"Our understanding of how to treat and prevent diseases has been transformed by knowledge of the microbiome. In Gut Feelings, Alessio Fasano and Susie Flaherty show why we must go beyond the older, myopic view of microorganisms as our enemies to a broader understanding of the microbiome as a parallel civilization that we need to understand, respect, and engage with for the benefit of our own health. Exploring the microbiome's part in gut inflammatory disorders, obesity, neurological conditions, cancer, and immune function, Fasano and Flaherty show that we can enlarge--and perhaps reinvent--our understanding of how to combat disease and maintain health."--Back cover.

Preface viiI The Wisdom of a Microscopic Species1 Evolutionary Biology Explains BacterialAdaptability 32 The Ancestral Microbiome 213 Early Factors Influencing the Microbiome 494 Cracking the Codes: From the Human Genometo the Human Microbiome 815 Beyond Bacteria: Those Other “Omes” 1036 The Microbiome Hypothesis: The Epigenetic Roleof the Microbiome 131II The Microbiome’s Role in Disease7 The Microbiome and Gut InflammatoryDisorders 1658 The Microbiome and Obesity 1879 The Microbiome and Autoimmunity 20710 The Microbiome and Neurological and BehavioralDisorders 23711 The Microbiome and EnvironmentalEnteropathy 25912 The Microbiome and Cancer 273III Manipulating the Microbiome to Maintain Health13 From Association to Causation: A New Approachto Microbiome Composition and Function inDisease Development 29314 Preventive Medicine: Monitoring the Microbiomefor Disease Prediction and Interception 31315 Treatments for Disease: Prebiotics, Probiotics,Synbiotics, and Postbiotics 34516 Microbiome Research in Gut-Brain Axis Diseases:Psychobiotics 38117 Artificial Intelligence, Synthetic Biology,and the Microbiome 39118 Maintaining a Resilient Microbiome throughOld Age 411 Epilogue: Why Studying Our Microbiome IsImportant for Our Future 425Acknowledgments 443Notes 445