Would you adopt this new approach to longevity?

In the past decade, more and more evidence has shown that the composition of intestinal microorganisms changes with age. There are obvious differences between the microbiota of young people and the microbiota of the elderly.

So some people have raised the question, can transplanting young people's microbiota to the elderly delay or reverse aging? In this regard, several studies have proven that this is really possible. In the early days, there were experiments on fish, which proved that the intestinal flora of young fish can delay aging and prolong the life of old fish.

A 2012 study showed that a diverse microbiome was associated with health conditions, including frailty, in later life.

In 2017, researchers re-examined the views of Russian scientist Metchnikoff, who was the first scientist in history to mention the relationship between intestinal health and longevity. The results of this study showed that aging does cause changes in intestinal flora and the immune system, and is also related to cognitive decline and anxiety.

In 2019, a study in mice with premature aging found that transplanting healthy intestinal flora could help these mice delay aging.

On August 9 this year, a study was published online in Nature Aging. They transplanted the intestinal flora of young mice to old mice and found that this operation could offset specific aging-related changes in the brains of old mice.

Old mice that received transplants showed differences in age-related microbiota, immunity, hippocampal neurogenesis, hippocampal metabolomics and transcriptome, and behavior compared with controls.

The specific experimental process is a bit heavy, you can get a general idea of ​​it. They collected feces from young mice (3-4 months old), and then fed the filtered microorganisms to old mice (19-20 months old) through feeding tubes. As a control, they also collected feces from some old mice (19-20 months old) and transplanted them into other old mice.

The results showed that after transplanting the microbiota of young mice, some immune changes that occurred in the mice with aging were reversed, and the microglia in the hippocampus, which serve as immune cells, also returned to their youthful form.

They also restored some cognitive abilities that had been declining with aging. For example, older mice that received fecal microbiota transplants from young mice found a hidden platform in a maze faster than those in a control group.

Although the results are encouraging, the researchers still emphasize that the current study only provides a clue and cannot directly apply this method to humans. We need to be extremely careful to avoid over-interpreting these findings. The researchers do not advocate fecal transplants for people who want to restore brain vitality.

Instead, these studies point to a future where the focus will be on diet or bacteria-based treatments that target the microbiome to promote optimal gut health and immunity as a way to keep the brain young and healthy.

Not long ago, a study from Japan found that a unique group of bacteria called Odoribacteraceae was found in the bodies of centenarians. The secondary bile acids produced by this group of bacteria have very good anti-inflammatory and antibacterial activity. Only a very small amount of secondary bile acid is needed to effectively kill super bacteria such as Clostridium difficile and Enterococcus faecalis, reduce inflammation levels and regulate immunity, which is closely related to the longevity of the elderly.

People have a lot of expectations about this. Can they age faster by drinking a bottle of beverage containing these live bacteria?

Will such an approach become a more acceptable panacea?

If it were you, would you be willing to adopt this approach for the sake of longevity and health?

Boehme, M., Guzzetta, KE, Bastiaanssen, TFS et al. Microbiota from young mice counteracts selective age-associated behavioral deficits. Nat Aging 1, 666–676 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-021-00093-9