Context: As per the latest research, climate-driven food shortage and undernourishment could affect the composition of the human gut microbiota, exacerbating the effects of climate change on human health.
Relevance of the Topic: Prelims: Key facts related to gut bacteria; Impacts of Climate Change.
Microbiota in Human Gut
- The human gut is home to around 100 trillion microbes like bacteria, fungi, and viruses- mostly bacteria. The collective genetic material of these microbes (known as gut microbiome) contains over 100 times more genes than the human genome.
- These microbes produce thousands of chemicals (metabolites) that support- digestion and nutrient absorption, immune system regulation, blood sugar and metabolic balance and protection against harmful pathogens.
- A healthy gut depends on a balanced relationship between beneficial and harmful bacteria.
- Good bacteria help break down food, produce vitamins, and protect against harmful invaders.
- Bad bacteria, when overgrown, can cause inflammation, infections, or disease. A healthy gut depends on a balanced relationship between these beneficial and harmful bacteria.
However, climate change is now threatening this balance with long-term implications for public health.
Impacts of Climate Change on Gut Microbiota and Population:
1. Nutritional Disruptions and Microbial Imbalance:
- Climate change is adversely affecting the yield and nutritional quality of crops and animal-based food sources. High atmospheric carbon dioxide levels can diminish the quantity of plant micronutrients like phosphorus, potassium, zinc, and iron, along with protein concentrations in vital crops such as wheat, maize, and rice.
- This reduction compromises the nutritional intake necessary for maintaining microbial diversity in the gut, potentially leading to gut dysbiosis or microbiota dysbiosis - the imbalance in gut microbial population.
Microbiota Dysbiosis can lead to dysregulation of bodily functions and diseases such as:
2. Rising Heat and Disease Burden:
- Foodborne and waterborne infectious diseases and malnutrition increase with heat. These diseases further disturb gut microbiota and worsen the burden of malnutrition and gastrointestinal illnesses, especially in vulnerable populations like children and the elderly.
3. Vulnerability of LMICs and Indigenous Communities:
- Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), are particularly vulnerable, as these regions face the brunt of climate stressors, including higher temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide, which affect their agricultural output and make nutrient deficiencies more common.
- Indigenous peoples often rely on local and traditional food sources and exhibit high gut microbial diversity. Climate-induced changes in ecosystems threaten these food systems, potentially reducing microbial diversity and thus impacting their health disproportionately.
The Challenge: Limited understanding of Gut Microbiome
However our understanding of the gut microbiota’s role in human health is still evolving.
- While the gut microbiome is critical to health, its connection to climate change is still poorly understood. Many gut health studies do not yet account for environmental factors like pollution, rising heat, or changing crop patterns.
- Moreover, individual gut microbiomes are unique, making it difficult to predict how each person will respond to climate-induced changes in diet or disease exposure.
Way Forward
- Need for Multidisciplinary and Global Research: Scientists are calling for more collaboration across fields- nutrition, climate science, public health, and microbiology to study how environmental changes affect the gut.
- Advances in computational biology and metagenomics (the study of microbial genes) are helping scientists better understand gut microbes. Tools like GutBugBD, an open-access database from India, allow researchers to track how gut microbes interact with food and drugs. These developments could lead to personalised treatments using probiotics and nutraceuticals to restore gut balance.