Natural environments, ancestral diets, and microbial ecology: is there a modern “paleo-deficit disorder”? Part II

Abstract

Famed microbiologist René J. Dubos (1901–1982) was an early pioneer in the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) construct. In the 1960s, he conducted groundbreaking research concerning the ways in which early-life experience with nutrition, microbiota, stress, and other environmental variables could influence later-life health outcomes. He recognized the co-evolutionary relationship between microbiota and the human host. Almost 2 decades before the hygiene hypothesis, he suggested that children in developed nations were becoming too sanitized (vs. our ancestral past) and that scientists should determine whether the childhood environment should be “dirtied up in a controlled manner.” He also argued that oft-celebrated growth chart increases via changes in the global food supply and dietary patterns should not be equated to quality of life and mental health. Here in the second part of our review, we reflect the words of Dubos off contemporary research findings in the areas of diet, the gut-brain-axis (microbiota and anxiety and depression) and microbial ecology. Finally, we argue, as Dubos did 40 years ago, that researchers should more closely examine the relevancy of silo-sequestered, reductionist findings in the larger picture of human quality of life. In the context of global climate change and the epidemiological transition, an allergy epidemic and psychosocial stress, our review suggests that discussions of natural environments, urbanization, biodiversity, microbiota, nutrition, and mental health, are often one in the same.

Transforming Life: A Broad View of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease Concept from an Ecological Justice Perspective

“…For the nearly 3-million-year history of our genus we have maintained a physically active lifestyle, consumed minimally processed foods and lived entrained to the light-dark cycles. The links between this ancestrally-discordant lifestyle and most modern NCDs is apparent [69]; thus, to some extent, increasingly prevalent NCDs may be described as “ancestral mismatch disorders“.…”

Evolución histórica de la higiene corporal: desde la edad antigua a las sociedades modernas actuales

“…Las consecuencias para la salud de la falta de contacto con los "normalmente inocuos microbios del medio ambiente" fueron inicialmente expuestas por René Dubos en 1973 afirmando que podían comprometer el normal desarrollo del sistema inmunológico, reconociendo que sus sugerencias no estaban en línea con el pensamiento contemporáneo (Logan, Katzman y Balanzá-Martínez, 2015). Posteriormente el científico británico Strachan en 1989 planteó la "hipótesis de la higiene" la cual sugiere que la reducción en la exposición a microorganismos, fundamentalmente en la infancia (Kramer et al, 2013), debido a la mayor higiene personal y la mejora de las condiciones de salud de los países desarrollados, contribuye al aumento de la incidencia de los trastornos autoinmunes como la esclerosis múltiple (Pehlivan et al, 2011), enfermedades alérgicas, enfermedad inflamatoria intestinal (Kramer et al, 2013) o el alzhéimer (Fox, Knapp, Andrews y Fincher, 2013).…”

“…Actualmente, aunque es aceptada por las sociedades modernas como una rutina diaria privada o individual (Hand, Shove y Southerton, 2005), diversos estudios se plantean las consecuencias negativas para la salud de estos nuevos hábitos adquiridos denominados de sobrehigienización (Logan, Katzman y Balanzá-Martínez, 2015) fundamentados en la hipótesis de la higiene de Strachan (1989) y en las nuevas técnicas analíticas para el estudio del microbioma corporal.…”

René Dubos: Wooing the Earth, from Soil Microbes to Human Ecology

“…A recent extensive scientific review evaluated some of these discoveries by Dubos concerning the influence of natural environments, nutrition, and microbial ecology on health and disease. The authors analyzed how current research in these areas not only supports but intensifies Dubos's views on human well-being, quality of life, and planetary health (Logan et al, 2005a(Logan et al, , 2005b.…”