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Human Microbiome Project

quarky

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Q
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Oct 15, 2007
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There is a cool article in the Oct. 22 NewYorker Magazine.
It discusses the relationship between us and our microbes, which is quite complex and full of surprises.

The article is called "Germs are us" by Michael Specter.
I'm having trouble linking it, but its well worth a read.
 
Much thanks.

This stuff is a revolution in how we address disease in the future.
 
I hope it advances dietary medicine. Right now diets seem to be mostly guesswork and studies that turn out to only work for small, specific populations.

It would be great to just have a sample of your biome taken and then have the dietician tell you what you should be eating for that particular balance of micro organisms.
 
Interesting but the abstract uses the word "probiotic" when the proper term is prebiotic or at least it sounds like that is what they are talking about. Probiotics are bacteria added to the GI tract, prebiotics are substances that favor the growth of certain bacteria.
 
Dogdoctor said:
Interesting but the abstract uses the word "probiotic" when the proper term is prebiotic or at least it sounds like that is what they are talking about. Probiotics are bacteria added to the GI tract, prebiotics are substances that favor the growth of certain bacteria.
Click to expand...

That term, 'probiotic' has been whored out a lot. Shame, really.
My feel for it is in conjunction with 'anti-biotic'...as in, the flip side of war and killing as a default position for the human psyche.
Its quite analogous to exciting new approaches to agriculture, architecture; almost everything.

As an ex-psychedelic educated hippy-type, I'm drawn to approaches to problems that are more about feeding something than poisoning something else.
That war-like mentality, even with microbes, always seems to come back to haunt us.

Love and peace, people.
Let your freak flag fly.
 
As one who causes others to use antibiotics almost daily I haven't particularly found probiotics to be useful. You can't sterilize the gut with antibiotics. I do like prebiotics and use them from time to time. Bacteria are sometimes bad things and we used to die from them much more than we do now with antibiotics. I think in rare cases digstive tracts get out of whack and need an infusion of the right bacteria but for most no microbes need to be added. I am drawn to solutions that work regardless of type of approach.
 
Dogdoctor said:
As one who causes others to use antibiotics almost daily I haven't particularly found probiotics to be useful. You can't sterilize the gut with antibiotics. I do like prebiotics and use them from time to time. Bacteria are sometimes bad things and we used to die from them much more than we do now with antibiotics. I think in rare cases digstive tracts get out of whack and need an infusion of the right bacteria but for most no microbes need to be added. I am drawn to solutions that work regardless of type of approach.
Click to expand...


Good luck with that.

Magic bullet, is it, then?

(P.S. , i love dogs)
 
Roboramma said:
This.

My ideology is to have no ideology.
Click to expand...

Me too, oddly enough.
Yet, it is often difficult to recognize, much less shake, the inertia of the momentum of old ways of thinking.

I'm painfully aware of the sexiness of 'out of the box' thinking.
It can work for comedians, but in science, far more scrutiny is involved.

Hence, I merely toss the message out there.
(In this case, rather poorly.)

Check out the message, if possible.

p.s.
Dogdoc, I totally dig what you say.
 
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