Dear friend, dear friend,
You have in the intestine more than 10,000 billion bacteria and other micro-organisms including yeasts and protozoa.[1]
All this fauna is accompanied by many viruses and also has its own genome.[2,3]
There is indeed an intelligence that escapes you, lodged in your belly.
And it has a direct influence on your hormones and thus on your mood, your joys and your relationships with others.
What you put on your plate, which feeds your bacteria and your whole body, may have more influence on how you feel than you realize!
In order for you to lead a fulfilling and healthy life, it is best that your microbiota is well balanced.
However, scientists are now certain that there is a direct link between this symbiotic balance of the gut and your environment.
The air you breathe, the water you drink, the soil you touch, the people you meet, the animals you pet and the food you eat affect your microbiota.[5]
The first four years of life are critical
Donata Vercelli, researcher at the University of Arizona and professor of cellular medicine, insists, in her lectures, on the direct link that exists between the environment and the microbiota.[5]
For her, allergies are an example of a dysfunctional relationship between the microbiota and the environment.[5]
She explains that asthma is influenced by the health of the microbiota and that this fact has been confirmed by numerous scientific publications.[5]
It also reminds us that the microbiota is built during the first years of life.[5]
The baby receives the intestinal flora from its mother, unless it is born by Caesarean section, in which case it is the bacteria from the hospital and from the hands of the midwife, which come to colonize its digestive tract.[5]
The microbiota is not yet stabilized, however.
It will be enriched if the mother breastfeeds and the food given to the child during the first years is decisive.[5]
Around the age of 3 or 4, the balance has been established in the intestine and it should no longer change much.
The longer this process takes place, the higher the risk of disease developing later.[5]
Traditional farms protect the microbiota
The populations most protected against allergies are those living on traditional farms.
Children, in particular, are less ill there. They have fewer inflammatory bowel diseases and fewer allergies.[5]
Scientists believe this is due to the quality of their microbiota.
From the pregnancy of the mother, who is in contact with animals and then during childhood, they acquire a solid microbiota.
And this hypothesis was again verified by one of the studies conducted by Donata Vercelli.[5,6]
With her team, she compared two populations of children from traditional farms.
The study was published in a prestigious journal: the New England Journal of Medicine.[6]
It also made the front page of the New York Times, as the discovery impressed scientists and journalists.[5]
Amish et Hutterites
The study compares two population communities of the Amish of Indiana and the Hutterites of South Dakota.[5,7]
This comparison brings many answers to scientists.
These populations come from nearby regions in Europe. They are genetically very similar.
The Hutterites come from Moravia and Tyrol and the Amish from Switzerland.[5,7,8,9]
Heredity cannot therefore explain the difference in results obtained between the two human groups.
In contrast, the Amish are very traditional. They cultivate the land with animals and only travel on foot or in a horse-drawn carriage.
The Hutterites share everything on their farms. They live in community, raise their children together and put everything in common.
But their farming methods are more modern. They use tractors and combine harvesters.[7,8]
The results surprise scientists!
During this study, the scientists check what is the rate of asthma and allergy among children of the two communities.[5]
And they are surprised that the gap is so marked.
Among the Amish, 5% of children have asthma.[5,6]
Among the Hutterites, the rate rises to 21%.[5,6]
Similarly, 7% of Amish children suffer from an allergy compared to 33% of Hutterite children.[5,6]!
There are 4 times more asthmatics and 5 times more allergies among the Hutterites!
Dust against dust
To refine these results, scientists collect dust for 30 days from children’s rooms.[5,6]
They understand that the microbes inside are the same as those outside the farms.[5]
Here again the difference between the two groups is striking: among the Amish, there are 6 times more microbes than among the Hutterites.[5,6]
Soil, horsehair, etc. everything the children bring back from the fields ends up in the bedroom.[5]
And the result: those who live with the most healthy microbes are healthier.
Mice are invited into the study
Scientists go even further.[5]
They take lab mice and make them allergic or asthmatic.
Then they make those poor mice inhale Amish dust or Hutterite dust.
Amish mice lose their asthma and allergies, Hutterite mice keep them.
Scientists have gone even further. They took fecal bacteria from Amish children and others from Hutterite children.
They did a transfer in mice. Amish mice remained healthy while Hutterite mice became allergic.[5,6]
Our health depends on our environment
Obviously, the idea is not new.
Sweden has evolved its health policies accordingly.
And in 20 years, the age of addiction among men has dropped considerably.[10]
He went from 67 to 77!
The Amish have known this since the 19th century.
And the first peoples have been aware since the dawn of time.
They know that our destiny is linked to that of nature.
If the study conducted by Daneta Vercelli is remarkable, I remain a little puzzled by the fact that you have to grind mice to realize that life is more in interactions with nature than in an artificial and virtual world.
And one does not necessarily preclude the other!
Naturally yours,
Augustine of Livois