Research studies of the human microbiome, often referred to as our 'ancient allies,' are revolutionizing understanding of the health benefits of a high-fiber diet. In this article, we discuss how fiber improves overall health, thanks to the symbiotic relationship we share with our gut flora.

Plant fibers and the microbiome

Plant fibers constitute a major component of all plant cell walls. Not only have these been instrumental in the development of various human necessities such as clothing, shelter, and food, but they’ve also played a pivotal role in the dietary evolution of our species. The significance of a fiber-rich diet is now widely acknowledged by leading global health organizations for playing a crucial role in preventing and managing several chronic health conditions, including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and inflammatory disorders. Dietary fibers are deemed essential for nurturing a healthy gut microbiome, with an array of food items like fruits, vegetables, beans, whole grains, and unsalted nuts recommended to enhance fiber intake.

As research begins to uncover the crucial role our microbiota has on health and disease, it also develops a better understanding of the benefits of high fiber diets, and the consequences of not maintaining a nutritious, balanced diet with recommended levels of fiber intake.

The Modern vs. Historical Diet

Modern Western diets, typically high in fat and low in fiber, starkly contrast with those of traditional societies that are instead dense with both soluble and insoluble fiber which has been shown to significantly affect gut microbiome composition. Many important studies of the last decade or more, such as this one comparing gut flora of European children with those from a rural African village, highlight how a diet rich in plant fibers nurtures microbiomes capable of efficiently breaking down these fibers, thereby supporting overall health. Researchers hypothesized that the relative reduction in microbiota richness they observed in European children "could indicate how the consumption of sugar, animal fat, and calorie-dense foods in industrialized countries is rapidly limiting the adaptive potential of the microbiota."

Health benefits of a high-fiber diet and a healthy microbiome

A diverse and balanced microbiome is akin to a protective shield against pathogens. However, a diet deficient in fibers can compromise this protective barrier, leading to increased vulnerability to infections and chronic inflammation that can lead to disease. Maintaining healthy gut flora through a high-fiber diet is thus not only a matter of nutritional adequacy but also a critical factor in disease prevention.

Some critical links between fiber-rich diets and maintenance of a diverse, balanced microbiota were illuminated in a recent study by Desai and colleagues. Typically, food sources of a healthy microbiota are energy-rich plant fibers that pass through the stomach to reach the small intestine undigested. However, when dietary fiber is low or absent, gut bacteria must switch to an alternative energy source - the glycoprotein-rich mucus layer of the gut wall. Because this layer functions as the gut's first line of defense against invasive pathogens, this can be a big problem as its diminishment  increases the host’s susceptibility to infection.

Diets high in fiber have also been shown to be protective against the development of chronic diseases. In one large meta-analysis published in the Lancet, researchers found that high-fiber diets were associated with 15-30% fewer  cardiovascular-related deaths and diagnoses of coronary heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and colorectal cancer relative  to low-fiber diet groups. These findings suggest that individual intake of dietary fiber should be no less than 25–29 grams per day for adults and additional benefits likely to accrue with further increases. 

Optimize your fiber intake for gut health

So, what can you do to support and enhance microbiome health?

First, evidence is mounting that early-life events can have a long-term impact on microbiome-related health. Mothers pass their own microbiota to their children during natural childbirth and breastfeeding. These events represent opportunities for mothers to “inoculate” with beneficial bacteria while their children are still developing the complex “organ” that is the microbiome. For this reason, women should avoid unnecessary perinatal antibiotics.

For adults, adopting a lifestyle that includes a balanced diet rich in fiber and low in refined foods is key. Simple dietary swaps, like choosing whole grains over refined ones and opting for fruits and vegetables instead of sugary snacks, can significantly improve one's microbiome health. Aiming for at least 25–30 grams of fiber daily is widely recommended to enhance gut health and, by extension, overall well-being.

