Posted on 04/05/2017 3:20:11 PM PDT by rightwingcrazy
The mysterious world of gut bacteria is a hot area of research in science right now. The systemic implications of our gut flora are being found to have vast holistic effects from potentially affecting the symptoms of autism to influencing neurodegeneration in the brain. New research on the turquoise killfish could point to another effect of our gut microbiome – moderating aging.
Several studies in recent years have found interesting links between aging and gut microbiota. From mice to men we've seen evidence of age-related differences in the microbiome between the old and young. It seems increasingly clear that as we age the variety of bacteria in our gut diminishes.
Dario Velenzano from the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Aging in Germany set out to see if fecal transplants could alter the lifespan of animals. The killifish was chosen as it has one of the shortest lifespans of any vertebrae on the planet, and it has a remarkably sophisticated gut microbiome. This allowed Valenzano to easily identify any age-enhancing effects of the treatment.
The team treated some middle-aged (9.5-week-old) fish to antibiotics that cleared out their natural gut flora, and then placed them into an aquarium that contained the poo from young fish (5-week-old). While the species are not generally known to eat feces, they were noted as sampling the contents enough to ingest a relevant amount of the younger gut microbes, which subsequently recolonized their own microbiome.
The older fish were then monitored and it was found that at 16 weeks of age (elderly for a killfish) their gut microbiome still resembled that of a young 6-week-old fish. The older fish with the younger gut flora also displayed more youthful behavior, their activity levels likened to that of their 6-week-old counterparts.
But most notable were the general lifespan effects of the fecal "transplant." The fish that received the treatment lived 37 percent longer than those receiving no treatment. The team also experimented with exposing older fish to the gut microbes from middle-aged counterparts, with the younger gut flora influenced fish living 41 percent longer than those with middle-aged gut flora.
The researchers are clear in pointing out that they still don't know how the gut microbiome affects lifespan, but it does point towards a fascinating, and yet undiscovered, mechanism. It's also worth noting that no further research has been done in any mammals or humans, so tracking down some youthful poo and performing your own fecal transplant is not at all recommended ... yet.
The research has been published on bioRxiv.org as a preprint, and is yet to be peer-reviewed.
Chelsea Clinton’s baby poo pancakes are ahead of their time.
In China, it used to be common for old men to drink the urine of infant boys.
“Where does the infant get its probiotics culture — from mom? After birth, probably from mom, too.”
I’d guess so. Either her, or what she puts in the baby bottle.
So the Freeper who told me last week to “ESAD” was wrong about that, as well. I’d already figured out that he didn’t know anything about the subject we were discussing. But he can’t even get his insults right.
I forwarded this story to several of my old bosses along with the locations of several nurseries in their area.
I guess the phrase “Eat s__t and die” loses its meaning...
All this time, many people have believed themselves to be an individual. Ain’t so. We are all walking colonies of microbiota in a continuing struggle to take control and supremacy in the larger frame that is the human form.
Is man perfectable? Maybe not, so long as these warring colonies of microscopic life within hold veto power over our destiny.
Probiotics, such as they are, are passed from parents to the young during the acts of physical caressing, a more enduring legacy than wealth or social training. Some exceptionally healthy specimens of humanity, who have seemed to have won in life’s lottery by getting some particularly beneficial probiota introduced early in life, may be the source of microbiota transplants.
Not so sure I would like to have somebody else’s feces implanted in my gut, though.
The Aztecs in Mexico City, collected feces, dried it, turned it to powder and used it as table salt.
Lol. Yup.
AND the great Khomeni of Iran admitted to Dan Rather that he drank his own urine.
“Soylent Brown”
I guess the phrase “Eat s__t and die” loses its meaning...
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LOL
Sometime to clean is not good. This is also why breast feeding is very good. The infant obtains the absolute best nutrition and at the same time consumes the common bacteria on the mothers breasts. This is all good!
Great googlie ooglies!
Not going to sell many Margaritas with that around the rim!
You really would be getting shirt-faced, then.
As insane as this sounds it is perfectly logical. If you are exposed to harmful and beneficial bacteria from youth, your body develops immunity to the bad ones and incorporates the good ones into your intestinal flora.
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Makes good sense to me.
Western Europe, North America and Japan are the most hygiene societies on earth. We also have the highest incidences of immune reactions on earth. This is not a coincidence.
What I have also found odd is the polio epidemic in the sixties. In Texas it was wide spread as in the rest of the United States. However just across the border in Mexico it was not and in the sixties there was much cross border of people as today. Mexicans seemed somewhat immune though some did catch the disease but in far fewer numbers than Anglos living side by side.
Little kids will eat dirt. There must be a reason. Unfortunately there is not much dirt in big cities.
It’s not just “dirt” that does the immunization boost. It’s germs in general. Not keeping a house so clean that the DNA of the inhabitants is non_existent is good. Don’t use lysol or chlorox on every surface daily. Wear your clothing more than once. Reuse towels. Let the dishes stand for a few hours before washing them and don’t use a bacteria code soap.
Too clean is not good for people.
Don’t use an antibiotic for every sneeze. Don’t shower or soak in the tub every day. Wash, yes, of course. But unless you have a dirty job, do showers aren’t necessary.
We were not shielded from every sick child, we all got whooping cough, and survived it. We didn’t go to the doctor every time we got sick, we endured it till we healed up naturally. Now we (siblings and I) are all aging and we all have excellent immune systems, and that includes those who became diabetics.
We played in dirt, shoveled chicken poop, and didn’t worry about germs. Those who came from immaculate homes had no resistance.
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