Ask the doctors | Learn more about personalized nutrition – Times-Standard
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Dear Doctors, I have heard of something called “personalized nutrition”. They say it can help with all kinds of things like depression, weight loss, and even migraines. Apparently it starts with a poo sample? What does it all mean?
Dear Reader: There was a time when the term âpersonalized nutritionâ referred to dietary advice based on factors such as weight, physical condition, body fat percentage, eating habits, activity levels, blood lipid levels and general health. Some of these diets reduced their focus and targeted the participant’s body type, blood group, or even DNA.
The personalized nutrition you’re talking about, also known as precision nutrition, takes that kind of specificity a step further. The companies involved offer their customers dietary advice that they believe is based on the unique makeup of each individual’s gut microbiome. This is the reason why stool samples are requested from participants.
Although people are conditioned to view feces with disgust, it is actually a useful diagnostic tool. About three quarters of stools are water. The remaining 25% consists of undigested fiber, as well as a wide range of metabolic products and by-products. Traditional stool analysis evaluates factors such as color, consistency and pH, and looks for the presence of blood, fat, protein, white blood cells, meat fibers, mucus, bile or specific organisms. These can be useful in the diagnosis of a range of gastrointestinal disorders, certain cancers, hidden bleeding, bacterial infections and parasitic infections. The stool also contains both the living and dead microbes that colonize the gut, and that’s what the new personalized nutrition is based on.
Research into the gut microbiome has revealed how the trillions of microorganisms living in us influence our physical health and mental well-being. This includes digestion, metabolism, weight loss, immune function, autoimmune diseases, blood sugar control and cardiovascular function, as well as mood, anxiety, depression, and other issues. mental health. There’s also growing evidence that the specific makeup of each person’s gut flora affects how – and how – they digest and metabolize different foods. It works the other way around as well, as the foods you eat can directly affect the health of your gut microbiome.
The idea behind personalized gut-based nutrition is that, with a detailed understanding of your specific microbiome, you can learn to choose the foods that are best suited for your microbiota and, therefore, your overall health. As you point out, a lot of promises are made about what this new version of personalized nutrition can accomplish. These include the ability to design diets to help with weight loss, lower a person’s blood pressure, decrease inflammation, and relieve gastrointestinal problems. However, it is important to note that rigorous research into these claims remains scarce at this time. Considering the important role that the intestinal flora of our intestines plays in the optimal functioning of our organism, it will not be surprising that this approach to nutrition proves to be useful. But at this point, there is still a lot to learn.
Eve Glazier, MD, MBA, is an internist and associate professor of medicine at UCLA Health. Elizabeth Ko, MD, is an internist and assistant professor of medicine at UCLA Health. Send your questions to [email protected], or write to: Ask the Doctors, c / o UCLA Health Sciences Media Relations, 10960 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1955, Los Angeles, CA, 90024. Due to mail volume , personal responses cannot be provided.
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