In this guest post, nutritional medicine practitioner Shannon Barge from @livingwithrosie highlights how the latest scientific research about the human microbiome is changing the way we look at the connections between health, sleep and weight.
New Australian research is leading the world in one of the first human studies looking at the way sleep effects microbes and health.
In her research at CQUniversity Dr Amy Reynolds is looking at existing evidence in mice, showing the connections between sleep deprivation and microbes, and her research is now collecting data in a novel pilot study looking at the changes in human gut microbes resulting from sleep deprivation.
Although it is early days for Dr Reynold’s timely research, preliminary results suggest that there is a two-way relationship between healthy microbes and healthy sleep. What this means is that healthy gut microbes could address the negative effect of insufficient sleep, and this could be the basis for a revolutionary approach to treating obesity.
While we wait for the results of this scientific study why not do your own experiment. Make sure to get your zzz’s AND your greens to see if good sleep + good food = healthy gut, and healthy gut + good sleep = feeling great!
Getting to the guts of the matter, CQUniversity
Shannon Rosie Barge
Nutritional Medicine Practitioner
@livingwithrosie
