Dr Amir Khan

Your body is less efficient at absorbing those nutrients.

But also we do know that gut microbiome diversity decreases as we get older as well.

They just get a bit older.

Well, to be fair, the lifespan of a bacteria isn't that long.

In 20 minutes.

Yeah, but it's about the diversity.

It just doesn't replenish as quickly and as well as it did.

Yeah, I would say so.

I don't really know the exact reason behind it, but we know that it happens.

What are the red flags to look out for?

When it comes to bowels, any persistent new changes in your bowel habits should be checked out.

I would have said in the past, particularly if you're over the age of 50, but now we're seeing things like bowel cancer rates going up in younger people.

So no matter what your age, if your bowel habits have changed, whether that's looser or firmer and it's been going on for three weeks or more, I would say go and get that looked at.

The other thing is blood in your poo.

Doesn't mean you've got cancer.

You know, fresh red blood, the most common cause for that in your poo is hemorrhoids or a little fissure, which is a little cut at the bottom.

So that's a really common cause for it.

Or inflammatory bowel disease like Crohn's and ulcerative colitis.

Yes, they are serious, but they're not bowel cancer.

So always, always get that checked out.