I went to a really interesting lecture last night on the microbiome, given by Dr Katie Pollard. It was a great introduction and discussion re the microbiome; there was more to it than I could summarize here, but you can listen to a radio broadcast later this month. At the end of the lecture, Dr Pollard shared that she has 2 autoimmune diseases, and the Q/A was interesting, too.. Some highlights:
- the jury is still out on probiotics since the delivery mechanisms are not great or (at best) inconsistent in sustaining quality
- fecal transplants are a crapshoot (pun intended) because they may solve a problem like IBS, but then the patient can take on problems that the donor has, like obesity and metabolic syndrome.. Which is awful, BUT it does seem to validate that our guts drive disease/health more than we previously thought...
- She said that we're just at the very beginning of understanding the microbiome and she discussed the complexity, e.g., bacteria have their own genes, so a gut "bug" can impact 2 people very differently - not only because the each individual's genes, but because each person can have the same bug but the bug has different genes..(it makes more sense when she explains it). My take away was that every stool test I've taken is useless.
- She'a a big fan of "citizen science" like Ubiome (which I'm going to do when I have the money).. I think it's the microbiome equivalent of 23andme
- She said the every study is like "flip a coin" if it's going to stick, because there's so much yet to understand.
- Antibiotics can permanently kill some parts of your microbiome, BUT for the most part your microbiome is very resilient so most of it will come back if killed
- She's a fan of the hygeine hypothesis, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis
I remember the 90's when the Genome project was getting a lot of attention and everyone thought this is going to tell us so much about our health. Well, it turned out to be one small step. I think that's where we are w the microbiome now.. 15 or 20 years from now we'll say, well, we've at least managed to make the first small step.
Info:
Surprising Benefits of Bacteria: The Human Microbiome with Katie Pollard (3/4/2015)
http://www.cityarts.net/radio-broadcasts/
The lecture will be broadcast on public radio 3 times the week of 3/22. (Unfortunately, I haven't found an on-demand place to listen to these lectures.) Sundays at 1 pm, Tuesday evenings at 8 pm, and Wednesday mornings at 2 am. These programs are also heard on over 170 public radio stations around the country. http://www.cityarts.net/radio-broadcasts/public-radio-affiliates/
- the jury is still out on probiotics since the delivery mechanisms are not great or (at best) inconsistent in sustaining quality
- fecal transplants are a crapshoot (pun intended) because they may solve a problem like IBS, but then the patient can take on problems that the donor has, like obesity and metabolic syndrome.. Which is awful, BUT it does seem to validate that our guts drive disease/health more than we previously thought...
- She said that we're just at the very beginning of understanding the microbiome and she discussed the complexity, e.g., bacteria have their own genes, so a gut "bug" can impact 2 people very differently - not only because the each individual's genes, but because each person can have the same bug but the bug has different genes..(it makes more sense when she explains it). My take away was that every stool test I've taken is useless.
- She'a a big fan of "citizen science" like Ubiome (which I'm going to do when I have the money).. I think it's the microbiome equivalent of 23andme
- She said the every study is like "flip a coin" if it's going to stick, because there's so much yet to understand.
- Antibiotics can permanently kill some parts of your microbiome, BUT for the most part your microbiome is very resilient so most of it will come back if killed
- She's a fan of the hygeine hypothesis, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis
I remember the 90's when the Genome project was getting a lot of attention and everyone thought this is going to tell us so much about our health. Well, it turned out to be one small step. I think that's where we are w the microbiome now.. 15 or 20 years from now we'll say, well, we've at least managed to make the first small step.
Info:
Surprising Benefits of Bacteria: The Human Microbiome with Katie Pollard (3/4/2015)
http://www.cityarts.net/radio-broadcasts/
The lecture will be broadcast on public radio 3 times the week of 3/22. (Unfortunately, I haven't found an on-demand place to listen to these lectures.) Sundays at 1 pm, Tuesday evenings at 8 pm, and Wednesday mornings at 2 am. These programs are also heard on over 170 public radio stations around the country. http://www.cityarts.net/radio-broadcasts/public-radio-affiliates/