Operation: better understand the belly of the French. The idea behind the launch Thursday, September 15, 2022 of a participatory science project is to map the diversity of microbiota in the French population via lefrenchgut.fr, which therefore means “the French gut”.
The microbiota, we remind you, are the thousands of microorganisms that live in our bowels. We each have about a kilo. Bacteria, fungi, viruses: we know that this microbiota plays a very important role in the vital functions of our body. Our intestines and its inhabitants are sometimes even referred to as the “second brain”. But we still know little about the mechanisms by which all these bacteria can influence sleep, mood, overweight, certain inflammations or diseases. We also do not understand how the composition of the microbiota can change under the effect of diet, stress, or lifestyle.
Hence the idea of mapping the intestinal bacteria of 100,000 French people. To better see what a healthy microbiota looks like and how it evolves in the event of chronic disease (obesity, diabetes, cancer, allergy) or neurological disease (Parkinson, Alzheimer in particular). This research project, led by theINational Institute for Health and Medical Research (Inserm), theNational Research Institute for I‘agriculture, Ifood and I‘environment (Inrae), Paris hospitals and AgroParisTech will be spread over 5 years.
You will have to give a little bit to your person, and the gift that matters to us here is a gift of saddle. Give your poop, therefore, as is already done in the context of colorectal cancer screening. For this, volunteers must first register on the internet.
Then they will receive at home a small cardboard box with the necessary to participate. This kind of gift to science may come as a surprise, but it is an essential step in progressing towards personalized medicine and developing the treatments or food supplements of the future. The first data on the link between the lifestyle microbiota and diet will normally be available in 2 years and others will follow over several years.