Gut Microbiome impact on Health and Fitness

NorthCascades wrote: »

GaleHawkins wrote: »

Autism symptoms reduced nearly 50 percent two years after fecal transplant

There goes nearly half our progress in software and science.

Im trying to picture what a fecal transplant is.

NorthCascades wrote: »

GaleHawkins wrote: »

NorthCascades wrote: »

GaleHawkins wrote: »

Autism symptoms reduced nearly 50 percent two years after fecal transplant

There goes nearly half our progress in software and science.

How do you think that is factual?

You're asking me how a prediction I made about a possible future is factual? Really?

For the record, Bill Gates is an Aspie. The guy who invented the concept of bit torrents is an Aspie, too; he had an insight about how data moves through the cloud based on how bees swam, and basically dropped everything until he saw his idea through. At Microsoft we have a team whose job it is to hire autistic devs and testers, because it's good business. The "interview" lasts two weeks, it's set up like a coding camp, applicants get to play with all kinds of cool technology and talk about what they like and what they can imagine.

But, sure, sticking other people's poop inside humans sounds like a great future too.

The procedure reduces the symptoms that are currently recognized as part of the autism diagnosis - speech issues, behavioral issues, social issues. It doesn't change a person's ability to create or imagine, it merely helps with the barriers that a lot of people with autism face. Many of the "famous ASD individuals" who we hear about also became famous from something they worked on individually or with a close friend or colleague, not as part of a larger organization, because the symptoms can make it difficult to get hired or keep a job in an environment that is built around neurotypical behavior being acceptable and expected.

I'm not sure how a procedure that could reduce the symptoms and allow the creative part of flourish more effectively would reduce our progress in any area.

This is all very interesting. My husband and daughter both have ADHD and my daughter shows signs of possible ASD, we are doing testing. I'm diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Disease (IBD) Ulcerative Colitis (UC) and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). I suffered with stomach issues since I was a baby and diagnosed in my early 20s with IBD and IBS. I was in remission when I got pregnant with my daughter but I wonder if I had taken a strong probiotic before and during my pregnancy what might have been the results? Would it have made a difference in her ADHD or possible ASD? I currently take a prescription probiotic that is designed for people with IBD/UC, I have also modified my diet to Autoimmune Paleo (AIP) and I feel better and more stable. Anyways my husband and I have been considering another pregnancy so I want to learn as much as possible about gut health and anything I can do to improve it. Thank you for sharing.

Savyna wrote: »

NorthCascades wrote: »

GaleHawkins wrote: »

Autism symptoms reduced nearly 50 percent two years after fecal transplant

There goes nearly half our progress in software and science.

Im trying to picture what a fecal transplant is.

Fecal transplants are actually used as treatments for c diff, though it's not the first line of treatment from what I understand.
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/gastroenterology_hepatology/clinical_services/advanced_endoscopy/fecal_transplantation.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3365524/

https://www.gastro.org/news/what-we-know-about-diet-and-the-gut-microbiome

https://anesthesiology.duke.edu/?p=846744 (On the American Gut Project)

"Diet. The number of plant types in a person’s diet plays a role in the diversity of his or her gut microbiome — the number of different types of bacteria living there. No matter the diet they prescribed to (vegetarian, vegan, etc.), participants who ate more than 30 different plant types per week (41 people) had gut microbiomes that were more diverse than those who ate 10 or fewer types of plants per week (44 people). The gut samples of these two groups also differed in the types of molecules present.

Antibiotics. The gut microbiomes of American Gut Project participants who reported that they took antibiotics in the past month (139 people) were, as predicted, less diverse than people who reported that they had not taken antibiotics in the last year (117 people). But, paradoxically, people who had taken antibiotics recently had significantly greater diversity in the types of chemicals in their gut samples than those who had not taken antibiotics in the past year.

The participants who ate more than 30 plants per week also had fewer antibiotic resistance genes in their gut microbiomes than people who ate 10 or fewer plants. In other words, the bacteria living in the guts of the plant-lovers had fewer genes that encode the molecular pumps that help the bacteria avoid antibiotics. This study didn’t address why this might be the case, but the researchers think it could be because people who eat fewer plants may instead be eating more meat from antibiotic-treated animals or processed foods with antibiotics added as a preservative, which may favor the survival of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Mental health. The American Gut Project researchers also examined the gut microbiomes of 125 people who reported having a mental health disorder, such as depression, schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or bipolar disorder. They matched each of these participants to individuals who did not have a mental health disorder, but did have other major factors in common, such as country, age, sex and body mass index. The team found that people with a mental disorder had more in common with other people with mental disorders, in terms of the bacteria makeup of their gut microbiomes, than they did with their mentally healthy pairs. The observation held true in both U.S. and UK populations, in males and females, and across age groups. In addition, the research team found some indications that specific bacteria types may be more common in people with depression than people who do not have the condition."

and

"Most of the findings emerging from the American Gut Project so far are simply observations or associations, and in many cases researchers can’t yet extrapolate the ultimate effect on human health. For example, while the researchers observed that people who eat many plants have a more diverse gut microbiome than those who don’t, they don’t yet know if increasing a person’s microbial diversity from its current level would have a direct positive effect on his or her health."

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/magazine/say-hello-to-the-100-trillion-bacteria-that-make-up-your-microbiome.html

"It is still early days in this research, as Lozupone (and everyone else I interviewed) underscored; scientists can’t even yet say with confidence exactly what a “healthy” microbiome should look like. But some broad, intriguing patterns are emerging. More diversity is probably better than less, because a diverse ecosystem is generally more resilient — and diversity in the Western gut is significantly lower than in other, less-industrialized populations. The gut microbiota of people in the West looks very different from that of a variety of other geographically dispersed peoples. So, for example, the gut community of rural people in West Africa more closely resembles that of Amerindians in Venezuela than it does an American’s or a European’s.

These rural populations not only harbor a greater diversity of microbes but also a different cast of lead characters. American and European guts contain relatively high levels of bacteroides and firmicutes and low levels of the prevotella that dominate the guts of rural Africans and Amerindians. (It is not clear whether high or low levels of any of these is good or bad.) Why are the microbes different? It could be the diet, which in both rural populations features a considerable amount of whole grains (which prevotella appear to like), plant fiber and very little meat. (Many firmicutes like amino acids, so they proliferate when the diet contains lots of protein; bacteroides metabolize carbohydrates.) As for the lower biodiversity in the West, this could be a result of our profligate use of antibiotics (in health care as well as the food system), our diet of processed food (which has generally been cleansed of all bacteria, the good and the bad), environmental toxins and generally less “microbial pressure” — i.e., exposure to bacteria — in everyday life. All of this may help explain why, though these rural populations tend to have greater exposures to infectious diseases and lower life expectancies than those in the West, they also have lower rates of chronic disorders like allergies, asthma, Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease."

(But "may" -- it's important not to exaggerate what is known.)