Medically reviewed by Tracy McCarthy, MD — Board-Certified Psychiatrist, IFM-Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner The Field Is Moving Fast Microbiome science is one of the most rapidly evolving areas in medicine. What was theoretical a decade ago is now documented with increasing precision — the specific bacterial signatures associated with depression, the mechanisms by which gut bacteria communicate with the brain, the ways in which diet shapes microbial populations in measurable and...

Medically reviewed by Tracy McCarthy, MD — Board-Certified Psychiatrist, IFM-Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner Your Microbiome Keeps Time Most people know they have a circadian rhythm — the internal biological clock that governs sleep, wakefulness, hormone release, and metabolism. What is less widely understood is that the gut microbiome has its own circadian rhythm, running in coordination with the host's clock. Disrupting it has measurable consequences for metabolic health, immune...

Medically reviewed by Tracy McCarthy, MD — Board-Certified Psychiatrist, IFM-Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner Diversity Is the Goal When researchers look at microbiome health, one of the most consistent findings is that diversity matters. A microbiome with a wide variety of bacterial species is more resilient, more functional, and more protective than one with a narrow population — even if that narrow population contains some "good" bacteria. 1. Eating a Low-Variety Diet The gut...