Aging and the Microbiome
Many bodily functions begin to falter as we reach old age. Our relationship with our microbiome suffers as well.
The effects of age
We’re all intimately familiar with aging. When we’re young, we see our parents and grandparents grow old and then, in the blink of an eye, we’re adults ourselves and feel the hand of father time gripping tighter each day.
As time ticks by, we begin to notice the ‘gradual deterioration of functional characteristics’ within ourselves. Still, it feels counterintuitive to call aging a disease. The case, however, has been made a few times by now. Whether you agree or not, it is uncontroversial to say that, in the vast majority of people, advanced age is a period marked by various aches and pains.
That point is that aging is a systemic process, a multi-factorial problem. In fact, in a previous post, we looked at how this leads some researchers towards implementing machine learning in aging research, and a later study indeed used machine learning to develop lifespan ‘clocks’. To make things even more complicated, the different parts of our body that are affected by age respond in a different way.
Age, however, does not only affect our body, but also its residents. Our gut microbiome…