Are you eating enough fiber? The reality is that most people don’t. Learn how much fiber is in each serving of various foods from the USDA or consider using a food logging app to get a sense of the amount of fiber you consume in a typical day. 

Gut health support from your Fountain Life team

Our healthcare team at Fountain Life, including dedicated health coaches, is committed to providing personalized support for our members’ journeys toward a healthier microbiome and diet. We can help identify individual needs and develop tailored strategies that encompass dietary adjustments, lifestyle modifications, and targeted supplementation. Our comprehensive approach ensures that each member receives the guidance necessary to nurture gut health and unlock the full potential of their microbiome with our expert support every step of the way. 

References

• Rook G, Bäckhed F, Levin BR, McFall-Ngai MJ, McLean AR. Evolution, human-microbe interactions, and life history plasticity. Lancet. 2017 Jul 29;390(10093):521-530.
• De Filippo C, Cavalieri D, Di Paola M, Ramazzotti M, Poullet JB, Massart S, Collini S, Pieraccini G, Lionetti P. Impact of diet in shaping gut microbiota revealed by a comparative study in children from Europe and rural Africa. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Aug 17;107(33):14691-6. 
• Desai MS, Seekatz AM, Koropatkin NM, Kamada N, Hickey CA, Wolter M, Pudlo NA, Kitamoto S, Terrapon N, Muller A, Young VB, Henrissat B, Wilmes P, Stappenbeck TS, Núñez G, Martens EC. A Dietary Fiber-Deprived Gut Microbiota Degrades the Colonic Mucus Barrier and Enhances Pathogen Susceptibility. Cell. 2016 Nov 17;167(5):1339-1353.e21. 
• McKeown NM, Fahey GC Jr, Slavin J, van der Kamp JW. Fibre intake for optimal health: how can healthcare professionals support people to reach dietary recommendations? BMJ. 2022 Jul 20;378:e054370. 
• Hou K, Wu ZX, Chen XY, Wang JQ, Zhang D, Xiao C, Zhu D, Koya JB, Wei L, Li J, Chen ZS. Microbiota in health and diseases. Signal Transduct Target Ther. 2022 Apr 23;7(1):135. 
• Mueller, Noel T. et al.The infant microbiome development: mom matters. Trends in Molecular Medicine, Volume 21, Issue 2, 109 - 117

Writer Bio

Jordan Pennells, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow focusing on the development of predictive models to evaluate the quality of food and feed products processed through extrusion technology. 

Reviewer Bio

Tom Callis, PhD. Principal Scientist at Fountain Life. Dr. Callis is a geneticist and science communicator specializing in clinical genetics and precision medicine, with authorship of more than 20 peer-reviewed publications. At Fountain Life, Dr. Callis helps guide the development of preventative and digital healthcare products to improve healthspan and longevity.

DeAunne Denmark, MD, PhD is the Vice President of Translational Medicine at Fountain Life. Dr. Denmark is a physician-scientist specializing in molecular, laboratory, genetic, and integrative precision medicine for over 15 years. At Fountain Life, Dr. Denmark helps lead clinical research and other innovative diagnostic and therapeutic programs to advance personalized longevity and healthspan-based care.

Advancements in Artificial Intelligence are reinventing medical care and changing the way we diagnose illnesses. As Fountain Life co-founder Peter Diamandis points out in his book The Future is Faster Than you Think, “convergence of sensors, networks, and AI is upending medical diagnosis.”

One of the areas Fountain Life is most excited about is our full body MRI with AI. Our non-invasive MRI provides a head-to-toe scan, using a powerful magnetic field that allows doctors to see a 3D rendering of your body and brain. Unlike an X-ray, there are no negative effects on your body. Through convergence Fountain Life can link the MRI imaging with artificial intelligence (AI) to scan for any abnormalities or irregularities.

MRI with AI allows doctors to see, with unparalleled precision, the body, and spot abnormalities at their earliest – and usually treatable – stage. It can reveal cancer tumors before they arrive at stage 3 or 4, and even find small aneurysms in the brain. It can also show neurodegeneration and signs of blood vessels narrowing in the brain and heart, and offers imaging of all organs in the body, such as the liver and kidneys.

