I Genetically Engineered *Myself* to Fix Lactose Intolerance [video] | Hacker News Reader

I Genetically Engineered Myself to Fix Lactose Intolerance [video]

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Thought Emporium entire channel is a goldmine

Here's another youtuber journey to fix the lactose intolerance by just eating lactose(powdered milk)("prebiotic") which had strains of a bacteria("probiotic" which feasts on the prebiotic) that breaks down lactose survives in the microbiome https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h90rEkbx95w

I remember reading about this. A key piece of information which should perhaps be in the title of the video is that the "fix" is transient.

There's an update video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoczYXJeMY4

Apparently the fix lasted ~18 months

Could the same fix be applied again?

I know almost nothing about bio, hopefully someone more knowledgeable can answer. But I had the same thought -- one treatment for 18 months of relief sounds great! even people that _are_ lactose tolerant often lose tolerance as they age, so it seems like this could have wide appeal. Do it ~30 times and you could be lactose-tolerant your whole life.

But wait, if you lose tolerance then there must be some other mechanism involved because your genes stay the same as you age.

He covers it in the video -- the cells lining your intestine are replaced as you age. Unless you get the lactose-tolerant gene into your stem cells, the newly-generated intestine lining will have your 'original' genetics, lacking the lactose tolerant gene. That said, it does sound like it's fading gradually for him, not a sudden drop off.

I was replying to this part of your comment:

"even people that _are_ lactose tolerant often lose tolerance as they age, so it seems like this could have wide appeal."

My point is that people who are lactose tolerant as a child will have the same genes when they are older. So gene editing should have no effect, unless the mechanism is more complicated somehow.

Oh I see, that makes sense. Ya, I'm not sure how it works, maybe it has something to do with changing gene expression as we age? Ie, not the genes themselves changing, but the way that they are used / neglected? And then if that's the case, what would that mean for people that had taken this treatment? Perhaps they would see the age-related drop off, or perhaps it's different for some reason.

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