The fundamental role of gut bacteria in overall health has been recognized for years. Imbalances in its composition have been linked to autoimmune, gastrointestinal, and metabolic diseases, and now also to cardiovascular conditions. Increasingly, scientists are studying the gut-heart axis and suggest that the gut microbiota could become a new therapeutic target for preventing and treating heart diseases.

We continue our series on the gut axis, this time focusing on the gut-skin connection. You might have noticed it yourself—how a heavy, sugary meal can lead to breakouts the next day, or how certain food allergies can trigger rashes. This is the gut-skin axis at work, demonstrating an association between the health of our gut and the condition of our skin, and vice versa.

You are probably familiar with the gut-brain connection. But did you know that your gut and lungs are in constant conversation? Scientists call this connection the gut-lung axis. Both the gut and lungs are mucosal organs—while the gut absorbs nutrients from food, the lungs absorb gases like oxygen from the air.

Rural living, vaginal delivery, pet ownership, eating a wide variety of foods, low antibiotic use, and breast milk microbiota can prevent your children from developing a respiratory or food allergy. But what if differences in the gut microbiota could predict which children will grow out of their allergies?

Gut microbiota, with its close links to metabolism and the immune system, could potentially be a factor that lies at the core of good health. This means it can be positioned at the heart of the processes that influence the risk of contracting different diseases.

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