Your gut microbiome does not remain the same throughout life.
As we get older, the community of microorganisms living in the gut can change. But these changes do not simply mean that the microbiome becomes healthier or less healthy with age.
Age is not the only factor
Chronological age is only one of many factors that influence the gut microbiome.
Diet, medications, health conditions and lifestyle can all affect it. Physiological changes that occur with ageing can also change the environment inside the gut.
As a result, two people of the same age can have very different gut microbiomes.
Does an older microbiome mean a less healthy microbiome?
Not necessarily.
Research has found that some changes in the gut microbiome are associated with increasing age and poorer health.
Other changes seen with age are not associated with unhealthy ageing. Some microorganisms may even become more common with age while being less common in people with poorer health.
A microbiome that changes with age is therefore not automatically a microbiome that is deteriorating.
What can microbiome changes tell us about healthy ageing?
Researchers are trying to distinguish changes associated with normal ageing from those associated with declining health.
To do this, they need to look beyond which microorganisms are present.
They also study what these microorganisms do, including the substances they produce and how these substances interact with metabolism, immune function and other processes in the body.
This research may help identify microbiome characteristics associated with healthier ageing and explain why the microbiome develops differently in different people as they grow older.
