People living in UK’s poorest areas have less diverse gut bacteria, study finds
People living in the poorest areas of the UK have a less diverse range of bacteria in their gut, leading to worse health outcomes than their more affluent counterparts, according to a study.The research, led by academics at King’s College London and the University of Nottingham, analysed the gut bacteria of 1,390 female twins across the UK alongside their residential postcodes in order to identify the area’s socioeconomic status.Deprivation was measured using the Townsend Deprivation Index, which takes into account measures such as unemployment and overcrowding, as well as car and home ownership.The gut, or gastrointestinal system, is the route that food and drink takes through the body.It ensures that all the beneficial nutrients are absorbed and used for energy, growth and repair.
Gut health is linked to physical and mental health – about 95% of serotonin, a mood regulator, is produced in the gut,An unhealthy microbiome can cause inflammation and also lead to anxiety and depression,Analysis of the participants’ gut health found that there were 12 bacterial species linked to living in more deprived areas,Two of these species, Lawsonibacter and Intestinimonas massiliensis, were also negatively associated with deprivation and higher rates of anxiety and diabetes,Changes in these particular bacteria could explain how social disadvantage affected mental and physical health, according to the researchers, as these bacteria usually produce butyrate, which supports energy balance and blood sugar control.
Alongside these findings, the research showed that deprivation was associated with reduced diversity of gut microbiome,Dr Cristina Menni, senior author of the study and a senior lecturer in molecular epidemiology at King’s College London, said: “Although this is still an emerging area of research, we know that the diversity of bacteria in the gut plays an important role in overall health,“Health inequalities remain one of the biggest challenges facing the UK, and we still do not fully understand how social disadvantage translates into poorer health,Our findings suggest that people who live in more socially deprived areas of the UK may have less diverse gut microbiomes, and that this may be one biological pathway linking deprivation to worse physical and mental health outcomes,We hope that this might lead to interventions that support gut health and help improve overall wellbeing,” she added.
The findings also suggest that the health of a person’s gut microbiome may play an important role in the connection between poorer health outcomes and social deprivation,Dr Yu Lin, first author of the study and a research associate at King’s College London, said that gut microbiome might be “one of the ways our environment and social circumstances, such as chronic stress, financial strain, and access to healthy food, affect both our mental health and our metabolic health”,She added: “These microbes, in turn, influence how the body processes energy and communicates with the brain,This suggests that social and environmental disadvantage may become biologically embedded through changes in gut bacteria,“In other words, the bacteria in our gut could help explain how where we live and the stresses we face shape our overall wellbeing.
We hope that our findings will contribute to new strategies for supporting health in disadvantaged communities.”
Reeves must back defence investment plan or be sacked, says Unite union boss
The head of Britain’s largest trade union has demanded that Rachel Reeves be sacked as chancellor if the Treasury continues to hold up a multibillion-pound defence investment plan.Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, said tens of thousands of jobs were at risk from political dithering and called on ministers to “back British industry” by signing off on future defence contracts.“If Rachel Reeves can’t grasp that concept and doesn’t care where things are made then she should go,” Graham said “Actually, you have to have a vision for Britain. You can’t just be in government, you can’t just say today’s a new day.”She also called on Keir Starmer “to do what he said he would do” after the prime minister promised in February last year to increase annual spending on the military to 2
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Like Emma Brockes, I watched Channel 4’s documentary The Tony Blair Story (It’s said that Tony Blair thought he was Jesus. At least Jesus never thought he was Tony Blair, 18 February). The last episode was the saddest, as Tony’s friends and family mithered about his legacy. Like all premierships, the Blair years were a mixed blessing – some great domestic policy, largely pushed by Gordon Brown, and a patchy foreign policy.But Tony’s biggest legacy would be the destruction of the coalition that had been the Labour party for the previous 90 years
Foreign Office denies minister’s claim the Chagos Islands deal has been paused – as it happened
Ben Quinn is a Guardian political correspondent.Controversial plans to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius are still on track, the UK government has insisted, after a minister caused confusion by telling MPs that the deal was “paused”.Hamish Falconer, a Foreign Office minister and former diplomat, was speaking on Wednesday as the deal came under increasing pressure from opposition parties in the UK and from Donald Trump.In a bombshell intervention last month, the US president said that Keir Starmer was “making a big mistake” by handing sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius in exchange for continued use by the UK and US of their airbase on one of the islands, Diego Garcia.Speaking in response to an urgent question put foward in the Commons by the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage (see 2
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Serious doubts have been raised about the dual role of Scotland’s top law officer after it emerged that the first minister was informed of criminal charges against Peter Murrell nearly a year before they were made public.The lord advocate, Dorothy Bain, who acts as Scotland’s chief prosecutor as well as the government’s principal legal adviser in cabinet, has faced calls to resign but the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service maintains she was acting in line with her duties.On Tuesday the office released a list of nearly 30 other cases the lord advocate had updated governments about over the last three decades. It emerged that on 20 March last year, Bain told John Swinney that Murrell, the former chief executive of the SNP, had appeared in court charged with embezzling more than £460,000 from the party. That detail did not emerge publicly until earlier this month
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