Gut Microbiome: Even the Time of Day Can Influence It

The time of day also contributes to the changes that occur within the gut microbiome. In addition to the known factors – diet, lifestyle, etc. – those conducting studies on the gut microbiome must take into account the time of day when they take samples for analysis. This is the conclusion reached by a study from the University of California at San Diego, which compared the results of research in the literature.

02 LUG – Not only diet, lifestyle, physical exercise and maternal heredity: the variability of the intestinal microbiome is also linked to the time of day in which it is observed within a clinical trial. This is what emerges from the study of a team from the University of California San Diego, coordinated by Amir Zarrinpar and published by Nature Metabolism.

According to the Californian team’s work, daily changes in the gut alter the microbiome so significantly that the bacteria that populate it in the morning are different from those that can be observed in the evening. Consequently, by analyzing a stool sample collected at breakfast time, researchers will arrive at completely different conclusions than what they would observe in a sample collected just before dinner.

For the study, the University of California team compared analyses of research in the literature, carried out at different times of the day. In an animal model, it was even observed that the composition of the microbiome can change by 80% just four hours after breakfast.

The results and conclusions of scientific studies, therefore, would largely depend on the time of day in which the microbiome samples are collected.

Source: Nature Metabolism 2024

July 02, 2024
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