11 ms·
I am not totally ignorant of this subject, but I'd be concerned about the unknowns involved in messing around with the very long term coevolution of gut biomes
by throwaway5752 4y ago
I am not totally ignorant of this subject, but I'd be concerned about the unknowns involved in messing around with the very long term coevolution of gut biomes with particular diets, groups of people, and factors we might not know about yet. For one example, I don't believe that that gut viromes, the ecosystem of viruses that infect the gut biome bacteria, are very well understood.
There is real wisdom in "do no harm" as a principle. It would be a lot better for most people to lose weight, eat more fruits and vegetables, spend more time outdoors, and sleep more before they consider a prophylactic fecal transplant.
- yetanotherloser 4y agoI'm afraid I think the long term coevolution of gut biomes ship sailed around the time we started indiscriminately slaughtering those gut biomes with antibiotics. (not to mention importing large numbers of unfamiliar alternatives through changes in food systems, and at least in some cases raising kids in crazy-sterile environments). So I tend to agree with you that this doesn't seem like a good thing to rush into, but it's interesting as a possible form of repair.
- ratsmack 4y agoThe huge amounts of preservative used in our food chain has been even more devastating to our biome because we consume them continuously.