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Spending three days as a hunter-gatherer to see if it would improve gut health

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Re: Spending three days as a hunter-gatherer to see if it would improve gut health

#11

Post by netvarun »

Of late I have been enthralled by this show called 'Life Below Zero' (It's on Netflix and I really recommend watching it) - it's a reality TV show which profiles folks living in the Alaskan Bush. It primarily revolves around 4-5 different folks who live in various extreme remote parts of Alaska.

Reading this article, it really reminded me of one of the lead characters, Glenn Villeneuve (http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/life-below-zero/articl...), who lives a very spartan and primitive (by his own choosing) hunter-gatherer lifestyle in the Brooks Range (Chandalar, AK). He hunts for all his food and just boils them mostly (and often times eats them raw). He doesn't not use seasoning at all. I am guessing his gut microbes must be pretty robust and diverse.

Main difference between Hadza and his place is that food sources are very spread out and thin in Chandalar. Most of the show is just following him trying to find his food.

[OT: I generally dislike watching reality TV shows (and also TV in general). But this show has made me change my opinion on reality TV. Or it could just be because Alaska has a special place in my heart :)]

Re: Spending three days as a hunter-gatherer to see if it would improve gut health

#13

Post by eximius »

onychomys wrote: post #4
notadoc wrote: post #2

Three days? Three weeks would be more noteworthy, but really get back to me after three months or three years.

Three days is a long time to a bacterium. E coli has a generation time of 20 minutes, Staph aureus is about 30. So we're looking at a hundred generations or so. It's not nothing.

Sure, but that just means there are several generations around to digest each meal. You're looking at very few meals over 3 days.

Re: Spending three days as a hunter-gatherer to see if it would improve gut health

#14

Post by 23443463453 »

onychomys wrote: post #4
notadoc wrote: post #2

Three days? Three weeks would be more noteworthy, but really get back to me after three months or three years.

Three days is a long time to a bacterium. E coli has a generation time of 20 minutes, Staph aureus is about 30. So we're looking at a hundred generations or so. It's not nothing.

Not long enough for a new bacterial balance to develop and establish itself in your whole intestinal system.

Re: Spending three days as a hunter-gatherer to see if it would improve gut health

#16

Post by pavel_lishin »

anesmike wrote: post #15

What impressed me was the look of the older males in the pictures ; there was not much difference in the physical appearance between young and old.

It's hard to come to a conclusion without knowing their actual ages. If their healthy-looking elders are all of 45, and nobody seems to be much above that, then an entirely different conclusion could be drawn.

Re: Spending three days as a hunter-gatherer to see if it would improve gut health

#17

Post by cardiffspaceman »

Hydraulix989 wrote: post #5

Is there any actual science behind this?

It doesn't answer all the questions I have but I think it is rational.

> Mounting evidence suggests that the richer and more diverse the community of microbes in your gut the lower your risk of disease.

So this is the main law from science pertinent to the article. My impression is that many people are interested in this law today.

> What we didn’t know is whether a healthy stable gut microbiome could be improved in just a few days.

This is the empirical question that the experiment explores. If the article is honest, then the reader has some food for thought. Science would be better served with a better study.

Re: Spending three days as a hunter-gatherer to see if it would improve gut health

#18

Post by pavel_lishin »

netvarun wrote: post #11

Of late I have been enthralled by this show called 'Life Below Zero' (It's on Netflix and I really recommend watching it) - it's a reality TV show which profiles folks living in the Alaskan Bush. It primarily revolves around 4-5 different folks who live in various extreme remote parts of Alaska. Reading this article, it really reminded me of one of the lead characters, Glenn Villeneuve ( http://channel.nationalgeogra…

I really liked Alone, which reminded me a lot of Survivorman. The contestants are dropped off far apart, and told to survive on their own for as long as they can, while filming themselves.

The amount of effort varied hugely. Some tapped out and left on the very first night - either due to psychological issues ("oh my GOD there's a bear") or physical ("hey let's drink some of this stagnant water and throw up all night"). Some lasted a long while, but seemed to have a very, very hard time finding enough calories day to day, and at best lived on a feast-and-famine schedule (with "feast" being maybe a whole fish.)

A few contestants did so well that their biggest problem was finding things to do to entertain themselves. One completely moved his camp and rebuilt it from scratch, built himself a boat, and made a guitar. Another one made a variant on a chess set that allowed him to play a solitaire game for amusement.

And these folks were all separated by less than ten miles.

Re: Spending three days as a hunter-gatherer to see if it would improve gut health

#20

Post by ouid »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #18
netvarun wrote: post #11

Of late I have been enthralled by this show called 'Life Below Zero' (It's on Netflix and I really recommend watching it) - it's a reality TV show which profiles folks living in the Alaskan Bush. It primarily revolves around 4-5 different folks who live in various extreme remote parts of Alaska. Reading this article, it really reminded me of one of the lead characters, Glenn Villeneuve ( http://channel.nationalgeogra…

I really liked Alone , which reminded me a lot of Survivorman . The contestants are dropped off far apart, and told to survive on their own for as long as they can, while filming themselves. The amount of effort varied hugely. Some tapped out and left on the very first night - either due to psychological issues ("oh my GOD there's a bear") or physical ("hey let's drink some of this stagnant water and throw up all nig…

>told to survive on their own for as long as they can

surely this is not the actual time constraint.

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