SHUTTERSTOCK
Prolonged inflammation exacerbates cognitive decline and increases our risk of developing metabolic diseases as well as many forms of cancer.
“Collectively, our findings support the feasibility of improving the habitual diet to modulate the gut microbiota which in turn has the potential to promote healthier aging,” the authors wrote in the report. “We and others have shown that frailty co-varies with alterations in the gut microbiota in a manner accelerated by consumption of a restricted diversity diet. The Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) is associated with health. In the NU-AGE project, we investigated if a 1-year MedDiet intervention could alter the gut microbiota and reduce frailty.”
The Mediterranean Diet’s incredible impact on our gut microbiome
Alongside diet, age poses the biggest threat to a healthy gut community.
The older we get the less diverse the community becomes. Ironically, the less diverse our gut bacteria is, the quicker we succumb to the aging process.
Inflamm-aging refers to the process by which harmful, age-related microbial changes surge our risk for cachexia, frailty, cancer, and metabolic as well as neurological diseases.
Researchers set out to determine if they could mitigate the rate of this undertaking with a study pool comprised of 612 elderly people from France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and the United Kingdom between the ages of 65 and 79.
Three-hundred and three participants were placed on a regimen based on the Mediterranean diet for 12 months ( fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, olive oil, fish, and little red meat, sugar, and saturated fats) while the remaining were told to make zero alterations to their diets.
After a year’s time, the decrease in microbe diversity was effectively slowed down in the experiment group compared to the control group. In addition, the former evidenced improvements to memory, the growth of beneficial gut bacteria, handgrip strength and even walking speed. These episodic outcomes remained consistent irrespective of weight, age, and nationality.
It should be noted that this latest addition is derived from a cohort study that began all the way back in 2012, called the European Project on Nutrition in Elderly People or NU-AGE.