Dysbiosis & Industrialisation

Industrialized populations are characterized by low microbiome diversity. Aspects of lifestyle, including (1) consumption of highly processed foods, (2) high rates of antibiotic administration, (3) birth via cesarean section and use of baby formula, (4) sanitation of the living environment, and (5) reduced physical contact with animals and soil, have been hypothesized to mediate this reduced diversity
Sonnenburg & Sonnenburg 2019 Science 366: eaaw9255

These aspects are absent from the lifestyle of non-industrialized human populations, including hunter-gatherers, who harbor extremely high microbiome diversity
Smits et al. 2017 Science 357: 802-806

The transition to an industrialized microbiome is also observed in immigrants to the United States of America, supporting a causal role of lifestyle in altering microbiome composition
Vangay et al. 2018 Cell 175: 962-972

It is also clear that industrialization is associated with a substantially altered microbiota compared to that present in the pre-industrialized people
De Filippo et al. 2010 Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 107: 14691-14696

see also:
Antibiotics & Dysbiosis
Gut microbiota & Lifestyle / Lifestyle Changes