Can the Bacteria in Your Gut Explain Your Mood

Appeared in NY Times Magazine, June 23rd. By PETER ANDREY SMITH

Eighteen vials were rocking back and forth on a squeaky mechanical device the shape of a butcher scale, and Mark Lyte was beside himself with excitement. ‘‘We actually got some fresh yesterday — freshly frozen,’’ Lyte said to a lab technician. Each vial contained a tiny nugget of monkey feces that were collected at the Harlow primate lab near Madison, Wis., the day before and shipped to Lyte’s lab on the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center campus in Abilene, Tex.

Lyte’s interest was not in the feces per se but in the hidden form of life they harbor. The digestive tube of a monkey, like that of all vertebrates, contains vast quantities of what biologists call gut microbiota. The genetic material of these trillions of microbes, as well as others living elsewhere in and on the body, is collectively known as the microbiome. Taken

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Telomeres and Reversing Aging – Part 1 – The Science

This is complex and controversial subject that many are interested in and has spawned a growing industry of testing, research, and products…

First off, what is a telomere:

Telomeres are the caps at the end of each strand of DNA that protect our chromosomes, like plastic caps at the end of shoelaces. Telomeres are an essential part of human cells that affect how our cells age. Without the caps, shoelaces become frayed until they can no longer do their job as well, just as without telomeres, DNA strands become damaged and our cells can’t do their job as effectively.

In recent years, research points to telomeres being the key to cancer and aging. The story goes: the shorter they are, the worse off you are. Can the length of your telomeres help predict how long you’ll live? Can telomere research unlock the key to eternal youth?

What does it mean to lengthen telomeres?

Are we speaking about lengthening all teleomeres in all cells? Can we control which cells this is done to? Is this even a true bio-marker of aging?

Less than 1% of a person’s cells have the enzyme telomerase and tare capable of increasing their chromosome’s telomere length. The other 99% are incapable of doing so. What about neurons, and heart cells that typically do not divide and where their telomeres do not shorten with age? Most liver and kidney cells cannot lengthen telomeres. The 1% that are the most critical include white blood cells and many stem cells.

Should we be increasing telomere length? 90% of cancer cells do this. The fact that telomeres shorten may actually allow us to live longer as it may reduce the risk of some cancers.

Correlation and Cause

It is a fact that many species have longer telomeres than humans but live a fraction of their life span. Many studies have shown a correlation within a particular species between telomere length and length of life. The evidence is that length is a good bio-marker of aging within a particular species and even that telomere attrition causes aging itself.

Testing on telomeres is done with white blood cells. A higher rate of telomere shortening of any kind might indicate an increased rate of cellular damage, but it doesn’t tell you what is causing the damage.

Is this simply another indicator of systemic inflammation? We will examine this more in our next article, and look at the products and “cures” for lengthening telomeres.

Part 3 – Epigenetics

Cartoon by Yuval Robichek

Epigenetics – Originally, epigenetics was studying the clues that led scientists and researchers alike that gene function could be altered by more than just changes in sequence.

Today, a wide variety of illnesses, behaviors, and other health indicators already have some level of evidence linking them with epigenetic mechanisms, including most cancers, cognitive dysfunction, and respiratory, cardiovascular, reproductive, autoimmune, and neurobehavioral illnesses. Known or suspected drivers behind epigenetic processes include many agents, such as, but not limited to: heavy metals, pesticides, diesel exhaust, tobacco smoke, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, hormones, radioactivity, viruses, bacteria, and nutrients.

In the past five years, and especially the past two years, several ground-breaking studies have focused fresh attention on epigenetics. Interest has been enhanced as it has become clear that understanding epigenetics and epigenomics—the genomewide distribution of epigenetic changes—will be essential in work related to many other topics requiring a thorough understanding of all aspects of genetics, such as stem cells, cloning, aging, synthetic biology, species conservation, evolution, nutrition and agriculture.

Many types of epigenetic processes have been identified—they include methylation, acetylation, phosphorylation, ubiquitylation, and sumolyation. Other epigenetic mechanisms and considerations are likely to surface as work proceeds. Epigenetic processes are natural and essential to many organism functions, but if they occur improperly, there can be major adverse health and behavioral effects.

It is important to point out again, that – genetic test results, like bloodwork and other diagnostic testing tools, are part of a complex picture of your overall health.

Clinicians need to tie many components together to interpret these, the studies that the results are based on, the relationships between all the genes tested, and how they interact with other areas of your life and health – this is the blueprint of epigenetics. From what you put in your mouth to your last thought before you sleep, and how you sleep – these are all critical components for your epigenetic being and quality in life.

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