Abstract
Famed microbiologist René J. Dubos (1901–1982) was an early pioneer in the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) construct. In the 1960s, he conducted groundbreaking research concerning the ways in which early-life experience with nutrition, microbiota, stress, and other environmental variables could influence later-life health outcomes. He recognized the co-evolutionary relationship between microbiota and the human host. Almost 2 decades before the hygiene hypothesis, he suggested that children in developed nations were becoming too sanitized (vs. our ancestral past) and that scientists should determine whether the childhood environment should be “dirtied up in a controlled manner.” He also argued that oft-celebrated growth chart increases via changes in the global food supply and dietary patterns should not be equated to quality of life and mental health. Here in the second part of our review, we reflect the words of Dubos off contemporary research findings in the areas of diet, the gut-brain-axis (microbiota and anxiety and depression) and microbial ecology. Finally, we argue, as Dubos did 40 years ago, that researchers should more closely examine the relevancy of silo-sequestered, reductionist findings in the larger picture of human quality of life. In the context of global climate change and the epidemiological transition, an allergy epidemic and psychosocial stress, our review suggests that discussions of natural environments, urbanization, biodiversity, microbiota, nutrition, and mental health, are often one in the same.
Highlights
Beyond food and probiotics While intestinal microbiota and dietary interactions have received considerable international attention, it is worth noting that lactic acid bacteria, bifidobacteria, and numerous other potentially beneficial microbes are found throughout natural environments
If animal studies involving diet-microbiota-obesity interactions are an indication [277], fecal transplant in mental health will be limited if the environmental forces are pushing a separate and continuous reset button labeled “dysbiosis.” If there is an end-game to the potential benefits of microbial administration in positive mental health, it is much more likely to be derived from ecological vs. purely pharmacological and commercially driven considerations
Like some of our most forward-thinking public health officials of today [282], he recognized the complexity of his proposals. He noted that life may not be as miserable and brutish if we were absent some of the technology currently delivered to us at a premium cost to the planet [283]
Summary
He demonstrated his awareness of socio-ecological interplay in humans: “Whatever the exact mechanism of the interplay between nutritional state and the microbiota of the digestive tract, it is clear that rate of growth, nutritional requirements, and efficiency in food utilization are characteristics influenced by [commensal bacteria]...But sanitary practices and other aspects of the ways of life may play an important part by affecting the indigenous microbiota...histological differences observed in the intestinal mucosa depending upon the socioeconomical status may be relevant to the problem, since they probably reflect the intensity of the inflammatory response to the so-called ‘normal’ flora.” [167].
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