What is the gut microbiome?
You have microbes that colonize the intestine and the communities that they live in are the microbiota Dr. McCormick said. What they do in terms of their metabolic functions their genetic output how they protect us and have physiologic and structural functions is what is referred to as the microbiome.

How we live plays a role in what microbes live in our gut McCormick explained. Babies are basically germ-free until they are born. Even the manner of birth whether vaginally or by cesarean section and whether babies are breast- or bottle fed will leave different microbiota signatures. People become fully colonized with their microbiomes by the age of around 2 and as they age the composition of micro-organisms also changes. Even the composition of micro-organisms between us is different.

The mission of the center is really to tackle the grand challenges of what is our microbiome? McCormick said. We barely have a basic understanding of what its functions are during homeostasis how the microbes live in us through our current health. When it loses balance it goes into a state called dysbiosis. So how does dysbiosis happen and then how does that turn back into a healthy state.

According to McCormick being chronically in dysbiosis can lead to a host of health problems including Crohn’s disease autoimmune disease and cardiac issues and through a neurotransmitter connection known as the gut–brain axis cognitive and neurodegenerative problems.

The gut–Alzheimer’s connection
UMass Chan researchers are in the middle of a large National Institute on Aging-supported study to explore the causal mechanism of how the gut microbiome influences cognitive functioning among older adults living with Alzheimer’s disease.

Investigators are following over two to three years the cognitive functioning and gut microbiome characteristics among older adults with or without Alzheimer’s in a variety of settings. Some patients’ cognitive function will rapidly decline during that time and others will progress more slowly.

We’re hoping that by taking a longitudinal look over the timeline of these patients that we get to put all of these previously unconnected factors together in a way that we can determine the causal effect and hopefully learn from there how to intervene and restore health

Can we change our gut microbiome?
McCormick said that although sales are huge of probiotic supplements which contain live bacteria good for the gut they may not change our microbiome the way we think.

Remember we have 100 trillion organisms existing in our GI tract and one of their important functions is to keep out invaders she said. So when you take a probiotic supplement or eat yogurt with live bacteria or fermented food just by the natural function of the gut physiology the existing microbiota are going to try to push that probiotic out.

Source: https://www.umassmed.edu/news/news-archives/2024/05/science-for-living-gut-microbiome-offers-clues-to-chronic-disease/