. 13:48 And it of course affects are metabolism and nervous system in your gut. 13:53 specifically, so that enteric nervous system that we've been chatting about. 13:57 This is a short list of the microbiome and disease patterns that were seeing. 14:04 And this is this a big list, but it's not complete. 14:08 There are a lot more patterns I just didn't put on here because they're not as common. 14:12 So in the world of gastroenterology or digestion, we're seeing a correlation of a microbiomes with IBS and Crohn's disease, 14:21 ulcerative colitis. 14:23 even non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. 14:25 We're seeing patterns there. 14:27 With metabolism, we're saying patterns with obesity, type 1 and type 2 diabetes. 14:32 In autoimmune, or seeing a pattern with chronic fatigue syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis. 14:39 I don't think about the joints having an effect with our microbiome, but there certainly is. 14:44 And then in the neurology sphere, even Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, these are really coming to the forefront in last five years. 14:51 The anxiety and depression we've talked about a little bit already, but we'll dive into a lot of the neurology pieces in that next lecture. 14:58 And then we're seeing a patterns with immune system too. 15:02 So not just autoimmune, but UTIs and antibiotic resistance, these more like infectious type things, COVID too, especially along COVID. 15:14 And this is just a small smattering of why the microbiome is so important and why we wanna keep a robust, healthy diversity. 15:22 So the gut-brain connection is what we're going to dive into in a lot more detail next. 15:26 This is a small schematic of what this looks like. 15:29 We've got the central nervous system, which is in our brain and spinal cord, and that connects to our enteric nervous systems, 15:38 specifically in the intestines. 15:40 And then the connection between the two is the autonomic nervous system. 15:44 So all those pieces talk to each other through the vagus nerve, through that HPA axis, though the immune system, and we'll get to talk all the details 15:53 on how this affects secretion, motility, mood, stress and cognition in the next lecture.
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