It has been emphasised time and again that your diet plays a key role in managing the health of your gut. Gut, for the uninitiated is a micro biome of a certain bacteria present in our body that tend to impact our overall health. Gut micro biome comprises of both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ bacteria. According to experts a healthy diet filled with pre and probiotics could help feed good bacteria.
According to a recent study, a high fat western diet in combination with antibiotic may become a pre- irritable bowel syndrome (IBD) risk factor.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common digestive disorder that affects over 11% of people worldwide. Some of the symptoms include recurring episodes of abdominal pain, bloating and changes in bowel habits.IBS patients with mucosal inflammation and changes in the gut’s microbial composition are considered pre-IBD.

The study included 43 healthy adults and 49 adult patients diagnosed with IBS. The researchers measured faecal calprotectin, a biomarker for intestinal inflammation, of participants. Elevated levels of faecal calprotectin indicated a pre-IBD condition. The study identified 19 patients with IBS as pre-IBD.

In the course of the study, researchers found that participants who consumed a high-fat diet and used antibiotics were at 8.6 times higher risk for having pre-IBD than those on a low-fat diet and no recent history of antibiotic use. Moreover, participants with the highest fat consumption were found to be about 2.8 times more likely to have pre-IBD as compared to those with the lowest fat intake.

“Our study found that a history of antibiotics in individuals consuming a high-fat diet was associated with the greatest risk for pre-IBD,” said Andreas Baumler, professor of medical microbiology and immunology and lead author on the study. “Until now, we didn’t appreciate how different environmental risk factors can synergise to drive the disease.”

Shutting the cell’s powerhouse promotes gut microbial growth.
The researchers used mouse models to draw conclusions for the study that also tested the effect of high-fat diet and antibiotics use on the cells in the intestinal lining.
The combination of both tend to disrupt the work of the cell’s mitochondria, shutting its ability to burn oxygen. This disruption results in a reduction in the cell’s oxygen consumption and leads to oxygen leakage into the gut, and lead to inflammation.

“The best approach to a healthy gut is to get rid of the preferred sustenance of harmful microbes,” Lee said. “Our study emphasized the importance of avoiding high-fat food and abuse of antibiotics to avoid gut inflammation.”

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