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Comment by haklport | Hacker News Reader

"Moeller and others also suggest identifying the missing microbes may be the first step toward bringing them back. “If we determine that these groups were providing important functions to keep humans healthy,” Maccaro says, “perhaps we can restore them with probiotics.”

Oh really? Nice submarine for Actimel, Yakult etc.

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Unfortunately, the most effective treatment I know of to change gut biome is bacteriotherapy via a method many people find off-putting and violating.

I think, for the time being, people are much more likely to accept a probiotic.

I take it you mean fecal transplants, aka inserting somebody else's feces up your rectum?

transpoosion

Kinda feels like identifying the missing microbes should instead help us track down what we’re doing that’s causing them to die off.

Well, it's either a pill, or moving out of the city, or a fecal transplant (assuming that the urban / rural divide is relevant, and not just a proxy for diet).

I don't live in the city, but if I were told that I would be healthier with more of these microbes that my environment doesn't support, I'd opt for the pill.

Doing nothing is also an option! I'm not aware of an indigestion epidemic among city dwellers.

Being told to do something is not sufficient, especially when multi-billion dollar industries are behind it.

More research is needed.

However there is an obseity epidemic and a depression epidemic, and its plausible they are related. Which doesn't mean they are, but seems like something worth looking into.

The study compares humans (who happen to live in cities) to primates (who definitely don't live in cities). It doesn't compare between human populations.

The content I replied to implied that the article was a submarine advertisement for pills.

If there is a problem in need of a solution, and it isn't diet related, I'd much prefer the pill over there other options.

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