Why isn’t there a supplement to fortify your gut microbiome to deal with food borne illness?

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So I have heard that people in India have a much stronger gut biome with much more diverse gut flora than westerners, which is why it’s unsafe for westerners to eat meat in India. But I’ve also heard of people who have lived there a while and suffered greatly at first but developed that same microbiome. Would it theoretically be possible to develop a supplement to create that microbiome, like probiotics, and if not, why not?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Its a tricky one OP. What you’re describing already exists, just not really in the context you’re asking about.
Your gut is filled with a vast number of microbes all fighting each other to survive. And they do a good job of keeping each other in check; no one type of microbe rises above the others to a point where it causes a problem and you go about your day fine.

However, Clostridium Difficile (C. Diff.) is a hospital acquired bowel infection that gives you bad diarrhoea and is a good example of what you’re asking.

If you have a c diff infection, you’ll be prescribed antibiotics to kill it.
However the antibiotics will kill most of your gut bacteria, because it doesn’t differentiate between good bacteria and bad bacteria.
This is why lots of people get stomach issues with antibiotics – their whole gut biome has been carpet bombed into a post apocalyptic wasteland.

But it kills off the bad bugs, the infection goes and you survive.

However, C Diff can survive in small numbers. And with all the other bugs gone, there’s no competition to keep it in check and it will rapidly multiply resulting in a re-infection. So you get more antibiotics and the cycle continues.

This is bad – it rapidly leads to infections that are partially or wholly resistant to antibiotics, and you keep getting reinfected by the few c diff bugs that survive.

The single most effective way to break this cycle is to introduce a large number of diverse, good bacteria into the gut. These bacteria will outcompete the c.diff bugs causing the infection and normality will be restored.
The way we do this, as others have pointed out is by harvesting turds from healthy people, blending them up and putting them into your gut (usually by enema if I remember correctly). However as you can imagine this is a profoundly unappealing option and i’m pretty sure its a big reason why its not taken off as a treatment option yet.

Tl;dr yeah its theoretically possible but you’d have to find someone with a gut biome that keeps your target pathogen at bay, blend their turds and siphon them up your arse.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Probiotics? I’m not sure about fortify but a healthy hit will have a better chance.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Transferring gut biome can be done, and it is done in some cases. But the procedure is called **fecal transplant** since they get microbiome from poop, so it is too way too gross for most people.

Anonymous 0 Comments

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Anonymous 0 Comments

I’m an Afghan, born in India, who lives in and grew up in California. I’ve traveled to India as well.

Meat isn’t really the issue – they especially like fully cooked meat.

Raw foods are generally the issue. Whether it’s the water or raw vegetables used as a garnish.

I was given an antibiotic and probiotic pill there where the probiotic was supposedly immune to the antibiotic used. Whatever it was it did the job.

Anonymous 0 Comments

there is, they’re called travel vaccines. Travel vaccines, also called travel immunizations, are shots travelers can get before visiting certain areas of the world that help protect them from serious illnesses. Vaccinations work by exposing the body to a germs or parts of germs of the disease it will protect against. You can’t get the disease from the vaccine because the viruses or bacteria are dead or severely weakened. The body responds to the vaccination by making antibodies that will protect you if you are exposed to the disease in the future.Travel vaccines are safe, effective ways to help protect travelers from bringing home more than they bargained for.