In this episode I am joined once again by microbiome scientist Dr Suzanne Devkota to unpack what a healthy gut ecosystem really looks like. We explore what the term microbiome actually means, why diversity is so important, and how early life, antibiotics, diet and even who you live with shape your microbial fingerprint across the lifespan.
We also get very practical, covering probiotics, prebiotics and postbiotics, why fibre and microbiota accessible carbohydrates (MACs) sit at the centre of gut health, and what to realistically expect from stool testing. Suzanne shares emerging science on short chain fatty acids, Akkermansia, inflammatory bowel disease, visceral fat and how the microbiome might connect to conditions like colon cancer and metabolic disease.
What We Cover
- What the microbiome actually is and how it differs between the small intestine, colon and gut lining
- Why microbial diversity matters and how diet, disease and medications can reduce it
- How birth mode, breastfeeding and first foods shape the microbiome in early life
- The realities of stool testing, which methods are useful and why automated diet advice is unreliable
- Probiotics, prebiotics and postbiotics explained, including when probiotics help and when they don’t
- Why MAC rich foods drive short chain fatty acids and how butyrate maintains gut barrier integrity
- The real story on Akkermansia, the mucus layer and why focusing on one microbe misses the bigger picture
- New findings on gut leakiness, bacteria entering fat tissue, and links to IBD, fibrosis and metabolic health
As always, my aim in this conversation is to strip away hype and focus on what the evidence actually shows about gut health. I hope this helps you better understand your own microbiome, make more informed decisions about testing and supplements, and focus on the simple dietary and lifestyle patterns that truly move the needle.
You can learn more from Dr Suzanne Devkota by following her on Instagram, or by visiting the Cedars-Sinai Human Microbiome Research Institute and the Devkota Lab.
- Intro (00:00:00)
- The Microbiome Conversation (00:01:16)
- How Diversity Shapes Your Gut’s Health and Resilience (00:04:40)
- The First Three Years That Shape a Lifetime (00:08:09)
- What Microbiome Tests Can and Can’t Tell You (00:11:05)
- Probiotics, Prebiotics, Postbiotics (00:18:05)
- The Quiet Power of Short-Chain Fatty Acids (00:34:47)
- The Fiber Controversy and What People Get Wrong (00:47:58)
- How Daily Habits Quietly Reshape Your Microbiome (00:49:28)
- Antibiotics, Resetting, and Rebuilding Your Gut (00:52:07)
- How Early-Life Factors Imprint Your Gut for Decades (00:56:57)
- Why Chronic Inflammation and IBD Connect Back to the Microbiome (01:03:14)
- What We’re Learning About Colon Cancer and the Gut (01:16:13)
- The Future of Microbiome Science and Personalized Gut Care (01:27:45)
Resources and links:
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More about Suzanne Devkota
Dr Suzanne Devkota is the Director of the Human Microbiome Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, and is an Associate Professor in Residence at UCLA in the Dept. of Medicine. She has been studying the effect of diet on gut microbiome structure and function in metabolic and inflammatory and metabolic diseases for the past 17 years, and more recently her lab has been studying the microbial ecology of gut bacterial translocation to adipose tissue in the human body, and the body’s response to manage microbes in these atypical sites. Particular interest lies in selection pressures that shift certain commensal microbes toward pathogenic phenotypes, site-specific strain variation, and the impact diet and medications have on this process. Dr Devkota received her B.S in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she also received her M.S. in Nutritional Sciences. She earned her Ph.D. from The University of Chicago in Molecular Metabolism and Nutrition where she began specializing in Gastroenterology and the newly emerging field of the Microbiome. She completed her post-doctoral training at the Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard Medical School and is a former Branco Weiss Fellow of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Her lab is funded by the NIH and not-for-profit foundations, and she is an NIH Director’s Pioneer awardee. Dr Devkota is passionate about translating science to the general public, especially as it relates to nutrition, food systems, and the microbiome and has been an invited panelist at the Nobel Prize Dialogues in Tokyo and Berlin on topics of “The Future of Food” and “Toward Health: Equality and Responsibility in Research”.
