In one of the largest microbiota studies conducted in humans, researchers at University, Lawson and Tianyi Health Science Institute in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, China have shown a potential link between healthy aging and a healthy gut. With the establishment of the China-Canada Institute, the researchers studied the gut bacteria in a cohort of more than 1,000 Chinese individuals in a variety of age-ranges from 3 to over 100-years-old who were self-selected to be extremely healthy with no known health issues and no family history of disease. The results showed a direct correlation between health and the microbes in the intestine.

“The aim is to bring novel microbiome diagnostic systems to populations, then use food and probiotics to try and improve biomarkers of health,” said Gregor Reid, PhD, professor at Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and Scientist at Lawson Health Research Institute. “It begs the question – if you can stay active and eat well, will you age better, or is healthy aging predicated by the bacteria in your gut?”

The study, published in the journal mSphere, showed that the overall microbiota composition of the healthy elderly group was like that of people decades younger, and that the gut microbiota differed little between individuals from the ages of 30 to over 100.

“The main conclusion is that if you are ridiculously healthy and 90-years-old, your gut microbiota is not that different from a healthy 30-year-old in the same population,” said Greg Gloor, PhD, the principal investigator on the study and also a professor at Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and Scientist at Lawson Health Research Institute. Whether this is cause or effect is unknown, but the study authors point out that it is the diversity of the gut microbiota that remained the same through their study group.

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