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Antidiabetic fermentation
"Some substances produced in the fermentation of food fiber by our intestinal flora could protect from diabetes"
One of the mysteries not yet resolved from diabetes of autoimmune origin, called type 1, is why two identical twin brothers or sisters do not always develop this disease together.As the followers of this column know well, type 1 diabetes is produced by an erroneous attack of immune system cells to insulin -producing pancreas, which are eliminated as if they are external enemies.Inherit certain variants of some genes related to discrimination that immune cells must perform between their own and strange, dramatically increases the probability of developing diabetes.
However, it is not genetically determined that two identical twin brothers are diabetic: one can be, and the other does not.In addition to genes, other factors can help unleash the attack of the immune system to insulin -producing pancreas.Undoubtedly, the knowledge of these factors could help protect people from genetically susceptible to it from diabetes, allowing to avoid negative factors and enhance the positive ones.
Diet and flora.One of the most important non -genetic factors that we are exposed daily is our diet.Not everyone eats the same, and some like it well done and others, almost raw.Many scientific studies have shown a clear relationship between variations in our diet and the incidence of diseases, some of which also involve the immune system, so it could happen that these variations influence that some people develop diabetes and others,No.
However, there is a founded suspicion that, in addition to diet, intestinal flora is an important external factor that can affect the operation of the immune system.Part of the suspicion is based on studies with laboratory mice born and raised in a completely free of microbes.These animals do not possess any intestinal flora and, as a consequence, they have diminished the size of the main organs of the immune system and produce antibodies abnormally.It is clear, therefore, that at least in the case of mice the intestinal flora affects the functioning of immunity and defenses.
The effect of the intestinal flora on the defenses could be simply because early contact with microbes is necessary, even if they are only those that colonize our intestine, to educate the immune system on their own and strange.But the intestinal flora is not any microbes, but microorganisms that help process the foods we consume, and that make it better or worse depending on what diet they give them, that is, what diet we give ourselves.
Among the most important components of the diet that needs the intestinal flora for processing is food fiber.The fiber is composed of non -digestible material, particularly by vegetable cellulose, but also by many other components of vegetables and vegetables that every healthy diet should contain.Although it cannot be digested, the fiber can be fermented by the intestinal flora.As we know, family fermentation processes, which include lactic fermentation, which makes yogurt possible, and alcoholic fermentation, which makes civilization possible, transform initial substances, for exampleGlucose, in other endings, for example alcohol.
Flora and fiber.In the case of intestinal fiber, some of its components are fermented to the so -called short chain fatty acids, to which the shortest of all belongs, acetic acid, vulgarly known as vinegar, of only two links in its chain.In a recent study published in Nature magazine, a consortium of Australian, American and Brazilian researchers has discovered that these fatty acids may be necessary for the immune system not to activate too much and not attack what it is not necessary to attack.
The researchers induced inflammatory colitis, that is, caused by excessive activation of the immune system, laboratory mice through administration with their drinking water from an indigestible substance, called dextrano sulfate.In mice without intestinal flora this treatment induces a more severe colitis than in normal animals.The severity of colitis could be due to the protective effect in itself of the intestinal flora, but also to short chain fatty acids that these bacteria produce.To elucidate among these possibilities, the researchers provided short -chain fatty acids with the diet to mice with colitis and without intestinal flora and verified that their colitis improved very substantially due to a downward regulation of immune activity.
Thus, the intestinal flora and the amount of fiber of our diet, which can vary from individual to individual, could significantly affect the correct functioning of the immune system and the correct discrimination between the own and the alien.This correct discrimination is essential for the immune system not to be mistaken and end up attacking some of our cells, including insulin -producing pancreatic cells, causing diabetes.If an adequate diet is important for our cardiovascular system, to control obesity, and also to prevent cancer, it can also be fundamental for not developing diabetes, even having inherited the genes that incline us to it.Something to reflect while these parties enjoy the traditional Christmas salad, based on chocolates and nougat.