Alcohol, liver disease and the gut microbiota - Bajaj, 2019 (PDF)
Alcoholic liver disease, which ranges from mild disease to alcoholic hepatitis and cirrhosis, is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Alcohol intake can lead to changes in gut microbiota composition, even before liver disease development. These alterations worsen with advancing disease and could be complicit in disease progression. Microbial function, especially related to bile acid metabolism, can modulate alcohol-associated injury even in the presence of cirrhosis and alcoholic hepatitis. Microbiota changes might also alter brain function, and the gut–brain axis might be a potential target to reduce alcoholic relapse risk. Gut microbiota manipulation including probiotics, faecal microbial transplant and antibiotics has been studied in alcoholic liver disease with varying success. Further investigation of the modulation of the gut–liver axis is relevant, as most of these patients are not candidates for liver transplantation. This Review focuses on clinical studies involving the gut microbiota in patients with alcoholic liver disease across the spectrum from alcoholic fatty liver to cirrhosis and alcoholic hepatitis. Specific alterations in the gut–liver–brain axis that are complicit in the interactions between the gut microbiota and alcohol addiction are also reviewed.
Food sensitivities and intolerances: How and why to do an elimination diet - Bryan Walsh, ND, Precise Nutrition
Again, if you don’t have any gut-related complaints, there’s probably no need to experiment with an elimination diet. Nevertheless, if you’re suffering from food sensitivities, following an elimination diet for a few weeks could be the most profound dietary change you’ll ever make. For some people, the results can feel nothing short of miraculous. So what is an elimination diet? Well, it’s all in the title: you eliminate certain foods for a period of time, usually three or four weeks, then slowly reintroduce specific foods and monitor your symptoms for possible reactions.
Gut microbiome composition and diversity are related to human personality traits - Johnson, 2020 (PDF)
The gut microbiome has a measurable impact on the brain, influencing stress, anxiety, depressive symptomsand social behaviour. This microbiome–gut–brain axis may be mediated by various mechanisms including neural, immune and endocrine signalling. To date, the majority of research has been conducted in animal models, while the limited number of human studies has focused on psychiatric conditions. Here the composition and diversity of the gut microbiome is investigated with respect to human personality. Using regression models to control for possible confounding factors, the abundances of specific bacterial genera are shown to be significantly predicted by personality traits. Diversity analyses of the gut microbiome reveal that people with larger social networks tend to have a more diverse microbiome, suggesting that social interactions may shape the microbial community of the human gut. In contrast, anxiety and stress are linked to reduced diversity and an altered microbiome composition. Together, these results add a new dimension to our understanding of personality and reveal that the microbiome–gut–brain axis may also be relevant to behavioural variation in the general population as well as to cases of psychiatric disorders.
Human Microbiome Wiki - Maximilian Kohler
Is eating behavior manipulated by the gastrointestinal microbiota? Evolutionary pressures and potential mechanisms. - Alcock et al, 2014 (PDF)
Microbes in the gastrointestinal tract are under selective pressure to manipulate host eating behavior to increase their fitness, sometimes at the expense of host fitness. Microbes may do this through two potential strategies: (i) generating cravings for foods that they specialize on or foods that suppress their competitors, or (ii) inducing dysphoria until we eat foods that enhance their fitness. We review several potential mechanisms for microbial control over eating behavior including microbial influence on reward and satiety pathways, production of toxins that alter mood, changes to receptors including taste receptors, and hijacking of the vagus nerve, the neural axis between the gut and the brain. We also review the evidence for alternative explanations for cravings and unhealthy eating behavior. Because microbiota are easily manipulatable by prebiotics, probiotics, antibiotics, fecal transplants, and dietary changes, altering our microbiota offers a tractable approach to otherwise intractable problems of obesity and unhealthy eating.