People suffering from Alzheimer’s disease have altered gut bacteria, a new study published in Scientific Reports shows.
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A team of researchers primarily based out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison examined the gut microbiota of twenty-five Alzheimer’s patients at the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and compared their samples with those of twenty-five control subjects matched for age, gender, and health.
Overall, Alzheimer’s patients had reduced microbial diversity, as well as a few noteworthy differences in bacterial abundance. “Alzheimer’s disease participants had decreased abundance of Firmicutes and Actinobacteria, and increased abundance of Bacteroidetes compared to control participants,” the researchers reported.
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It’s becoming very clear that the gut and brain are intimately linked. As many as 500 million neurons dwell in the gastrointestinal system and are connected to the brain via the vagus nerve. Thus, gut bacteria have access to the brain via a veritable a super-highway, and can influence it in both good and bad ways.
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