Annual MRI with AI Testing for Fountain Life Members

Fountain Life members can use this valuable tool annually to find illnesses in their infancy before they can cause harm. While no one wants to hear that they have cancer, finding it early saves lives. You can start treatment for cancer while it’s still at an early, highly treatable stage. Alternatively, based on findings, you may be instructed to change medications or modify your lifestyle to help prevent or reverse heart disease or even dementia!

All Fountain Life members receive an MRI scan with AI annually as part of our precision diagnostics preventative tests. Together, these annual tests play a key role in helping you live to 100 – while feeling like you’re 60.

Do deadlines make you particularly anxious? Do you constantly worry that you’ll be late for appointments? If so, you have been experiencing a condition called time anxiety, and it can rob your productivity. Time anxiety is a general sense of stress or unease related to time. It involves feeling pressured, overwhelmed, or anxious about time-related factors like dates, appointments, and being late. While time anxiety presents itself in many ways, there are also solutions and treatments for this often-debilitating condition.

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‍Identifying Time Anxiety

‍Most people experience anxiety when they are late, or if they have missed an important meeting. However, when you live with time anxiety, your feelings about time-related concepts often exist without concrete reasons or triggers. Time anxiety is accompanied by various features that manifest in an individual's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in the following ways:

• Constant Worry: People with time anxiety often experience continued worry about the passage of time. They often feel pressure when faced with deadlines, often worrying that they won't have enough time to complete tasks. This worry can extend to worries about lateness and about missing appointments, or manifest as an overall unease about the day getting later.

• Fear of the Future: There is often an underlying fear of the future associated with time anxiety. People may worry about potential negative outcomes of planned or unknown activities. Those with this feature of time anxiety may worry about specific events in the future or may deal with existential dread, a generalized worry about the passage of time and the unknowable future.

• Sense of Urgency: The average person feels motivated to complete time-limited or urgent projects. However, people with time anxiety may feel a heightened sense of urgency in their actions. always rushing to complete tasks or meet deadlines, even when the situation might not require immediate attention.

• Procrastination: Though they are obsessed with lateness and deadlines, some people with time anxiety may also engage in procrastination. The fear of not having enough time can be overwhelming, and that fear can lead to avoiding tasks until the last minute. Unsurprisingly, procrastination feeds on existing anxiety and causes further worry.

• Feeling uneasy when you don’t get around to everything you had planned to: ?When Alex Lickerman, MD, described this factor of time anxiety, he used a vacation as a metaphor. When you go away, you make plans and create timelines. Before a trip, you may look at upcoming plans with pleasant anticipation. However, if you don’t complete all your plans, you may become more preoccupied with the sites and attractions you missed than with those you could see. This dwelling on the negative can turn into obsession with what was missed, and a self-renewing cycle of anxiety and regret.

• Impaired Time Management: Paradoxically, even with their intense focus on time and time-related concepts, people with time anxiety may struggle with effective time management. The anxiety may interfere with their ability to plan and prioritize tasks efficiently. Procrastination falls under this umbrella, as do misjudging the time it takes to complete a task or misunderstanding the tools needed to keep an effective schedule.

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Treatment is Available for Time Anxiety

The good news is that time anxiety can be treated with intervention by mental health professionals and others who treat mental and emotional maladies. Treatments for time anxiety are like those for other types of anxiety. They range from the clinical to the recreational. The Cleveland Clinic notes that these four treatments are effective for people with time anxiety:

• Talk therapy - A licensed therapist will help you uncover the source of your condition and provide a safe space to explore the lifestyle components of your time anxiety.

• Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) – CBT deals with identifying the thoughts that trigger compulsive activities, and then “retraining” the brain to choose healthier responses to anxiety.

