3 ms·

Think of it this way: your body has machinery built to combat pathogens. If there are no pathogens to fight, the bar for what is considered a pathogen lowers un

Think of it this way: your body has machinery built to combat pathogens. If there are no pathogens to fight, the bar for what is considered a pathogen lowers until eventually those machines are attacking healthy tissue and can cause many issues. Allergies, Lupus, and many others are already caused by similar mechanisms, and pushing society into ever more clean states will likely lead to more issues. The only real cure would then be taking immune-suppresants. Or we just need to embrace that nasty bacteria are a natural environmental feature important to our homeostasis

wpasc 6y ago
Agreed with this entirely, see my nearby comment.
pishpash 6y ago
That's my hypothesis for how homo sapiens goes extinct -- becoming ever more dependent on nature-shaping or external machinery to augment weakened selection pressure, but very fragile to sudden changes and always fighting fires.
monopoledance 6y ago
> a weaker immune system or microbiome is plausible > Think of it this way: ... OP already said it's plausible. Your image doesn't add to the evidence at all. The truth is, we have no idea about immune and gene regulation. A lot of the simplistic understanding you learn in school is falsely making people believe the body is a "machine" we can control or even comprehend. Medicine doesn't know shit. All we have, are some correlations with an increase in autoimmune disease, allergies and lymphoma, and increasing hygiene. Could also be microplastics or hormone disruptors, social isolation, stress, overweight, lack of sunlight, climate change... . The immune system is insanely complex and a huge bag of innovation and legacy making many functions redundant and incredibly hard to decipher. And some "healthy exposure" to pathogens really is a coin toss, as it may not be the contact, but surviving the sickness you benefit from. So a severe fever may slightly decrease your cancer risk, but comes at the risk of dying from, well, severe fever.
tootie 6y ago
I don't think those are the only options. Once the diversity of human microbiomes are better mapped, it would seem be to pretty simple to manufacture a dose of healthy bacteria for your gut or your blood. Something that could be administered safely in a controlled dose.

wpasc 6y ago

Agreed with this entirely, see my nearby comment.

pishpash 6y ago

That's my hypothesis for how homo sapiens goes extinct -- becoming ever more dependent on nature-shaping or external machinery to augment weakened selection pressure, but very fragile to sudden changes and always fighting fires.

monopoledance 6y ago

> a weaker immune system or microbiome is plausible > Think of it this way: ... OP already said it's plausible. Your image doesn't add to the evidence at all. The truth is, we have no idea about immune and gene regulation. A lot of the simplistic understanding you learn in school is falsely making people believe the body is a "machine" we can control or even comprehend. Medicine doesn't know shit. All we have, are some correlations with an increase in autoimmune disease, allergies and lymphoma, and increasing hygiene. Could also be microplastics or hormone disruptors, social isolation, stress, overweight, lack of sunlight, climate change... . The immune system is insanely complex and a huge bag of innovation and legacy making many functions redundant and incredibly hard to decipher. And some "healthy exposure" to pathogens really is a coin toss, as it may not be the contact, but surviving the sickness you benefit from. So a severe fever may slightly decrease your cancer risk, but comes at the risk of dying from, well, severe fever.

tootie 6y ago

I don't think those are the only options. Once the diversity of human microbiomes are better mapped, it would seem be to pretty simple to manufacture a dose of healthy bacteria for your gut or your blood. Something that could be administered safely in a controlled dose.