Bilberry Balances the Gut Microbiota for Optimal Health, According to Studies

By Kyle J. Norton

Scientists may have found a natural and herbal remedy for the improvement of digestive gut microbiota for health optimization, according to studies.

Gut microbiota, or gastrointestinal microbiota, the complex community of microorganisms in our digestive tracts plays a critical role in a variety of metabolic functions, including produced vitamins, synthesized all essential and nonessential amino acids, and carried out biotransformation of bile.

Gut microbiota protects the intestinal structures and functions by attaching to the gut wall against the entry of pathogenic, enteroinvasive bacteria into the epithelial cells.

In the immune perspective, gut microbiota protects the intestines by alerting the immune response against foreign invasion through specific receptors, leading to an immune system in inducing the proinflammatory cytokines.

However, the imbalance of digestive gut microbiota has been found to induce a number of diseases, syndromes, and functional aberrations, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and wider systemic manifestations of disease such as obesity, and type 2 diabetes.

Imbalanced gut microbiota is found in obese patients, compared to healthy weight individuals.

Dr. Kyle J. Wolf, the lead scientist in the investigation the link of obesity and gut microbiota, wrote, "

 In recent years it has been definitively shown that microbiota in the gastrointestinal tract is altered in obese individuals".

And, "Normal humans and mice have 60% to 80% Firmicutes (which are primarily nonculturable, butyrate-producing Clostridium cluster XIVa) and 20% Bacteroidetes (Cytophaga-Flavobacterium-Bacteroides). However, the obese mouse model (ob/ob) had a 50% reduction in Bacteroidetes and an increase in Firmicutes. A similar decrease in Bacteroidetes and increase in Firmicutes is also seen when C57BL/6 mice are fed a high-fat (HF) diet".

The results in the mice model study strongly linked the Western diet and the risk of imbalanced gut microbiota in facilitating the onset of obesity.

Bilberry is a species of low-growing shrubs in the genus Vaccinium, belonging to the family Ericaceae, native to Northern Europe.

The plant has been used as herbs in traditional medicine for the treatment of acute and chronic diarrhea, gastritis, gastric ulcer, and duodenal ulcer, enterocolitis, ulcerative colitis, anemia, cystitis, kidney disease, and psoriasis, diabetes, etc.

Scientists on finding a natural ingredient for the improvement of digestive system functioning in the elderly examined the bilberry anthocyanin extract consumption and healthy aging and the effects on intestinal barrier function and digestive enzyme activity.

In the aging rats selected to the study, injection of medium-dose bilberry anthocyanin at 20 mg per kg bw per day) showed to optimizing the intestinal function.

Analyzing the gut microbiota, consumption of bilberry anthocyanin balanced the levels of bacteria in the intestine by increasing the good bacterias such as Aspergillus oryzae, Lactobacillus, Bacteroides, Clostridiaceae-1, the Bacteroidales-S24-7- and the Lachnospiraceae_NK4A136_group) and decreasing the levels of harmful bacterias, such as Verrucomicrobia and Euryarchaeota.

However. injection of any dose higher than 20 mg per kg displayed the alternation of some intestinally beneficial bacteria in an adverse way. 

Furthermore, besides improving the levels of gut microbiota, consumption of bilberry anthocyanin also induced the changes in short-chain fatty acids and the intestinal mucosal barrier, correlatedly.

In other words, injection of the extract consumption also improved the decreased activity of digestive enzymes in breaking down the proteins into amino acids due to aging.

Dr. Li J, the lead scientist wrote, "Bilberry anthocyanin extract consumption is a potential approach for assisting healthy aging".

Moreover, in order to reveal more information about bilberry gut microbiota effects, researchers compared bilberries and cloudberries, the 2 berries on the.intestinal immune responses and gut microbiota.

Injection of bilberry not only reduced the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines through immunomodulatory activity but also improved the balance of the gut microbiota compared to cloudberries and control group.

Interestingly, cloudberry inhibited and bilberry exhibited the expression of energy metabolism-related genes in the intestinal mucosa.

Additionally, the microbial profiles of cloudberry-fed mice clustered together associated with small adenoma size compared to bilberry group.

The findings suggested that bilberry consumption demonstrated potential digestive health by attenuating of intestinal inflammation, improving microbial profiles, and exhibiting mucosal energy metabolism.

Taken altogether, bilberry processed a high amount bioactive compound may be considered a functional remedy for optimizing the bodily health by balancing the levels of gut microbiota.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

References
(1) Bilberry anthocyanin extract promotes intestinal barrier function and inhibits digestive enzyme activity by regulating the gut microbiota in aging rats by Li J1, Wu T1, Li N1, Wang X1, Chen G1, Lyu X. (PubMed)
(2) Changes in intestinal immunity, gut microbiota, and expression of energy metabolism-related genes explain adenoma growth in bilberry and cloudberry-fed ApcMin mice by Päivärinta E1, Niku M2, Maukonen J3, Storvik M4, Heiman-Lindh A5, Saarela M6, Pajari AM7, Mutanen M. (PubMed)
(3) Part 1: The Human Gut Microbiome in Health and Disease by Matthew J. Bull, BSc, Ph.D. and Nigel T. Plummer, Ph.D. (PMC)
(4) Gut Microbiota and Obesity by Kyle J. Wolfa and Robin G. Lorenz. (PMC)