What Do Wrinkles, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Multiple Sclerosis Have in Common?
Apparently, whether you get them or not depends on the microbes that live in your gut.
It may not make sense intuitively (undoubtedly a common problem in times of crumbling paradigms) but the bacteria in your intestines may decide whether your skin responds to UV damage with wrinkles or is instead rejuvenated. See "Probiotics for Photoprotection".
Interested in how the right gut microbes suppress central nervous system inflammation and how the wrong ones cause just the sort of chronic brain and spinal cord inflammation thought to be responsible for MS? Read: "Proinflammatory T-Cell Responses to Gut Microbiota Promote Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis". Here's one of many interesting takeaways: "... mammals are colonized for life with extraordinary multitudes of indigenous bacteria, and the contributions of this enormous and diverse ecosystem to human health remain poorly understood. Recent studies have launched a revolution in biology aimed at understanding how (and more importantly, why) mammals harbor symbiotic bacteria."
Take a mouse predisposed to rheumatoid arthritis and make it germ free. No rheumatoid arthritis. Then expose it to a single microbe, the segmented filamentous bacteria, "and arthritis rapidly ensued." That was the finding of "Gut-Residing Segmented Filamentous Bacteria Drive Autoimmune Arthritis via T Helper 17 Cells". And for a real eye opener read "Segmented Filamentous Bacteria Shape Intestinal Immunity". How could two genetically identical mice have dramatically different immune systems? By having different microbes in their guts - as in the case of B6 mice from two different vendors.
Memo to self: look into whether different sources of B6 mice might correlate with different results re: butadiene's carcinogenic potential.
