You’ve probably heard by now that the trillions of microbes living on and in our bodies are changing both the way we think about health and disease and even how we define Self. Ever wonder what’s in your gut? Ever wonder how your diet might shift your gut microbes (for better or worse), or how simple lifestyle decisions may have a dramatic impact on your gut and overall health? Ever wonder which microbes on your husband sometimes make him smell funny?
The gut is our main focus, but it is also interesting to look at oral, skin and even vaginal communities for several reasons. It might be possible to develop biomarkers–canaries in our corporeal coal mines that let us predict aspects of your gut health based on a spit sample or a reading (swabbing) of your palm. We know, for example, that arterial plaque shares microbes with the mouth but not with the gut. Could we use plaque samples to predict features of our hearts? Maybe.
The latest American Gut results are out and we’re very excited to share them with the American Gut community. We now have sequencing and analysis data from 3,238 participants, and as of today, this data equates to 101 million DNA sequences and 27 gigabytes of sequencing information. The latest results can be viewed here, and the IPython [...]
CONTINUE READING →By Jeff Leach Human Food Project A few days ago I accompanied two Hadza hunters to a series of seeps or springs where they had set up hunting blinds of tall grass to ambush thirsty animals. It’s late dry season in Tanzania and dwindling water sources force otherwise dispersed animals to aggregate, and if [...]
CONTINUE READING →We have, as of September 5, 2013, completed sequencing and quality control of the gut bacteria from the first 1080 samples from 844 participants in the American Gut study. This document gives a first look at results for the whole population. Your individual results (if your sample is among these first 1080 samples) will be [...]
CONTINUE READING →Thanks again for joining the project. As part of the study, we ask that everyone fill out a diet & lifestyle questionnaire (online) with such things as age, gender, weight, have you taken antibiotics lately, do you have any conditions we should know about it, and so on. You can also skip any question, but [...]
CONTINUE READING →In the 50 years since the book “Silent Spring” sounded the alarm on humankind’s poisoning of the biosphere with synthetic pesticides like DDT, the grass roots environmental movement has tackled issues ranging from clean air and water, animal rights and acid rain to the more recent mega issue of global warming. Despite these and many [...]
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