People who live to age 100 and beyond may have special gut bacteria that help ward off infections, according to a new study from Japan.
The results suggest that these bacteria, and the specific compounds they produce — known as “secondary bile acids” — could contribute to a healthy gut and, in turn, healthy aging.
Still, much more research is needed to know whether these bacteria promote exceptionally long life spans. The current findings, published Thursday (July 29) in the journal Nature, only show an association between these gut bacteria and living past 100; they don’t prove that these bacteria caused people to live longer, said study senior author Dr. Kenya Honda, a professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo.
“Although it might suggest that these bile-acid-producing bacteria may contribute to longer life spans, we do not have any data showing the cause-and-effect relationship between them,” Honda told Live Science.
People who live to age 100 and beyond may have special gut bacteria that help ward off infections, according to a new study from Japan.
The results suggest that these bacteria, and the specific compounds they produce — known as “secondary bile acids” — could contribute to a healthy gut and, in turn, healthy aging.
Still, much more research is needed to know whether these bacteria promote exceptionally long life spans. The current findings, published Thursday (July 29) in the journal Nature, only show an association between these gut bacteria and living past 100; they don’t prove that these bacteria caused people to live longer, said study senior author Dr. Kenya Honda, a professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo.
“Although it might suggest that these bile-acid-producing bacteria may contribute to longer life spans, we do not have any data showing the cause-and-effect relationship between them,” Honda told Live Science.
Related: How long can humans live?
Gut microbe “signature”
The community of bacteria and other microorganisms that live in the gut, known as the gut microbiome, is known to play a role in our health and changes as we age. For example, having less diversity in the types of gut bacteria has been linked with frailty in older adults. But researchers suspected that people who reach age 100 may have special gut bacteria that contribute to good health. Indeed, centenarians tend to be at lower risk of chronic diseases and infections compared with older adults who don’t reach this milestone.
In the new study, the researchers examined the gut microbiota of 160 centenarians, who were, on average, 107 years old. They compared the centenarians’ gut microbiota to those of 112 people ages 85 to 89, and 47 people ages 21 to 55.
They found that centenarians had a distinct “signature” of gut microbes not seen in the other two age groups. For example, certain species of bacteria were enriched or depleted in centenarians compared with the other two groups.
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