• Hypnotherapy – A licensed hypnotherapist uses focus and breathing to bring you into a calm, dream-like state. In that position, you can feel safe to explore experiences and trauma that may have led to time anxiety. A hypnotherapist can also give you a post-hypnotic suggestion, which will replace anxious thoughts and behaviors once you wake up.

• Meditation – Many people use meditation to treat various forms of anxiety, and it can be used to treat time anxiety. Meditation trains you on how to breathe and focus your mind in a particular way that calms your mind and reduces your stress response. In a calmer state, your anxiety will lessen.

Time-related mental conditions like time anxiety can be very debilitating. Fortunately, once it is identified properly, you can receive treatments to make it less of a disruption to your life.

We all know that increasing muscle mass boosts our metabolism and improves body composition. New research published in Endocrine Reviews has found that skeletal muscles play a pivotal role in optimizing numerous areas of your health. Skeletal muscles maintain your posture, facilitate voluntary movement, protect your joints and are essential for breathing and body temperature regulation. What’s more, emerging evidence shows that skeletal muscles can secrete hormone-like proteins, like an endocrine organ, which can communicate with cells, tissues and organs throughout the body. This muscle-based, molecular messaging system can help keep your body and brain in top condition and can improve liver and blood vessel health and even have an anti-aging effect on the skin. Here’s a look at how muscles can positively impact your health.

Move to release myokines

‍For the first time ever, researchers are beginning to understand the biochemical mechanisms that make exercise so beneficial. While there is still much to learn in this area, it’s clear that movement triggers skeletal muscles to release myokines. They are a group of hormone-like proteins that may have autocrine (talks to different parts of the same cell), paracrine (signals adjacent cells), and endocrine effects. The latter makes it possible to “talk” long-distance to tissues and organs throughout the body, including the brain, adipose tissue, bone, liver, gut, pancreas, vascular bed and skin. The result is relaying messages to take a specific health-protective action. For example, after a workout, your skeletal muscles secrete a myokine called IL-10, which sends a message to the immune cells in your liver to lower inflammation.

Muscle boosts brain function‍

Regular exercise and building muscle mass reduce anxiety and depression, bring more blood flow to the brain, and can even improve and preserve cognitive function.
In fact, researchers at McGill University found that low muscle mass is associated with faster cognitive decline.
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Movement encourages skeletal muscles to release two myokines, irisin and CTSB, that communicate with, and increase, levels of the molecule brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the brain. BDNF promotes cell survival and regulates plastic changes related to learning and memory.

The muscle-immunity connection‍

Contracting muscles boost your immune system. They secrete several myokines, including IL-6 and IL-1RA, that help to regulate the function of immune cells such as macrophages and monocytes. IL-6 and IL-15 also regulate the maturation and distribution of natural killer (NK) cells that take action on tumors.
That’s not all: Active muscle produces an amino acid called glutamine, which is consumed by immune cells such as lymphocytes and macrophages to enhance their energy and performance.

Muscle benefits bone health‍

From a mechanical standpoint, moving your muscles regularly helps to maintain bone density, reduce your risk of fractures and improve bone healing. Additionally, exercise releases myokines Irisin, IL7 or IL15 from your muscles. These are associated with overall bone health, including formation, mineralization and recovery from fractures.

Your exercise prescription‍

It’s clearer than ever that fitness should be a priority in your lifespan and healthspan plan. How should you pump up? Research suggests that overall myokine levels are lower in moderate physical activity and abundant after workouts that are longer or high-intensity. Speak with your Fountain Life Health Coordinator for assistance in creating a fitness regimen that will bring out the best in your body, so you can live a long and healthy life.

