Microbiota -ageing and basic changes

When you age, your microbiota ages with you. Most significant changes in adult microbiota are caused by diet and medicine. After age of 65 hormone regulation changes, impacting energy levels, changing the physical activity, the smell, taste, feeling of fullness and satiety. Sometimes this can lead to a nutritionally imbalanced diet. Elderly people microbiota contains Proteobacteria (a group of bacteria with many potential pathogens) and because of this group, they are at higher risk of infections. Intestinal microbiota of older people is less diverse and has a compromised stability, making them vulnerable to infections and chronic diseases. Taking medicines can disturb the microbiota, but eating healthy and doing exercise helps to age graciously. Microbiota seems to play a role in healthy ageing, keeping immune system in check and protecting against pathogens.

At the moment 13 % of the world population is over 60 years old and this will only increase in the future. There are age-related diseases (cancer, diabetes type 2, atherosclerosis, insulin resistance etc.) and surprisingly many of them are associated with an alteration to the microbiota.

Is the microbiota composition changing with age? Let’s first define ageing as a continuous and progressive decrease of physiologic function across all organ systems. All these changes sometimes lead to different diseases. One of the most important effect in our case is the reduction of the gut motility as you get older. The changes in the microbiota follow the changes in the diet…