Bacteria called microglia can trigger inflammation in the brain and elsewhere to restore balance. The immune system works “to repair tissues”. It also affects weight loss or gain. This is based on a study led by endocrinologist and neurologist Joshua Thaler at the University of Washington, Seattle. In testing mice, Thaler was able to prove that microglia in mice can influence the mice’s bodyweight. Mice that eat a high-fat diet inflames an area of the brain called the hypothalamus which regulates how much a mice and humans eat. When mice consume a high-fat diet the hypothalamus triggered an influx of microglia immune cells from as far away as the mouse’s bone marrow which increased inflammation and then weight gain. In August 2017, Washington University School of Medicine conducted another mice study that connected the relationship between certain gut bacteria and the common flu, as reported by Gretchen Lidicker of Mindbodygreen.com.

Japan has long held the position that the key to one’s health is proper diet and nutrition, which for the past few decades has been regarded the world’s healthiest country, according to World Health Organization metrics such as world’s highest life expectancy and lowest infant mortality. Despite these indicators over decades, Japan health care spending per capita remains far below those of the west, especially the United States. Proper diet and nutrition by itself can fight off the chronic diseases to which most people are susceptible, and argument that comes from a number of Asian health care traditions. Viome is ceasing upon a growing amount of data and research that points toward the critical role microorganisms play in our individual health. The aforementioned research at MIT, UCLA, UCSF, Harvard, Rockefeller University, to name a few, back these claims with substantive research around different health issues.

You do have doubters, but most agree with the premise that better diet and nutrition leads to a healthier life. As quoted from a recent INC Magazine article (“A Space Entrepreneur has Launched Another Moonshot Venture . . . by Kevin Ryan, May 24, 2017), “If, for example, you follow 1,000 people who have a healthy lifestyle and 1,000 who don’t,” says Dr. Edward Giovannucci, a professor at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, “without question there will be many more chronic diseases that develop in the 1,000 who don’t have a healthy lifestyle. But we have limited ability to predict specifically who will or will not develop diseases,” according to Dr. Giovannucci. Giovannucci does agrees that healthy dieting generally leads to better health and fewer chronic conditions.

The bacteria inside our guts—which collectively make up the so-called gut microbiome—are incredibly diverse, with countless species and strains. But they also differ depending on the individual, with one person’s microbiome having little to do with another’s.