The human gut microbiome and health inequities

Abstract

Individuals who are minoritized as a result of race, sexual identity, gender, or socioeconomic status experience a higher prevalence of many diseases. Understanding the biological processes that cause and maintain these socially driven health inequities is essential for addressing them. The gut microbiome is strongly shaped by host environments and affects host metabolic, immune, and neuroendocrine functions, making it an important pathway by which differences in experiences caused by social, political, and economic forces could contribute to health inequities. Nevertheless, few studies have directly integrated the gut microbiome into investigations of health inequities. Here, we argue that accounting for host–gut microbe interactions will improve understanding and management of health inequities, and that health policy must begin to consider the microbiome as an important pathway linking environments to population health.

Enteric Microbiota-Mediated Serotonergic Signaling in Pathogenesis of Irritable Bowel Syndrome

“…Unfortunately, the underlying causes and mechanisms of dysbiosis in related diseases are largely unknown. In fact, it is yet to be shown whether dysbiosis is a cause or consequence of a target disease, while even a “healthy microbiome” is poorly defined, which is a million-dollar question [ 41 , 42 , 43 ].…”

Chasing Ghosts: Race, Racism, and the Future of Microbiome Research

“…Unlike race or ethnicity, there are clear mechanisms linking these variables with microbiome composition; interventions on these environmental variables are possible and can directly address environmental and health inequalities. However, work must be done across microbiome science to connect differences in microbiota to health disparities caused by structural inequities ( 9 , 50 , 51 ).…”

Public human microbiome data dominated by highly developed countries

“…Diet (Johnson et al 2019), lifestyle (Clemente et al 2015) and patterns in antibiotic use (Forslund et al 2013) have all been linked to microbiome composition, with other studies considering the influence of locational factors such as pollution (Mutlu et al 2018). Even within countries, interacting factors such as income, race, and education have critical impacts on health outcomes that could be mediated by the human microbiome (Amato et al 2021). Some microbiome studies have specifically collected and compared data from global sites (Fragiadakis et al 2019;Groussin et al 2021), but large gaps and disparities still exist in which microbiomes are being studied on a global scale.…”

“…Some microbiome studies have specifically collected and compared data from global sites (Fragiadakis et al 2019;Groussin et al 2021), but large gaps and disparities still exist in which microbiomes are being studied on a global scale. The human microbiome has been linked to a growing number of social, medical and economic factors not directly related to host genetics, which reinforces the urgent need to evaluate the microbiomes of many populations (Amato et al 2021;Ishaq et al 2021).…”