Given how obsessed our society is with magic pills and miracle creams, you'd think that there was some secret to being "ridiculously healthy." The truth is using natural methods much more effective than any synthetic solution ten out of ten times. To further prove the importance of natural methods, one of the largest microbiota studies ever conducted came to the conclusion that maintaining a healthy gut profile can go a long way in making you age more gracefully and healthier.

Don't believe the stereotypes you hear about near-centenarians being feeble and weak. The scientific community is catching up to what Natural News readers have known for years; a healthy gut promotes overall well-being, supports the function of different organs, and improves the immune system, even if you’re 80 and above.

A group of researchers from the Tianyi Health Science Institute, the Lawson Health Research Institute, and Western University, observed over 1,000 Chinese individuals to see if there is any link between healthy aging and gut material. The ages of the participants ranged from delicate 3-year-olds to lively centenarians. After analysing numerous biomarkers, results showed that there was a direct correlation between participant health and the microbes in the intestine. The research team found it rather fascinating that a healthy gut microbiome could give an individual the physical appearance of someone decades younger than their actual age. For example, a very healthy 90 years old could have the gut profile of a 30-year-old. Even after taking into account other extraneous variables, the results were the same.

“This demonstrates that maintaining diversity of your gut as you age is a biomarker of healthy aging, just like low cholesterol is a biomarker of a healthy circulatory system,” commented Greg Gloor, the principal investigator on the study and also a professor at Western's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and Scientist at Lawson Health Research Institute.

The only thing the study couldn’t account for was identifying the cause or effect between gut microbiota and healthy aging.  Gregor Reid, a professor at Western's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and fellow Scientist at Lawson Health Research Institute said, “It begs the question -- if you can stay active and eat well, will you age better, or do the bacteria predicate healthy ageing in your gut?”

Gloor did add however that, “The main conclusion is that if you are ridiculously healthy and 90 years old, your gut microbiota is not that different from a healthy 30-year-old in the same population.” A few researchers are now suggesting resetting the microbiota in the elderly to that of a 30-year-old to see if it’ll help promote health.

“The aim is to bring novel microbiome diagnostic systems to populations, then use food and probiotics to try and improve biomarkers of health,” said Reid. “By studying healthy people, we hope to know what we are striving for when people get sick.”