A University of Alberta research team is in clinical trials to validate a tool they\u2019ve developed to test the microbiome in your gut and provide a precision diet to restore it to health.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The tool is aimed at people living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) but is also proving helpful to those with other inflammatory illnesses, and even people with normal digestion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to understand, based on the microbes that live in your gut, are there specific types of carbohydrates that are best for your health? Are there certain types of carbohydrates that your microbes can\u2019t really do anything with, so you\u2019re either not going to receive a benefit or you may actually experience gut symptoms like bloating, gas, pain or discomfort?\u201d explains principal investigator Heather Armstrong<\/a>, associate professor of gastroenterology and adjunct in both pediatrics at U of A and internal medicine at the University of Manitoba.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOnce we understand what your gut microbiota looks like, what it\u2019s capable of doing for you, then we can optimize its health using nutrition to make subtle changes and promote the correct microbes to thrive so they are offering you the greatest health outcome,\u201d Armstrong says.<\/p>\n The usual culprits for people with IBD are nondigestible carbohydrates \u2014 fibres and starches that aren\u2019t normally absorbed directly into the digestive tract but are instead broken down by microbes using fermentation.\u00a0<\/p>\n For example, beta fructans are found in foods like chicory root, onions, garlic and bananas. If your gut test shows that your microbiota can\u2019t handle these carbohydrates, the diet would recommend you decrease your intake of them until your microbiome has healed and would prescribe alternatives, such as foods like citrus fruits that are high in pectin fibres, or potatoes, oats, beans and lentils.\u00a0<\/p>\n Put the peels in your meals<\/p>\n Pectin is loaded with phenolics, chemicals with anti-inflammatory properties. And when you eat your oranges and lemons, along with many plant-based foods, it\u2019s important to make sure you eat the peel and pith too, says Armstrong.<\/p>\n This is part of the healthful Mediterranean diet that is often overlooked in North America.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll see whole citrus eaten in Albania and Greece and other Mediterranean nations. They\u2019ll take a whole lemon, cut the ends off, then cut up the whole thing and put it into a salad or mixed veggies or a stir fry,\u201d says Armstrong, who has ulcerative colitis herself.\u00a0<\/p>\n She adds whole citrus fruit to her smoothies, stir fries or baked goods daily, noting that the amounts are small enough that she\u2019s not concerned about exposure to pesticides.<\/p>\n Armstrong\u2019s testing and precision diet regimen are undergoing clinical trials at seven sites across Canada, thanks to a $10-million Microbiome Big Bet grant<\/a> from the Weston Family Foundation<\/a>. She says it has shown strong results so far, and she hopes to have it clinically available within three years.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s quite incredible from an IBD point of view. We\u2019ve actually seen increased rates of remission just by introducing these subtle changes in diet,\u201d she reports. \u201cWe\u2019re finding it only takes a couple of weeks or a month to really rewire the microbiome.\u201d<\/p>\n Personalizing a precision diet<\/p>\n Trial participants submit stool samples, which are analyzed by culturing the gut microbes with different types of carbohydrates. An AI algorithm then creates a nutrient profile with recommendations on which foods to cut out and which to add. The test is redone every three to six months to evaluate changes and adjust the recommended diet accordingly.<\/p>\n Armstrong\u2019s precision diet tool is also being tested for people with non-alcoholic liver disease, people with multiple sclerosis, and a group of firefighters with normal digestion.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSome of our healthy controls who don\u2019t have IBD are coming back to us saying, \u2018I\u2019m no longer taking my statins, my blood pressure is reduced, I\u2019m sleeping better at night or I\u2019ve never felt better in my life,\u2019\u201d Armstrong says.\u00a0<\/p>\n It may seem challenging to eat the peel of some fruits and vegetables, but Armstrong advises eating whole foods over taking supplements. She says it\u2019s OK to eat missing foods in a different form, such as chicory root powder or freeze-dried citrus peel.<\/p>\n \u201cThe human gut is designed to receive certain nutrients at a certain point along the GI tract and at the same time as certain other nutrients that come with eating a whole food,\u201d she explains. \u201cDiet can quite easily change the community of microbes that live in the gut and it\u2019s quite sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n The Armstrong Lab<\/a> recently moved back to the University of Alberta after three years at the University of Manitoba. Armstrong\u2019s work is supported by 17 active research grants including from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research<\/a>, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada<\/a>, Canada Research Chair<\/a>, Crohn\u2019s and Colitis Canada<\/a> and the Weston Family Foundation. Armstrong is a member of the Women and Children\u2019s Health Research Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A University of Alberta research team is in clinical trials to validate a tool they\u2019ve developed to test…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,55244,65193,1298,16587,27396,137,108031,1624,6636,1679,15303,108032,9319],"class_list":{"0":"post-163868","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-chronic-illness","11":"tag-crohns-disease","12":"tag-diet","13":"tag-fibre","14":"tag-gastroenterology","15":"tag-health","16":"tag-heather-armstrong","17":"tag-inflammation","18":"tag-inflammatory-bowel-disease","19":"tag-medicine","20":"tag-multiple-sclerosis","21":"tag-non-alcoholic-liver-disease","22":"tag-ulcerative-colitis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}