Prebiotics for Frailty
A systematic review and meta-analysis based on more than 100 million person-years of data found that, compared with those who consumed the least fiber, those who consumed the most had about a 15–30% decrease in the risk of dying prematurely from all causes put together, including the risk of getting and dying from heart disease, stroke, and cancer. Fiber intake is also associated with significantly greater likelihood of “successful aging,” defined as absence of disability, cognitive impairment, depression, respiratory symptoms, or chronic disease.
Prebiotics, and postbiotics, compounds like butyrate, a short chain fatty acid that our good gut bugs make from fiber, can be shown to extend the lives of fruit flies, but interventional trials in humans are largely limited to risk factors. For example, a meta-analysis of dozens of randomized controlled trials showed prebiotics like fiber can significantly improve blood pressure, weight, and cholesterol control. However, there was a randomized double-blind placebo controlled trial of prebiotics for frailty.
/>
The most consistent feature found in the stools of the frail is a loss of microbiome diversity, particularly a decrease in fiber feeders, short chain fatty acid-producing species, no surprise since a key driver of microbiome depletion is a low-fiber diet, which itself is correlated with poor physical strength and performance. Maybe it’s just reverse causation, where frailty leads to institutionalization, which serve the fiber-poor diets implicated in the “decimation” of the microbiomes of those consigned to nursing homes. So when we find higher levels of fiber-feeders like Prevotella in the stools of older adults with higher muscle strength, why do we think it may be cause-and-effect? Because if you feed those stools to mice they get stronger, compared to feeding them stools from weaker individuals.
We suspect it’s the short-chain fatty acids because giving them directly to microbe-free mice or those with antibiotic-disrupted microbiomes ameliorates some of the muscle impairment, and restores exercise tolerance. However, these are no substitutes for clinical trials. A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial of prebiotics for frailty found a significant improvements in both exhaustion and muscle strength.
Eating fiber-rich foods has the double benefit of directly resulting in the formation of short-chain fatty acids and selectively cultivating the bugs that make it. Ounce for ounce, the colon contents of those eating more plant-based diets may have nearly three times the capacity to form short-chain fatty acids. In this way, eating healthfully not only provides more raw materials for short-chain fatty acid production but improved microbial machinery to churn out more of it. In contrast, putting people on a low-carb diet can slash butyrate production by up to 75 percent.
A systematic review and meta-analysis based on more than 100 million person-years of data found that, compared with those who consumed the least fiber, those who consumed the most had about a 15–30% decrease in the risk of dying prematurely from all causes put together, including the risk of getting and dying from heart disease, stroke, and cancer. Fiber intake is also associated with significantly greater likelihood of “successful aging,” defined as absence of disability, cognitive impairment, depression, respiratory symptoms, or chronic disease.
Prebiotics, and postbiotics, compounds like butyrate, a short chain fatty acid that our good gut bugs make from fiber, can be shown to extend the lives of fruit flies, but interventional trials in humans are largely limited to risk factors. For example, a meta-analysis of dozens of randomized controlled trials showed prebiotics like fiber can significantly improve blood pressure, weight, and cholesterol control. However, there was a randomized double-blind placebo controlled trial of prebiotics for frailty.
/>
The most consistent feature found in the stools of the frail is a loss of microbiome diversity, particularly a decrease in fiber feeders, short chain fatty acid-producing species, no surprise since a key driver of microbiome depletion is a low-fiber diet, which itself is correlated with poor physical strength and performance. Maybe it’s just reverse causation, where frailty leads to institutionalization, which serve the fiber-poor diets implicated in the “decimation” of the microbiomes of those consigned to nursing homes. So when we find higher levels of fiber-feeders like Prevotella in the stools of older adults with higher muscle strength, why do we think it may be cause-and-effect? Because if you feed those stools to mice they get stronger, compared to feeding them stools from weaker individuals.
We suspect it’s the short-chain fatty acids because giving them directly to microbe-free mice or those with antibiotic-disrupted microbiomes ameliorates some of the muscle impairment, and restores exercise tolerance. However, these are no substitutes for clinical trials. A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial of prebiotics for frailty found a significant improvements in both exhaustion and muscle strength.
Eating fiber-rich foods has the double benefit of directly resulting in the formation of short-chain fatty acids and selectively cultivating the bugs that make it. Ounce for ounce, the colon contents of those eating more plant-based diets may have nearly three times the capacity to form short-chain fatty acids. In this way, eating healthfully not only provides more raw materials for short-chain fatty acid production but improved microbial machinery to churn out more of it. In contrast, putting people on a low-carb diet can slash butyrate production by up to 75 percent.
Republishing "Prebiotics for Frailty"
You may republish this material online or in print under our Creative Commons licence. You must attribute the article to NutritionFacts.org with a link back to our website in your republication.
If any changes are made to the original text or video, you must indicate, reasonably, what has changed about the article or video.
You may not use our material for commercial purposes.
You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that restrict others from doing anything permitted here.
If you have any questions, please Contact Us
