Telegraph Article18 Jan 2021 10:02
Benefits of LPLDL based products recognised here and in general the importance of the gut microbiomes to fight off Covid19 in the second link
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/mind/managing-stress-will-strengthen-immunity-master/
https://gut.bmj.com/content/early/2021/01/04/gutjnl-2020-323020
Nourish your gut bacteria
Diet is vital – what we eat has a profound impact on the gut microbiome, which Dr Jenna Macciochi, immunologist and author of Immunity: The Science of Staying Well, describes as “the instruction manual for your immune system.” Essentially, our gut bugs digest the fibre in plant foods we eat, creating by-products extremely important to health, says Macciochi.
“They’re like our own personalised pharmacy. They enter our bloodstream, shaping and educating our immune cells all over our body, telling them what to do, helping remove any baseline inflammation in our system, calibrating our immune system so it can function well.”
A Hong Kong observational study, published in the journal Gut last week, found that patients admitted to hospital with Covid had less of the gut bacteria known to influence the immune response to infection than other patients. These findings, wrote the authors, suggest “the gut microbiome is involved in the magnitude of Covid severity, possibly via modulating host immune responses.”
Whether those patients had those differences to start with, or were a consequence of getting severe Covid, isn’t known. However, Macciochi says, “It’s known that with colds and flu, alterations to the gut microbiome can affect how severely you suffer, and even how frequently you pick up those infections.”
Rather than obsess about having this or that species of gut bacteria (their output is more important than their composition) she advises eating to nourish your microbiome ecosystem, by getting all six plant-based food groups into your diet – fruit, vegetables, wholegrains, legumes, nuts and seeds (and herbs and spices too.) “Forget about five a day. Aim for 30 types per week. You might choose different vegetables, or add lentils to a bolognese. Start slowly, and build up gently. This will allow the bugs in your digestive system to adapt.”
Mostly, we’re nurturing what’s there – though eating fermented foods like unpasteurised yoghurts, kefir, sauerkraut, and probiotics containing lactobacillus and bifidobacteria can introduce bacteria beneficial to the immune system into your gut – and some fresh fruit carries its own microbiome, even if you wash it. And here’s another reason to spend time in nature. “Getting out in green space, breathing and swallowing the microbiome in the air is also seeding our gut,” says Macciochi. “Urban areas generally have a less diverse, less favourable microbiome.”
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