American Gut Project Reports Microbiome Results for 11K Participants
Members of the American Gut Consortium have shared microbiome findings from their citizen science project, which has enrolled more than 11,000 participants so far.
As they reported [open, DOI: 10.1128/mSystems.00031-18] [DX] in the journal mSystems today, the researchers received stool samples from individuals in the US, UK, and dozens of other countries. Participants completed voluntary surveys related to their diet, lifestyle, health status, and disease history, including nearly 1,800 individuals who took part in a picture-based food frequency questionnaire.
With these data, the team has started parsing relationships between gut microbial composition, diet, psychiatric disease, and more. The results suggest that gut microbiome diversity ticks up in individuals who eat a greater variety of plants, for example, but wanes in those with recent antibiotic use. The collection is continuing to grow, and investigators hope to do more extensive and detailed analyses on the samples in the future.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by frojack on Thursday May 17 2018, @09:07PM
What counts as antibiotic use?
Antibiotics given as medical treatment, of course, but what percentage of antibiotics fed to animals, and sprayed onto plants in our food chain persist sufficiently to have an effect on gut microbs?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.