Vanessa Domingues, researcher at ciTechCare and PhD student at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra, published on September 8th an article in the Diário de Leiria on “The Extraordinary Power of the Intestinal Microbiota”, which highlights the role of the intestinal microbiota in health and disease prevention.

Vanessa refers that “the intestinal microbiota is almost as specific as a fingerprint” and that, in addition to genetics, “sedentary lifestyle, smoking, stress, type of diet and even the use of antibiotics, cause an imbalance in the intestinal microbiota, called dysbiosis, making us more vulnerable to disease. (…) dysbiosis can be associated not only with diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, but also with obesity, diabetes, cancer and even neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease.”

In her PhD, Vanessa will study the role of the intestinal microbiota in the development of celiac disease, at ciTechCare, in partnership with the Research Center for Celiac Disease in Tampere (Finland).

+ INFO: https://www.diarioleiria.pt/ (edition 8 September 2021)