The Secret Language of Cells: What Biological Conversations Tell Us About the Brain-Body Connection, the Future of Medicine, and Life Itself by Jon Lieff

Author:Jon Lieff [Lieff, Jon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science, Life Sciences, Cell Biology
ISBN: 9781948836333
Google: y6jODwAAQBAJ
Publisher: BenBella Books
Published: 2020-09-22T23:20:42.578952+00:00

RESPONDING TO FOOD

Various diets encourage particular microbe species and regional gut lining cells to use diverse signals and approaches in their response to food. Patches of food lead to clusters of specific microbe colonies. When there is a lot of food, microbes grow rapidly and form large biofilms. These communities in biofilms can be more active near the lining and can become more dangerous. With less food, species separate into smaller colonies and are less dangerous.

Microbial species in the gut shift rapidly when humans eat new types of food. Diet trends can even affect long-lasting colonies that are hidden in mucus and crypts. Meat and plant foods attract distinct microbes. For example, red meat causes cardiac vessel disease based in part on the attraction of specific meat-friendly microbes.

These particular microbes eat the molecule carnitine from meat and metabolize it into a substance that enters the bloodstream from the gut. Carnitine is a family of compounds that play an essential role in energy production. The product produced by microbes that eat the meat’s carnitine then travels in the blood to the liver. There, it is altered by liver cells into a second molecule that is also released into the blood. It is the second molecule that causes plaque in blood vessels, which can lead to heart disease. This effect on heart disease has nothing to do with meat per se but is the result of behavior of specific meat-loving bacteria.

Another example is in babies, where particular microbes prefer certain sugars and milk. When solid food is introduced, other microbes form thousands of permanent communities. Dominant species start growing at the beginning of the small intestine and gradually travel downward. Eventually in adults, approximately fifty prominent species become stable for years. Following treatment with antibiotics, these stable communities reemerge after hiding in protected niches.

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