UCR study finds some bacteria key to staying healthy in childhood

RIVERSIDE (CNS) - The adage that diet and exercise can make a difference in a person's life was borne out in experimentation by UC Riverside scientists using mice, leading to findings that gut bacteria needed to stay healthy can be regulated by eating habits and physical activity at a young age. UCR physiologist Theodore Garland led a team of researchers in exploring how intestinal bacteria react to consumption habits and activity, and the results of the study were published in the most recent edition of the Journal of Experimental Biology. The focus was how the microbiome — the consortium of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and viruses — that dwell in a body changes when the balance is tipped one way or another by diet and exercise. "We studied mice, but the effect we observed is eq