Malnutrition damages intestinal flora sustainably

Intestinal flora is permanently disturbed by malnutrition

06/05/2014

Malnutrition affects the intestinal flora for a lifetime. This was the result of US scientists who published their study in the journal „Nature“ published. While some malnutrition diets increase the weight of children, in the long run they remain smaller and lighter than their healthy counterparts.

Forty per cent of Bangladeshi children under the age of five are affected by malnutrition
Worldwide, about two billion people are affected by a covert form of malnutrition, a vitamin and mineral deficiency. However, the health damage caused by the absence of certain substances will persist for life. That's what scientists around Jeffrey Gordon of Washington University in St. Louis found out. Accordingly, the intestinal flora is so severely damaged by malnutrition that even a dietary change to a balanced diet does not cause long-term improvement in the intestine.

According to the researchers, around four percent of children in developing countries suffer from severe malnutrition. A lighter form affects even 19 percent of children. In their study, the researchers looked at children in Bangladesh, where about 40 percent of those under the age of five are malnourished. Since malnutrition was already known to affect the intestinal bacterial communities, scientists focused on analyzing gut flora to learn about the long-term effects of nutrient deficiency. On the one hand, the diet affects the composition of intestinal bacteria, on the other hand, the microbes affect the breakdown of nutrients.

Change to healthy diet causes after malnutrition only short-term recovery of the intestinal flora
Initially, 50 healthy children were examined each month during the first two years of life. The researchers created a ranking of 24 bacterial groups that can be found in a healthy intestinal flora of infants. Main representatives are bacteria of the species Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Lactobacillus ruminis as well as the genus Ruminococcus. In addition, studies of intestinal flora in 64 malnourished children at the age of six to 20 months were performed. The small patients were treated at a hospital in Dhaka with medicines, nutrient supplements such as iron and different diets.

To assess the nutritional situation, the researchers used the so-called WHZ value (weight-to-height Z-score), which indicates the weight and size. Children with malnourishment were shown to gain weight quickly through therapy, but the WHC remained below healthy children in the following months. They were lighter and smaller than their peers. The analysis of the intestinal flora also revealed that the bacterial communities initially became a bit more diverse. After the end of treatment after four months, however, this effect reversed again. The influence of the bacteria was also confirmed by studies of 47 children in Malawi.

As the researchers write, the next step would be to examine whether longer-term therapy improves the health of toddlers. Perhaps a form of diet based on traditional foods is more promising. A further task consists in finding out the role of the individual bacterial societies.

Malnutrition leads to lifelong increased susceptibility to disease
Another study by researchers led by Adam Hayward of the University of Sheffield last year showed that malnutrition in childhood weakens a person's body for a lifetime. On the basis of Finnish church registry data from 1867 and 1868 - at that time there was a severe famine in Finland, which claimed eight percent of the population - the researchers found that those who suffered from hunger during their childhood were more likely to become adults in affluent conditions Cardiovascular diseases and metabolic disorders such as diabetes mellitus suffered as people who were never malnourished. (Ag)