3 ms·
You are really overcomplicating this. The gut is about 70% of the immune system. Gut health and old fashioned lifestyle approaches that limit the transmission o
by Mz 10y ago
You are really overcomplicating this. The gut is about 70% of the immune system. Gut health and old fashioned lifestyle approaches that limit the transmission of germs is simple, easy, inexpensive and has been around for millenia.
It also smacks of religion and "boring, uptight" lives. So, it is nigh impossible to sell the idea.
Perhaps that will get easier as people start dropping like flies from horrifying diseases. But, for now, no one wants to hear it.
- adrianN 10y agoTell that to the people who died en masse from bacterial infections before the discovery of penicillin.
- Mz 10y agoThose folks also lacked the internet, where ordinary people can look up extraordinary things that previously could have only been learned by a select few privileged people, if at all. We also have a global economy of a sort that did not exist previously. Things that would have been exotic not that long ago can be acquired readily by people who aren't wealthy by first world standards. People used to routinely suffer scurvy, which is almost unheard of today because a) we know what causes it and b) ordinary people have no trouble getting citrus fruits. This was not true, say, 200 years or so ago.
- Fomite 10y agoSo "old fashioned lifestyle approaches" requires the internet and global access to non-native food sources.
- hjrnunes 10y agoIt requires knowledge. And global access to non-native food sources exists since the 15th century. The difference is whether mostly everyone has access to it. So yeah. I'd say he's right and I'd bet your fancy shmancy genetic engineering won't wield anything significant but for a residual percentage of very specific cases. As has most medical technology. The overwhelming majority of diagnostics are still made via question/answer, palpation and hearing. Mass promiscuity has consequences, just like poor sanitary habits have them. No amount of technology will change that.
- Fomite 10y agoGonorrhea is not a gut pathogen. Nor for that matter is MRSA.
- Mz 10y agoI did not say they were. Bone marrow is also an important part of the immune system. That does not mean it only comes into play for bone infections.
- Fomite 10y agoBone marrow produces lymphocytes, which are disseminated throughout the body. What mechanism of action are you proposing for "gut health" (also define what gut health means) to prevent an STI?
- hjrnunes 10y agoI've read that even mental disease has been linked to digestive problems. The body is a complex adaptive system. We still lack methodology to properly and effectively study such systems.