- Researchers are reporting that the human gut microbiome may fluctuate at different times of the day and between seasons.
- They said that light, temperature, humidity, and pollen may play a role in causing changes to the gut microbiome during the year.
- They added that diet as well as fasting periods, such as during sleep, may cause microbiome changes on a daily basis.
The balance of microbes found in the gut may vary from morning to evening and even between seasons.
Research being presented this week at the Digestive Disease Week 2023 conference reports that the microbiome can vary throughout the year in populations around the world.
“The seasonal variations we see in conditions like allergies or the flu occur in context of completely different microbiomes,” Carolina Dantas Machado, PhD, the study’s lead author and a researcher at the University of California San Diego, said in a press release.
“We may need to put our understanding of how seasons affect health and disease in context of a microbiome that is much more variable and dynamic than we have previously thought,” she added.
The findings have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
For their study, the researchers examined data from about 20,000 stool samples from countries around the world. The samples were collected as part of the American Gut Project between 2013 and 2019.
The researchers analyzed the time, date, and location that the samples were collected.
They reported that nearly 60% of certain related groups of bacteria had a 24-hour cycle that was distinct.
They also found a similar pattern with seasonal fluctuations in some kinds of bacteria, with certain bacteria having one or two distinct patterns throughout the year.
A type of bacteria found in the gut called actinobacteria was observed to fluctuate throughout the day. In the morning, there were lower levels of the bacteria with much higher levels at the end of the day.
“You can imagine that the gut environment is radically different…
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