Science | Story | Soul Wellbeing physician bridging ancient wisdom and modern science to empower individuals and communities to thrive in mind, body, and spirit
Joined October 2018
- Tweets2.8K
- Following126
- Followers2.3K
- Likes2.5K
1/ Everyone knows a C-section changes a baby's microbiome. Here is the part nobody puts on the infographic: which of those differences actually survived the statistics, and which disruption outlasts all of them. 馃У
6/ But delivery mode is not the disruption that lasts. Babies given benzylpenicillin and gentamicin in their first days carried an amplified gut resistome at two years old, across drug classes they were never given.
4/ On the plate the effect is real and small. In US adults, every extra 100 g a day of microbe-containing food tracked with a waist 0.55 cm smaller, BMI 0.22 lower, HDL 0.43 mg/dL higher, CRP 0.013 mg/dL lower. Cross-sectional, so pattern, not direction.
6/ Diet changes the microbiome. It explains less of it than the charts suggest. The rest is likely the gut environment itself: the mucus lining, 37 degrees, the anaerobic conditions that select a community regardless of what you ate for breakfast.
1/ Everyone is selling you a microbiome fix. Here is what the largest studies actually found, and why the most honest number in the field is a disappointment. 馃У
2/ Across probiotic trials for bloating, discomfort and IBS, most formulations helped. Different species, different strains, often similar outcomes. Meta-analysis confirms benefit over placebo, though certainty of the evidence is low.
1/ A microbiologist in Cork identified a weapon that kills one gut pathogen and leaves a thousand of its neighbours standing. Then he told me the weapon is not the point. 馃У
6/ Then came the reframe. Colin's words: "Think of your microbiome as a pet. Most people who are sedentary will still walk their dog every day. Ask those same people to take a 30-minute walk for their own health and many will find a reason not to." 馃悤