Anavex Life Sciences Corp (AVXL)

[Steady_T]

There is additional information about the changing gut bacteria being correlated with increasing severity of AD.

So far I have not seen anything other than correlation type studies. We do know that stress can change the gut microbiome. So it is clear that what is going on in the brain can influence the microbiome of the gut. It is also just as clear from other studies that changing the gut microbiome influence the brain and the rest of the body. The fecal transplant studies have made that clear.

It looks to me to be a two way street. the body and the bacterial microbiome influence each other.

I have been contemplating several ideas of late. One being that older people have most likely had more courses of antibiotics which have been shown to diminish the varieties of bacteria in the gut. I have also seen enough information that causes me to believe that our diet does not provide sources of diverse bacteria to repopulate the gut to make up for the bacterial diversity that is lost. Then there is the common diet that many people eat. Way low in fiber and not very diverse in foods. That has also been shown to diminish the diversity of the microbiome.

The probiotics that are commonly sold generally contain a small number of species of bacteria and none of the ones that have been mentioned in the AD studies. Also I have seen a study that indicates the bacteria in the proboiotics don't establish in the gut and dis appear after the person quits taking the probiotic supplement.

I read an fascinating study which I didn't save the link to, where a researcher went to 7 or so different cultures around the world and looked at their diet fiber intake, fiber sources and microbiome diversity. What she found was the higher the fiber intake the more diversity in the microbiome. She also concluded that the culture that had the highest fiber intake was eating much more plant material that was much less processed and as a result the people were getting a lot more bacteria on the plants food. As a result she quit making her kids be scrupulous about eating things from the garden without washing them thoroughly. She said she encouraged her kids to take a carrot, knock the dirt of and eat it for example. Of course she did do an organic garden.