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SOURCES
https://muhc.ca/news-and-patient-stories/news/ri-muhc-study-shows-association-low-muscle-mass-cognitive-decline#:~:text=Muscles%20also%20secrete%20molecules%20that,greater%20risk%20of%20cognitive%20decline.
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2018.00698/full

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7288608/
https://www.nature.com/articles/nrrheum.2014.193

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/21787-skeletal-muscle
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2020.582258/full
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncel.2019.00363/full

The human microbiome refers to the trillions of microorganisms present in the body. When it’s in balance, it contains only healthy microbes that support and maintain a healthy body. Microbes in the mouth and stomach contain genetic materials that sends signals to the body in health and in illness. When the microbiome is unbalanced, the presence or absence of any type of microbe can have an effect on many systems in the body, and lead to several diseases. That negative state is called microbiome dysbiosis.

Microbiome Dysbiosis has Both Internal and External Causes

Microbiome dysbiosis affects both the oral microbiome and the gut microbiome. As you would expect, the foods you eat can affect your microbiome in both positive and negative ways. For instance, a diet heavy in sugars and low in fiber can cause dysregulation of the microbes that control digestion and cause conditions like diarrhea, constipation, Irritable Bowel Disease and other ailments of the digestive tract.Dysbiosis can also be caused by host-specific factors such as genetic background, health status (infections, inflammation), and lifestyle habits or—more importantly—environmental factors such as diet (high sugar, low fibre), xenobiotics (antibiotics, drugs, food additives), and hygiene. Just an aging body can cause microbiome dysbiosis. “One of the newest hallmarks of aging is what we call gut dysbiosis”, says Dr. Helen Messier, Fountain Life Chief Medical and Science Officer. “We know that as people age, their microbiome begins to change, and it changes for the worse.” The diversity of the gut microbiome is a cause of this worsening, which means that the gut is missing some of the microbes and metabolites necessary to carry on the body’s processes.

The Oral Microbiome is Linked to Several Illnesses

Several studies have linked both the oral and gut microbiomes to cardiovascular disease. It has been shown that affect compounds like short-chain fatty acids and metabolites that process lipids make this connection between mouth and heart. As expected, the oral microbiome dysbiosis also leads to periodontal disease and other oral conditions. Gut microbiome is also connected to cardiovascular disease. One study revealed that gut microbiota can produce trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO), a metabolite linked to arterial stiffness and coronary artery disease. This production is triggered by certain foods, like beef, pork and eggs. The microbiome is also linked to other diseases like depression (as it is thought to control the production of serotonin) and even COVID. It is very important, then, to make sure that microbiome dysbiosis isn’t present.

Microbiome Dysbiosis Can be Treated

The good news is that microbiome dysbiosis can be treated, and the first steps to treatment are diagnosis and prevention. Fountain Life provides a test of the gut microbiome as part of the APEX and EDGE memberships. Dr. Messier explains the diagnostic process: “[W]e look at the gut microbes specifically by doing a stool test, and sequencing what microbes are there and what their activity is. And then we also look at metabolites that are released from the microbe, that are floating around in your blood and show up in your urine. ”Once your microbiome test is complete and evaluated by a Longevity Physician, APEX members will have access to a host of treatment options designed to address the specifics of your microbiome dysbiosis. Your entire Fountain Life Health Care Team – including a health care coordinator, nurse, nurse practitioner and health care coach – will be with you throughout your entire APEX membership, helping you understand your results, and making sure that you get the exact care you need. If you do not have a microbiome deficiency, your team will make sure you get any preventative treatments to keep your body as healthy as possible. You can be sure that with Fountain Life, your health care plan will be designed to give you the preventive care you need, with the personalized service that you want.

Taking care of your health doesn’t just benefit you. Your health is important to your loved ones who want you to live long and live well. Fountain Life programs are designed to help you do just that – extend your lifespan and health span – with advanced diagnostics and personalized treatment plans that detect and prevent major illness before it manifests as symptoms. Our Chief Medical and Science Officer, Dr. Helen Messier, spoke with us about how one Fountain Life program, the APEX membership, provides members with the kind of proactive healthcare that can find and detect disease and lead to increased performance and vitality.

