When it comes to life, one thing is sure: everything is connected. Life has this way of reacting to everything. That is one of its definitions. It doesn’t stay. Still, it changes every second, even without knowing it.
Sound, sight, taste, air, water, warmth, everything changes something. And most of the time, changes can’t be evaluated. Especially if we think about the alchemical crucible, we call the human body. The human mind has created a science dedicated to this great mystery: medicine.
A new study made on 600 individuals showed that something as simple as a turn to a different diet could slow down the aging process. Mediterranean diet, based on fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, olive oil, and fish, can make the gut microbiome healthier, thus making the elders overcome their frailty.
The individuals who participated in the study came from different gastronomical cultures: France, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, and the UK. They went on the Mediterranean diet for a year, and the resulting health improvement was impressive: the frailty went down.
Mediterranean Diet Promotes Healthy Aging
Walking speed and strength of handgrip, better brain function, including memory, they all improved thanks to the Mediterranean diet. The diet decreased the risk of colon cancer, and metabolic damage like insulin resistance, fatty liver, and cell damage.
The microbiome is an extra organ of the human body. It includes bacteria, archaea, protists, fungi, and viruses, and it has a crucial impact on the immunologic, hormonal, and metabolic homeostasis.
It resides on or within human tissues and biofluids: the skin, mammary glands, placenta, seminal fluid, uterus, ovarian follicles, lung, saliva, oral mucosa, conjunctiva, biliary tract, and gastrointestinal tract.
Mediterranean diet promotes healthy aging by enhancing gut microbiome. The microbiome has good microbes and bad ones, and they all depend on one another. The microbiome’s health depends on this balance. It looks like the gut microbiome prefers Mediterranean food. That is if we want to undermine the disabling process of aging.