Following his NPR interview on diets that aim to reduce gas, Purna Kashyap, MBBS, Associate Director of the Microbiome Program at the Center for Individualized Medicine, explains how a healthy gut microbiome necessitates the production of gas, and how a microbiome influences our health as a whole.

It's a normal phenomenon where bacteria will breakdown carbohydrates and will produce gas.

The number of human bacteria and their genetic material far outnumber human cells and genes, and we know that bacteria play an important role in maintaining health. When this population of bacteria is disrupted, it can lead to serious health problems. For example. in some people, antibiotics can cause an imbalance of the normal bacterial communities and lead to overgrowth of Clostridium difficile and severe inflammation in the bowel. Re-establishing the normal microbiome through direct microbiome transplant can restore health.

In the Microbiome Program, many more questions about the relationship between the microbiome and health and disease are being investigated:

• Can microbial communities in the colon be the cause for gluten sensitivity and irritable bowel symptoms?
• How do the colon organisms affect other parts of the body, such as the joints?
• Can colon microbial metabolites be the reason that diet influences colon cancer development?
• Can genomic sequencing techniques help us identify organisms that cause vaginosis and reproductive health problems?

Registration is now open for Individualizing Medicine Conference 2014!

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Tags: bacteria, dna test, DNA Testing, gene sequencing, genome science, genomic medicine, genomics, Gut, Human Microbiome, individualized medicine, Kashyap, microbiome, personal genomics, personalized medicine, predictive medicine, Purna, Purna Kashyap, Uncategorized