You may have seen the word “microbiome” when people are talking about your gut, but do you know what it is?
Your digestive system is like a garden. There are trillions of microorganisms, including bacteria, contributing to the ecosystem that breaks down and digests the food you eat into nourishment for your body. This ecosystem is called the microbiome. Everyone’s microbiome is unique – factors like diet and lifestyle, genetics, and environment contribute to its exact composition.
Research has increasingly shown that the microbiome plays a vital and influential role in your immune system. In clinical trials, the gut microbiome can be used as biomarkers – indicators that can be measured to help guide diagnosis, treatment, or understand the person’s general well-being.
At the GI Cancer Institute, studies like NEO-IMPACT TR and MASTERPLAN Microbiome are looking to understand how cancer treatments affect the gut microbiome, which could potentially help predict what treatments would work best for the individual patient in future.
This is why having a healthy gut microbiome is important! To be healthy, your gut microbiome needs to be balanced, resilient, and made up of diverse microorganisms. You can help nourish yours by eating a range of fibre-rich or fermented foods, limiting processed food, exercising, and sleeping well.
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