Trust Your Gut?

Do you feel like you should know more about nutrition, the microbiome and health but you're still a little confused? It's not just you. Gut health research is a bit all over the place, and what we know amounts to the tiniest inkling. One thing to keep in mind if you are inclined to sift through it is to recognize that most of it right now is on animal subjects. As such, conclusions from this research need to be replicated in large-scale human trials, preferably ones that aren't conducted by companies with skin in the game. 

A lot of the breathless reporting that you may read is based on early-stage research that just isn’t ready for prime time — and as much as we may be tempted, we shouldn’t use it to advocate making intensive changes in your diet and lifestyle. These kinds of studies can be useful as jumping-off points for *other scientists* to do further research, but they aren’t meant to guide clinical recommendations or everyday choices about our health. We're just not at a place where we can easily identify what our microbiomes might be missing or have too much of. Yet. 

When there’s a hot topic or when there’s a lack of research or research consensus, it leaves a huge hole and thus the emergence of unproven claims – and this happens a lot in the wellness and nutrition space. And as we've mentioned before, silver bullets are a hot industry!

It seems very likely that the microbiome is connected to a variety of illnesses, and there is certainly a ton of potential to learn what causes particular ailments and perhaps create microbiome-related therapies. This kind of science is so appealing: we have these organisms in us, and if we learn how to impact them, we will reap all the health benefits. Add to this that fixing your microbiome feels like it's a "natural" cure; it plays on that allure that if something is natural, it's better for you. 

We get it. We all want answers! But for now, we wait.