Gut health

The gut is increasingly linked to many aspects of health and disease.

The functions of the gut and their relationships to digestive and whole body health have attracted significant interest amongst both scientists as well as individuals wanting to improve their health.

While the term gut health is used widely, it is rarely defined, and means different things in different contexts. A variety of tools are used to evaluate different aspects of gut health, such as digestive function and gut barrier function, but no panel of tests can reliably establish that a person’s gastrointestinal tract is healthy. A lack of clarity on the concept of gut health and how to measure it creates challenges for both scientists and consumers. ISAPP gathered a group of experts to review the evidence and create a scientific consensus definition of gut health, which is currently in review. Stay tuned!

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  • Human milk oligosaccharides as prebiotics to be discussed in upcoming ISAPP webinar
    Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), non-digestible carbohydrates found in breast milk, have beneficial effects on infant health by acting as substrates…

  • A pediatrician’s perspective on c-section births and the gut microbiome
    By Prof. Hania Szajewska, MD, Medical University of Warsaw, Poland and Kristina Campbell, MSc, ISAPP Consulting Communications Director The decision…

  • What do we mean by ‘conferring a health benefit on the host’?
    Four of the Consensus definitions produced by ISAPP in recent years (see 1-4 below) finish with a similar wording, insisting…

  • What’s the evidence on ‘biotics’ for health? A summary from five ISAPP board members
    Evidence on the health benefits of gut-targeted ‘biotics’ – probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, and postbiotics – has greatly increased over the…

  • The Microbiome — Can it aid in the diagnosis and therapy of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)?
    By Eamonn M M Quigley, MD FRCP FACP MACG FRCPI MWGO Lynda K and David M Underwood Center for Digestive Disorders,…

  • ISAPP board members look back in time to respond to Benjamin Franklin’s suggestion on how to improve “natural discharges of wind from our bodies”
    Benjamin Franklin, born in 1706, was a multi-talented politician and scientist best known for his discoveries related to electricity. Historians…

  • Can fermented or probiotic foods with added sugars be part of a healthy diet?
    By Dr. Chris Cifelli, Vice President of Nutrition Research, National Dairy Council, Rosemont IL, USA What about added sugar in…

  • The future is microbial: A post-pandemic focus on identifying microbes and metabolites that support health
    By Prof. Maria Marco, Department of Food Science and Technology, University of California Davis, USA The COVID-19 pandemic has been…

  • Precision approaches to microbiota modulation: Using specific fiber structures to direct the gut microbial ecosystem for better health
    By now, hundreds of scientific articles show the differences in gut microbiota composition and function between states of health and…

  • How some probiotic scientists are working to address COVID-19
    By ISAPP board of directors With the global spread of COVID-19, the scientific community has experienced an unusual interruption. Across…