I work in microbiome research. The nuance which is often missed is that most studies looking at microbial community composition (ie looking at DNA and seeing what bugs are there and in what relative abundance) are completely missing the functional aspects of microbes (ie what are those bacteria doing, what genes are they switching on/off, what proteins/metabolites are present). We know that bacterial communities are very fluid - they share genetic material, easily mutate, share nutrients and interact with the host in a complex manner etc. For example, two people could have similar levels of a pathogenic gut bacteria but only one be afflicted by disease due to functional differences. There’s a long way to go in this field and a lot to tease out.
Agree. No one is served when scientists overinflate the importance of something or pretend somethings ready for primetime when it’s not. Thank you for your insights here!
A man called "Tim" loves to brag about his microbiome "score" on a certain podcast. Thank you for this post, it puts alot of what is said and written about into context.
What about the fact that, as I heard someone humurously put it: "stool testing does not measure the microbiome of your gut, it measures the microbiome of your butt"?
Don't we have different colonies of bacteria in different areas of our GI tract, thus making stool analysis a poor representation of the overall gut microbiome? Thanks.
Great question. Some people have done side by side comparisons of what’s found in stool vs biopsy (mucosal samples) from different sites along the GI tract and it’s now generally accepted that stool samples are a pretty good proxy.
I work in microbiome research. The nuance which is often missed is that most studies looking at microbial community composition (ie looking at DNA and seeing what bugs are there and in what relative abundance) are completely missing the functional aspects of microbes (ie what are those bacteria doing, what genes are they switching on/off, what proteins/metabolites are present). We know that bacterial communities are very fluid - they share genetic material, easily mutate, share nutrients and interact with the host in a complex manner etc. For example, two people could have similar levels of a pathogenic gut bacteria but only one be afflicted by disease due to functional differences. There’s a long way to go in this field and a lot to tease out.
Agree. No one is served when scientists overinflate the importance of something or pretend somethings ready for primetime when it’s not. Thank you for your insights here!
A man called "Tim" loves to brag about his microbiome "score" on a certain podcast. Thank you for this post, it puts alot of what is said and written about into context.
Since it’s his own app and scoring system, I guess it’s pretty easy for him to score well 🙊
We love you Doc! Thank you!
What about the fact that, as I heard someone humurously put it: "stool testing does not measure the microbiome of your gut, it measures the microbiome of your butt"?
Don't we have different colonies of bacteria in different areas of our GI tract, thus making stool analysis a poor representation of the overall gut microbiome? Thanks.
Great question. Some people have done side by side comparisons of what’s found in stool vs biopsy (mucosal samples) from different sites along the GI tract and it’s now generally accepted that stool samples are a pretty good proxy.
Appreciate the response.