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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: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday May 18 2018, @10:43AM
The research on microbiomes is fascinating stuff. Traditionally we think of humans bodies and bacteria as separate. To preserve the health of the former, we destroy the latter. But this research casts us as a collection of life forms, a walking food pyramid with us at the top but truly depending on what's at the bottom.
I'm wondering if the same is true topically, if the ecosystem on our skin also has bearing on our health. I stopped using soap two years ago on a lark--just scrub with an exfoliating cloth and hot water. Since I started doing that the terrible seasonal allergies I had have vanished. I hypothesize soap creates a general state of inflammation that triggers an immune response to pollen. So many of our household substances contain anti-biotic compounds now that I wonder if we're not doing that generally to ourselves, with many health effects.
Washington DC delenda est.