Changing the way we age may be as simple as improving our gut microbiome according to the NY Times. Everyone wants to age better but to do so, you need to take care of your body. This includes both the mechanical and the gut microbiome. Your body is a machine with integrated mechanisms for nutrition, immunity, and mechanical function, all powered by the heart, nervous system, brain, and many other sub mechanisms. I have always told our patients from the chiropractic perspective; “if you take care of the machine, it will take care of you”. Too often, we don’t listen to our bodies and we age poorly with damaged joints and degeneration that may have been avoidable if we addressed it earlier in life, Apparently, this is also true for the gut and the gut microbiome which is a symbiotic system of bacteria and other living elements that helps us assimilate and digest food and nutrients that also keep what is not good for us out of our bodies. The gut biome can be damaged by antibiotics, eating the wrong foods, and even food poisoning. There is growing evidence that by eating the right foods and the right nutrition, we can improve the quality of the bacteria in our guts which can reduce inflammation, and disease. A recent study shows that you can predict health and possibly longevity by analyzing the flora (bacteria and other live elements in the gut) makeup in the gut. The microbiome changes as we age and those changes can predict how we age as well. Check out the article below A Changing Gut Microbiome May Predict How Well You Age People whose gut bacteria transformed over the decades tended to be healthier and live longer. The secret to successful aging may lie in part in your gut, according to a new report. The study found that it may be possible to predict your likelihood of living a long and healthy life by analyzing the trillions of bacteria, viruses, and fungi that inhabit your intestinal tract. The new research, published in the journal Nature Metabolism, found that as people get older, the composition of this complex community of microbes, collectively known as the gut microbiome, tends to change. And the greater the change, the better, it appears. In healthy people, the kinds of microbes that dominate the gut in early adulthood make up a smaller and smaller proportion of the microbiome over the ensuing decades, while the percentage of other, less prevalent species rises. But in people who are less healthy, the study found, the opposite occurs: The composition of their microbiomes remains relatively static and they tend to die earlier. Read more