People are no longer ready to blame the essentials of bloating, indigestion and other digestive problems on an irritated stomach. Over the past decade, many Americans have started to achieve how important intestinal health is for their physical and mental well-being. And their search for products and treatment to promote a healthy intestine has taken off.
“The most digestible council we have to offer for the public is fiber,” said Amiko Uchida MD, gastroenterologist and doctor-scientist at the University of Utah Health. “This is a nutrient that is considerably lacking in traditional diet, especially in the United States and other developed countries.”
Uchida is passionate about helping her patients and the public to achieve better intestinal health. Often it starts with the construction of their confidence in current science and research, such as statistics that show that 95% of Americans do not get enough fiber in their diet.
Fiber is an essential element of the sculpture and the formation of the intestinal microbiota – the community of billions of microbes, including bacteria, which live in your digestive tract. This intestinal microbiota is an important part of the human microbiome, which refers to all microorganisms living in and on the body. These microbes play an essential role in digestion, absorption of nutrients and the support of the immune system.
Eating more fruits and vegetables, a main source of fiber, may seem an easy solution. But accessing these foods can be difficult for many people.
“With fibers, it’s difficult, especially when we think of cities and communities that are food deserts,” said Uchida. “In these places, nutrients in general can be difficult to find while available foods are highly processed or ultra-treated.”
About 65% of foods available in the United States are ultra-transformed, adds Uchida. “And the price of stickers on fresh food is higher. These are very important obstacles that affect the health of our country.”
U of U’s health initiatives tackle this lack of access to fresh food. “The U has a food pharmacy program which is at various stages of growth,” explains Uchida. “And there are many providers and university investigators who would like to see the program become even greater, like a farm.”
The importance of the microbiome
For people who can have a balanced diet, reduce stress and do enough exercise, the quest is still in progress to take care of their intestinal microbiome. Scientists also study the link between intestinal health and immunity, mental health, chronic diseases and people’s brains.
“It is important to consider the intestine as a central location in our body,” said Uchida. “It is a unique environment where food interacts with microbes, which interact with our own immune system and our intestinal lining. They are all in an orchestra, producing different things like metabolites and, hopefully, work together. These metabolites can be absorbed and move to different places in the body, such as the brain, and have beneficial anti-inflammatory effects.”
Intestinal brain connection
The assembly evidence connects the health of the intestinal microbiome and Alzheimer’s disease. In his book, “Heal Your Gut, Save Your Brain”, Partha Nandi, MD, FACP, suggests that intestine care could considerably modify and transform the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer.
“By targeting intestinal health, these patients and their families may have another way to treat Alzheimer’s disease with simple and effective principles that can have an impact on the development of this neurodegenerative disease,” writes Nandi.
Many studies in progress examine the link between intestinal health and cognitive decline, explains Uchida. “People look at models, often using animals, to study if we modify their diet and see less incidence of the` `mouse version ” of dementia or this neuroinflammation which, in our view, could predispose or finally lead to things like dementia.”
One of Uchida’s colleagues during his Massachusetts General Hospital scholarship leads clinical investigations to the Harvard Medical School on how the brain and the intestine communicate with each other.
Trisha Pasricha, MD, specialist in neurogastroenterology, focuses on Gut Health’s link with Parkinson’s disease. In 2024, his laboratory published results showing that damage to the higher lining of the intestine were associated with around 76% risk of development of Parkinson in the future.
In a video published in December 2024, Pasricha said that the objective of research in his laboratory “is to find an early biomarker of Parkinson’s disease, and our hope is that we can find one in the intestine”.
She suggests that it may be possible in the future to “get your screening colonoscopy and tell you that there is a sign that you will progress to Parkinson’s disease unless doctors are working now.”
At the center of research in Pasricha is the vast nervous system in people’s guts, which can trigger a variety of connections with the brain. In fact, the intestine has often been called a second brain – and there is a simple reason.
“The second most abundant location for the nerves, apart from the central nervous system in the brain and the spinal cord, is the intestine,” said Uchida. “I think it resonates with people when they think of simple things like where they feel emotions.”
She also underlines that “the nerve endings in the intestine are there with the immune system in the intestine. They talk to each other, and that is why researchers use fundamental science to try to understand these relationships.”
Improve health thanks to research
Uchida is carrying out clinical research in U of U health in the link between intestinal health and its impact on allergic diseases such as gastrointestinal disease (GI) eosinophilia and inflammatory intestine disease. Both conditions can lead to severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting and difficulties swallowing in patients.
In support of this type of research, the University of UTAH also houses the microbiota and gastrointestinal immunology consortium (Magic), a hub for microbiomas research. Magic brings together experts in disciplines to better understand how microbial communities influence human health and diseases – from chronic disease to brain functioning.
It will take time, financing and public support for researchers like Uchida, Pasricha and Nandi to establish the best links between intestinal health and a longer and healthier lifespan.
“One of the big messages that I hope to convey is that as a company, we must really value science so that we can get better information and take care of our patient population,” said Uchida. “We continue to try our best and move forward to provide them with the best possible care by bringing together our clinical knowledge with new high quality research.”
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