Diabetes is a global epidemic with 9% of the global population being impacted by this dreaded disease. Like other chronic diseases, diabetes is preventable but we have all got it wrong. Doctors & other healthcare professionals/companies are focused on just managing diabetes by using temporary relief solutions with the sole objective of just making money off the sick subscribers.
The good news is by recruiting the microbial community living in our gut we can actually reverse diabetes mellitus.
Before we deep dive into how we can optimize our gut microbiota equilibrium to eradicate this dreaded disease, let us briefly discuss basics about diabetes.
Diabetes mellitus is a situation whereby patients are not able to regulate glycemia (blood sugar concentration/level). It is multifactorial & induces the onset of other chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases. Type 1 & type 2 diabetes are the most common ones representing 10% & 90% of cases respectively. We have discussed earlier that type 1 diabetes occurs due to the inability of our pancreas to produce insulin that is required to transport glucose to different parts of the body. This is generally found among children & adolescents. Type 2 diabetes is generally caused by a combination of insulin resistance & insulin deficiency. Although the reasons for typ2 diabetes are manifold ranging from poor dietary habits, lack of active lifestyle, excessive weight gain/obesity along with genetic predisposition, detailed research, empirical evidences & used cases have confirmed that imbalance in our gut bacteria plays a major role in causing insulin resistance & insulin deficiency.
We have close to 40 trillion microorganisms living our gut that performs a key role in regulating our metabolism. The gut microbiota consists of 4 major bacterial phylums- Fircmicutes, Bacteroidetes, actinobacteria & proteobacteria. Total number of cells in our gut is around 100 trillions which is three fold that of total human cells in our body. In Fact our gut microbiota is considered to be a major organ of our body & is also referred to our second brain. Detailed research has proved the fact that gut microbiota has an important role to play in regulating metabolism. As such the gut-brain connection has a major role to play in causing type 2 diabetes.
Historically, it was assumed that gut microbiota facilitates our digestive process & excreting waste. However, it has been proven that the gut microbiome has a major role to play in regulating our mood, emotions & life decisions including dietary interventions. Besides, digestive disorders, imbalance in our gut microbiome has a role to play in pathogenesis of various metabolic & neurodegenerative disorders such as obesity, diabetes, chronic kidney diseases, atherosclerosis, irritable bowel syndrome & colorectal cancer. For the past 5 decades we have resorted to antibiotics & medication to manage our metabolic conditions. However, it is in recent past we discovered that our gut bacterial composition consists of antibiotics resistant bacteria that can alter & skew gut bacterial composition, leading to gut dysbiosis. This has implicated our immune system & made our immune response overactive leading to chronic inflammation. This coupled with adoption of western diet has made us follow fat diets such as high protein, Ketosis & many others & reduced the fibre consumption of 30 grams daily to by 70%. As we know our human body cannot digest fibre & outsource this work to our gut bacteria which upon metabolizing dietary fibre release short chain fatty acids such as Butyrate which has anti-inflammatory impact on our body. Exposure to western diet in hope of meeting aesthetic goals or quick weight loss has reduced the production of SCFA, led to release to various toxins such as lipopolysaccharides(LPS), ammonia gas, Hydrogen Sulphide gas & many others & has resulted in inflammatory diseases. In Fact diabetes is the end result of release of toxins by our gut due to dietary choices that cannot be metabolised by our gut. This prolonged release of toxins impacts communication between gut & brain. Lack of signal from gut to brain to indicate that you are full makes you eat more & more leading to weight gain. When this happens over long period of time, it creates pressure on our pancreas to release more & more insulin leading to insulin resistance. Eventually, it leads to insulin deficiency. There have been several studies reporting that the number bacteria involved in SCFA production were significantly lower in people with type 2 diabetes since release of toxins & chronic inflammation reduces gut diversity & leads to imbalance in gut or gut dysbiosis
Key factors that lead to diabetes mellitus include:
- High consumption of antibiotics leading to gut dysbiosis
- Consumption of standard /fat diets that reduces gut diversity
- Fall in production of short chain fatty acids
- Lower secretion of glucagon‐like peptide 1 (GLP‐1)
- Increase in low grade inflammation
- Overactive immune response leading to prolonged chronic inflammation
- Impact on gut-brain communication on a prolonged basis leading to insulin resistance
Metabolites originating from metabolizing the food we eat is supplied to our different body organs through a circulatory system. These interactions between gut microbiota, metabolites & our immune system are carried out through various signaling pathways. These biological signals impact us system wide & impact organs. These metabolic reactions through direct communication between gut microbiota, our body & immune pathways are controlled by microbes producing choline, phenols, bile acids & SCFA vital for our overall health. We are going to discuss these relationships in detail.
