Gut Microbiome Diversity and Systemic Inflammation in Older Adults

Researchers profiled gut microbiome composition via shotgun metagenomics in 2,100 community-dwelling adults aged 65–90, correlating diversity metrics with inflammatory biomarkers and validated frailty indices.

• Participants in the lowest quartile of alpha diversity had 2.1× higher median CRP and 1.8× higher IL-6.
• Frailty index scores increased linearly with decreasing Shannon diversity (p < 0.001).
• Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Akkermansia muciniphila abundance inversely correlated with inflammatory markers.
• Dietary fiber intake was the strongest modifiable correlate of diversity.

Microbiome assessment may help identify patients with subclinical inflammatory burden — a target for dietary intervention, and potentially for more targeted therapies as the field matures.

KCM offers microbiome profiling as part of advanced longevity diagnostics. Results inform dietary recommendations and inflammatory risk interpretation — we do not prescribe probiotics without evidence of clinical benefit for the individual profile.