Recently a family member asked me for some tips for improving short-term memory. I ended up doing a deeper-than-usual dive into the topic. Some of my findings confirmed what I already knew or suspected, but others caught me by surprise. You know those giant canisters of powder with a picture of a bulging venous bicep on the label? Well, more on that later …
Tag: thiamine
Your intestines circa 1900.
A recent study published in Nature and noted in the New York Times has discovered the intestinal ecosystems of human beings fall into distinct types. While we all host many different varieties of bacteria, our guts are apparently dominated by one particular type, or family, of microbes, while other varieties are less abundant.
For example, what the study calls Enterotype 1 consists primarily of Bacteroides, while Enterotype 2 hosts high levels of bacteria from the genus Prevotella.
Different bacteria “do” different things in the intestines. For example, the Type 2 bacteria synthesize enzymes that produce vitamin B1 (thiamine). Type 1 synthesizes enzymes that produce vitamin B7 (biotin). I would speculate that other vitamins that are synthesized in the gut, such as vitamin K2, are also produced at differing rates by different enterotypes.