We are all well familiar with Mike Lustgarten’s channel, and he often has interesting guests. Often however, I find the discussion portion less illuminating than the presentation of the guest. However, this particular video is just the opposite - the presentation I personally learned nothing new from, but the discussion portion is just a revelation and jam packed with insights. There is so very much I had little knowledge of and I think if you are interested in aging this should be mandatory viewing. There is a whole lot that is touched upon, including vaccinations and the response to them depending on age, how statins modify the immune system, diet vs exercise in the aging of the immune system and a great deal more. I have learned so much from this, and I thought I should alert the community here to a source of information worth the time spent on it. Enjoy!
Gut Health Impacts the Thymus and Immune System during Aging: Niharika Duggal, PhD
Again, the discussion Q&A section is where it’s at, roughly minute 32 onward.
Thanks. Interesting discussion. The science of gut health and immune system is progressing rapidly. It’s a little funny that people zeroed in on what is a healthy diet (roughly) long before anyone knew why. All the macro extreme diets for cardiovascular and metabolic illness have really messed up general intuition. The simpler and better solution for everything was just to eat less but that’s the equivalent to asking people to breathe less.
And the interesting new learning for gut health was that I just need to convince my kids to save their poops so I can eat some young microbiome…., maybe I’ll save that trick for a last resort.
Agreed. You might also check out the microbiome research from the Stanford Sonnenburg lab. The Sonnenburg’s have done interviews, so they are on YouTube. Gut barrier function, along with brain barrier function, is certainly very important. But so are the metabolites given off by but bacteria, such as butyrate. On maintaining the immune system function, including the thymus, there is also the contribution of exercise - a talk by Prof. Janet Lord is posted elsewhere on this site. Dr. Duggal is also working on extending data from Prof Lord’s study in an upcoming paper. Link to their 2018 study:
[Major features of immunesenescence, including reduced thymic output, are ameliorated by high levels of physical activity in adulthood - PubMed]
