Our body is not alone, we are accompanied by billions of bacteria and often fungi or parasites and even viruses that live inside our body, we have bacteria on the skin, we have bacteria on the mucous membranes, in our digestive system and in many other places, but Without a doubt, the most important combination of bacteria that we all know is in the colon in the part of our intestine.
This intestinal microbiota has been shown to have an infinity of effects for us, it can affect our immune system, it can affect our ability to defend ourselves against infection, it can affect our digestion and even, as I mentioned, it can affect our mood, and our cognitive performance and it's not two or three bacteria going around we are talking about 100 trillion bacteria, that is, we have three times more microorganisms in our intestine than cells in the entire body (this is possible because microorganisms and bacteria are much smaller than our cells)
All these organisms were not just there in passing, because they entered with the food and are going to leave with the fecal matter, they fulfill key roles such as controlling the functioning of your nervous system, absorbing nutrients, training the immune system, etc. and obviously when we have a vision it is an alteration of this bacterial flora that today the vast majority of people have is much more likely to generate diseases and also accelerate the normal aging process of our body.
Not only normal flora or microbiota in places like the intestine or the skin, but also in places that we would never have imagined as the brain. I thought that the brain was sterile, that it could be infected with bacteria and cause serious illness, but bacteria did not exist under normal conditions. as it happens with the intestine and in fact the studies that evaluate this possible microbiota of the brain found bacteria in the brain that are very similar to those that live in our intestine.
Today we all know that the worse intestinal flora I have, the worse our destiny will work out, and the more digestive problems I will have, with the same criteria that you think will happen with the microbiota of your brain, we still know extremely little about these bacteria but if indeed there is a brain microcrack, it is logical to take care of it and maintain a balance so that our brain works better, but the microbiota of our intestine, in addition to the functions that I mentioned, digests part of the food that we cannot digest, such as fiber and from that produces substances that with very little originality we call post biotics.
These substances can be those of vitamins such as vitamin K or vitamin B12 to neurotransmitters and hormones such as serotonin, many of these substances are associated with the proper functioning of the brain, for example, the increased production that bacteria can give us of vitamin A , improves spatial memory and the generation of new neurons in the hippocampus, with which maintaining healthy values of vitamins means helping your brain renew neurons and orienting easier and good values of vitamin b12 help prevent dementia and are necessary for the proper functioning of the nerves.
Many people experience difficulty concentrating when you have just low B12 values, due to having followed a very restrictive diet and these bacteria also produce Arginine which is an amino acid that is normally used as a vasodilator, it enlarges the size of your arteries for muscle training, but the brain fulfills a crucial function that is increases nitric oxide dilates these but cerebral arteries and this means more oxygen in the brain and less degeneration due to age.
And this is not even all, there are not so many bacteria that my body can produce B12 for that reason it has to be supplemented, but there are many bacteria that, if they are well fed, will produce ketone bodies, such as beta hydroxybutyrate, which are substances that a lot of People associate diets like the brilliant keto that are known to improve your cognitive performance and also slow down aging and brain damage, so the better the flora, the less cognitive deterioration with age I will have and better performance.
