We’re all told that to live longer, we must exercise regularly, eat a healthy diet, get enough sleep, maintain an optimal weight, not smoke, and manage stress. But why do some people naturally make it to the ripe old age of 100 while remaining healthy? A new study may have an answer to that question, and the bottom line is that it has to do with what’s in our gut.
Over the years, studies have shown that the gut microbiome, billions of bacteria and other microorganisms that live in our intestinal tract and are both helpful and potentially harmful, has been linked to mood, memory, body weight, and disease.
While these studies have told us a lot about how gut bacteria affect health, the viruses that make up the microbiome – the gut virome – are less commonly explored. Researchers from the University of Copenhagen studied the virome of 176