Personal, preventive, proactive care

APEX is Fountain Life’s yearlong program that addresses the top causes of morbidity and mortality: cardiovascular disease, cancer, metabolic disease and neurocognitive disease. APEX does this with a series of diagnostic tests that combine the latest, scientifically vetted preventive methodologies with the personalized attention of a team of longevity healthcare professionals.

APEX starts with brain and body scans – like EKG, MRI and CCTA – and blood and urine tests that detect the presence of disease as well as assess your risk for developing life-limiting disease. These procedures can detect the early signs of cancer, pulmonary embolism and cardiovascular trauma even before symptoms present. This allows you to get preventive and restorative treatment before your medical condition becomes more serious.

But the APEX membership doesn’t stop there. The next level of testing provides a more comprehensive look at your disease risk, not just the presence of disease. As Dr. Messier notes, “we look at those 4 biggest risks of death and disability, but we go deeper and look at maybe why you have those… in additional testing that looks at not just the what, but the why.

”The “why” entails obtaining genetic information for diseases like heart attack, dementia and various forms of cancer, and assessing your risk of developing these conditions. This advanced level of testing combines genetic information found in your organs and bloodstream to statistics on disease incidence using AI tools. This allows for disease prevention through medical treatment and/or lifestyle modification.

The preventative aspect of APEX is its most compelling, as our existing healthcare system is predicated on treating diseases that you have, rather than preventing disease outright. Dr. Messier emphasizes that “you want to find those early because those take a long time to develop, and by the time you have symptoms for any one of those 4 diseases, it’s really late and it gets very difficult to do something about it. But if you find them earlier, it’s much easier.” With APEX, you can trust that you’re finding disease and illness at the best stage for treatment.

APEX is more advanced than your PCPs office

You may be thinking that blood tests and scans in your primary care physician’s office can give you the same information provided by the APEX program. While your primary doctor may order bloodwork and body scans for you with an annual physical, they cannot provide the level of technology and advanced analysis that is possible with the tools used in APEX.

Many of APEX tests integrate artificial intelligence, using AI tools to get a more detailed view of your test results, and enabling us to analyze your test results in comparison with millions of data points from other individuals. This process makes testing more accurate, which gives you a greater chance of targeting precisely what and where disease may lurk in the body.

AI overlay and analysis is available for the following APEX tests:

• Full body and brain MRI
• Coronary CTA
• Low-dose lung CT
• Retinal scan
• Skin cancer screen
• Early cancer detection blood test
• Genetic blood testing
• Whole genome sequencing
• Cardiovascular risk blood test

…and several other advanced and genetic evaluations.These types of tests, as well as their highly technical analysis, simply are not available from your primary physician. As experts in longevity and preventive medicine, Fountain Life can bring you a level of care to which you ordinarily would not be exposed.

Concierge-level of care

The differences between APEX and your regular doctor also extend to the personalized care we provide you during your year of membership. “Not only do you get a Longevity Physician, [but] you [also] get a [Health] Care Team. You have a nurse and a nurse practitioner, a health coach, a nutritionist, to really make those changes that are needed to optimize your health,” notes Dr. Messier.

Your Longevity Physician is available to read out the results of your tests and provide you with a treatment roadmap to correct any illness and reduce disease risk. Your dedicated Longevity Physician is available to meet with you four times during the annual APEX membership to gauge your progress and make any necessary changes.

During the year, your Health Coach and Nutritionist are on hand to help you make any lifestyle changes necessary to improve your condition, and to monitor your progress through your healthcare journey. Finally, you have a Nurse and a Nurse Practitioner to provide medical guidance when your Physician is not available. A Health Care Coordinator works with you and your team to streamline communication and coordinate your contact with Fountain Life staff.

There are many reasons to choose Fountain Life and APEX to advance your healthcare goals and take control of your lifespan and healthspan. Our preventive treatments, AI-enhanced methodologies and personalized care make APEX the best choice to find underlying disease and restore your body to health and vitality.