There are nearly one hundred trillion microorganisms in human digestive tract which constitute the human digestive tract micro-ecosystem. This is a “community of destiny” formed in the process of interaction and evolution between microorganisms and their hosts. The relevant researches include the structure and function of digestive tract microbiome as well as interaction between the digestive tract microbiome and human body.[1] Many literatures have reported that the dysfunction of gut microbiota may be related to the occurrence and development of gastrointestinal diseases, such as functional gastrointestinal disease, non-infectious inflammatory bowel disease, celiac disease, gastrointestinal tumor, Clostridium difficile infection, etc. Other studies have also shown that the microbial population in the digestive tract itself has biological functions such as metabolic and endocrine. The bioactive substances produced by microbial population can affect the physiologic and pathological conditions of the whole body through the digestive tract.[2,3] Recent researches have reported that the imbalance of the digestive tract microecology is correlated with the occurrence and development of allergic diseases, non-gastrointestinal chronic inflammation, non-gastrointestinal tumors, diabetes, obesity, atherosclerosis, fatty liver, HBV infection, and even depression, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and other neuropsychiatric diseases. Some scholars believe that the interaction disorder between brain, intestine and digestive tract microecology is the pathogenetic basis of many chronic diseases. Therefore, restoring the homeostasis of the digestive tract is a critical option for preventing and treating the chronic diseases by regulating and intervening the above disorders. The analysis of the structure and function of digestive tract microecology has become the international frontier of translational and clinical medicine research.
Integrated wellness refers to the multidimensional regulation and intervention of disease prevention, treatment and rehabilitation through the adoption of interdisciplinary and integrated theories and techniques to enable healthy individuals to be systematically maintained and diseased individuals to be systematically treated and optimally rehabilitated. The integrated medical model has a variety of adjustments and interventions. It emphasizes the overall treatment of the patient rather than the treatment of a particular organ, which aims to a good coordination among different disciplines and specialties, combining traditional and complementary therapies to promote recovery from disease or maintain the wellness of the organism.[4,5]
Based on this, Gut Microbiota and Integrative Wellness (GMIW), a forward-looking, authoritative and international professional journal, has been launched! The chief editor of GMIW are Bin Cong from Hebei Medical University, Jiande D Z Chen from University of Michigan Medical School, and Wei Wei from Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. GMIW is an international peer-reviewed, open-access English-language academic journal that is temporarily published as a quarterly journal. GMIW is benchmarked against the world’s top medical journals and implements strict peer review and publication standards to ensure the high quality of the journals. GMIW fills the gap of the world’s English-language journals in this field, expanding from focusing on the field of digestive tract microecology to integrating wellness, bringing together top scholars in this field to jointly build a high-end academic platform and play a positive leading role in building a community of destiny for human wellness. Several key columns will be set up in this journal, including original research, review, expert opinion, expert forum, consensus, guidelines, experience exchange, short report, case report, innovation and controversy, experience sharing, academic trends, etc. Welcome to our journal and we hope you enjoy our journal.
DECLARATIONS
Conflicts of interest
Bin Cong and Jiande D Z Chen are the Editors-in-Chief of the journal, and Wei Wei is the Executive Editor-in-Chief. This is the inaugural Editorial for the journal.
REFERENCES
- Nouvenne A, Ticinesi A, Tana C, et al. Digestive disorders and Intestinal microbiota. Acta Biomed. 2018;89(9-S):47-51. DOI: 10.1097/mco.0000000000000521
- VVentura M, Turroni F, Canchaya C, Vaughan EE, O’Toole PW, van Sinderen D. Microbial diversity in the human intestine and novel insights from metagenomics. Front Biosci (Landmark Ed). 2009;14(9):3214-3221. DOI: 10.2741/3445
- Cho I, Blaser MJ. The human microbiome: at the interface of health and disease. Nat Rev Genet. 2012;13(4):260-270. DOI: 10.1038/nrg3182 PMID: 22411464
- Jordan M. What Is Integrative Health? CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF INTEGRAL STUDIES. Published January 01, 2016. Accessed November 01, 2022. https://www.ciis.edu/ciis-news-and-events/news/what-is-integrative-health DOI: 10.1055/a-1641-8862
- NCCIH Clearinghouse. Complementary, Alternative, or Integrative Health: What’s In a Name? National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Updated April, 2021. Accessed November 01, 2022. https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/complementary-alternative-or-integrative-health-whats-in-a-name DOI: 10.1093/jpepsy/jsab127