Gut microbiota & type 2 diabetes
Obesity & weight gain are attributed to increased risk of attracting diabetes.As such type 2 diabetes is associated with lower abundance of butyrate producing microbes & increased abundance of lactobacillus.There were positive correlations between plasma glucose levels and the ratios of Bacteroidetes to Firmicutes, and of the Bacteroides–Prevotella group to the Clostridium coccoides–Eubacterium rectale group. Furthermore, Betaproteobacteria was more abundant in type 2 diabetes patients than the controls. These observations hint that the Gram‐negative Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria might induce the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes through an endotoxin‐induced inflammatory response as the endotoxin, lipopolysaccharide exists in high concentrations. From a prediction perspective, gut microbiome is a new relevant biomarker for type 2 diabetes. Besides antibiotics reduces the abundance of gram positive bacteria that produces butyrate & was correlated with impaired & reduced insulin senstivity. In a recent research, gut bacterial composition of people suffering from type 2 diabetes consisted of opportunistic pathogens, such as Bacteroides caccae, Clostridium hathewayi, Clostridium ramosum, Clostridium symbiosum, Eggerthella lenta and E. coli, which have been documented to result in human infections. In contrast, gut composition of people not suffering from diabetes were from various butyrate‐ production bacteria, including Clostridiales E. rectale, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, Roseburia intestinalis and Roseburia inulinivorans.
Relationship between bile acid metabolism, gut microbiota & type 2 diabetes
Our gut microbiome transforms primary bile acid into secondary bile acid. Deoxycholic acid, the most common and abundant secondary bile acid in humans, is converted from cholic acid by some species of Clostridium in the large intestine. Bile acids are involved in glucose metabolism as signaling molecules and cellular receptor ligands. Bile acid have been utilized to preventing gut reabsorption. This results in the reduction of low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol. In type 2 diabetes patients, these molecules have also been shown to improve glycemic conditions through modulation of the gut microbiota and bile acid pool composition.
Gut microbiota & type 1 diabetes
Type1 diabetes where our pancreas loses ability to produce insulin results in overspike of sugar level & patients need external administered insulin to regulate blood sugar level. Earlier it was assumed that type 1 diabetes was genetic. It turns out that risk of attracting type 1 diabetes can be genetic however type 1 diabetes occurs due to gut microbiota intestinal permeability or leaky gut. Due to chronic inflammation & release of toxin gases attributed to wrong dietary choices, gut bacteria leave their earmark designated houses in gut & start relocating at pancreas where it kills beta cells & prevents pancreas from producing insulin.
Technology breakthrough
Technological breakthroughs, such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics and metagenomics, have enabled scientists to evaluate the genome, transcriptome, proteome, metabolome and gut microbiome with analytical tools. In recent years, we have been able to collect vast amounts of data pertaining to the gut microbiome and its metabolome to comprehensively assess the extent of the influence of the gut microbiota on human health. Now we can we collect vast amounts of data related to the gut microbiome and its metabolome (profiling technique for measuring and comparing large numbers of metabolites present in biological samples) to assess the extent of the influence of the gut microbiota on human health. Now by sequencing & analyzing fecal samples to determine various biomarkers that can predict chronic diseases. This has become specifically relevant in assessing diabetes since these new age technologies help us to learn overproduction or less abundance of which bacteria are causing metabolic troubles.
This is what Genefitletics specializes in! Our UP THE GUT solution translates complex biological data we gather from your gut microbiome testing to actionable personalized dietary recommendations unique for your body to overcome/reverse diabetes & bring your gut microbiome in an equilibrium state.
You are just one step away from decoding your gut microbial community & unmasking the root cause of weight gain, obesity & diabetes. Sign up for our free assessment here & discovery call to learn more.
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