Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A first look at my microbiome

biomehacking.brace.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 71 posts

Re: A first look at my microbiome

#11

Post by HillRat »

colevscode wrote: post #6
HillRat wrote: post #2

While I'm a huge proponent of patient autonomy and knowledge, it's really, really, really a bad idea to perform fecal microbiota transplantations at home, without medical equipment or training, and with an unvetted donor. I do hope that FMTs become an accepted part of medical practice -- the clinical results are more than encouraging -- but this kind of experimentation could go bad pretty fast.

I agree, and I don't intend to encourage people to be casual about the risks involved. But I'm also concerned about the possibility that this incredible tool will become inaccessible.

Agreed! Thankfully, the FDA backed off requiring IND applications for FMTs last year, so the clinical burden is much less than was originally anticipated.

The µBiome stuff is really quite cool, but we don't really have the clinical data to properly analyze the results (which is why they include investigational surveys into the mix, so they are advancing the state of knowledge out there). Comparing your microflora to population averages doesn't tell us much, and there may be very good reasons for deviations from the mean. Having a FMT performed from a clean donor probably won't have any significantly deleterious effects (my gut feeling -- be here all week, folks -- is that a full antibiotics course is far more serious in effects, and we usually bounce back fine from these), but right now we're just tweaking dials on a machine we don't properly understand.

Nonetheless, I love the fact that you're keeping this data on yourself! Self-quantification is a huge step in maintaining health, and I'd love to read more about what you're doing.

Re: A first look at my microbiome

#12

Post by njbooher »

lotsofcows wrote: post #9
TallGuyShort wrote: post #7

I'm no expert, but given the magnitude of the author's deviation from "average", I would have wanted to get several results over time to see typical variance before doing an FMT and trying to reason about the difference.

I'm concerned with the average as a concept. Is the average calculated from every user of uBiome? Does that make any sense? Surely there are significant changes between the sexes? What about race, social group, location, etc?

Microbiome research is still very new. I'm surprised there's a service already.

Re: A first look at my microbiome

#13

Post by jere »

aroch wrote: post #5

This is probably an unpopular opinion but it seems to me that "SV culture" has taken to fetishizing "health hacking" with little to no medical training/background or support. See the recent SV craze with "health informatics hacking". They're putting a shiny, appealing veneer over what amounts to homeopathy and random self-experimentation. Someone is going to say, "but they have all this data, like this guy from µBiom…

>They're putting a shiny, appealing veneer over what amounts to homeopathy

How is self experimentation equivalent to homeopathy? I don't get how giving a shit about your own health is equated so quickly with a specific nonsensical, pseudoscientific sham.

Re: A first look at my microbiome

#14

Post by colevscode »

aroch wrote: post #5

This is probably an unpopular opinion but it seems to me that "SV culture" has taken to fetishizing "health hacking" with little to no medical training/background or support. See the recent SV craze with "health informatics hacking". They're putting a shiny, appealing veneer over what amounts to homeopathy and random self-experimentation. Someone is going to say, "but they have all this data, like this guy from µBiom…

OP here: It's true I'm not a doctor or scientist. This isn't a rigorously designed experiment. Yes, I am hoping that the results are positive, but I don't have unrealistic expectations. Mostly I'm just interested in seeing what I can learn about myself.

Also not much "shoving" was involved. I'll do another post later that describes the process. It's pretty gross, but mostly due to the preparation. (I had to put shit in a blender and press the button) The actual administration is about as gross as using a suppository.

Re: A first look at my microbiome

#15

Post by angersock »

aroch wrote: post #5

This is probably an unpopular opinion but it seems to me that "SV culture" has taken to fetishizing "health hacking" with little to no medical training/background or support. See the recent SV craze with "health informatics hacking". They're putting a shiny, appealing veneer over what amounts to homeopathy and random self-experimentation. Someone is going to say, "but they have all this data, like this guy from µBiom…

"he's not a doctor, he's not a trained scientist, he's a dude who is shoving fecal extracts from his friend up his bum and hoping the results are positive."

Arguably, this is the oldest and most fundamental version of science.

You don't need to go to school for ten years to great your Magical Science Certificate in order to practice Science--you just have to be able to ask questions and try out random shit and share your results.

It's haphazard, but at least people here are trying, right? And if they're unfettered by the academic-industrial complex, so much the better.

Re: A first look at my microbiome

#16

Post by sciencerobot »

The difference is well within the variation you'd expect from multiple samples, extraction, PCR, sequencing, day-to-day.

Also, you're probably better off trying to alter your gut microbiome through ingestion of probiotics.

Source: I am a PhD student research the human gut microbiome in connection with autoimmunity and have processed thousands of these samples using the exact same methodology as uBiome.

Re: A first look at my microbiome

#18

Post by aroch »

jere wrote: post #13
aroch wrote: post #5

This is probably an unpopular opinion but it seems to me that "SV culture" has taken to fetishizing "health hacking" with little to no medical training/background or support. See the recent SV craze with "health informatics hacking". They're putting a shiny, appealing veneer over what amounts to homeopathy and random self-experimentation. Someone is going to say, "but they have all this data, like this guy from µBiom…

>They're putting a shiny, appealing veneer over what amounts to homeopathy How is self experimentation equivalent to homeopathy? I don't get how giving a shit about your own health is equated so quickly with a specific nonsensical, pseudoscientific sham.

This may not be, but things like Soylent which claim to solve all your nutritional and health needs by drinking it, are the equivalent of homeopathy -- like say, drinking g tea made from the horn of rhino will make your virile.

Re: A first look at my microbiome

#20

Post by jere »

aroch wrote: post #18
jere wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>They're putting a shiny, appealing veneer over what amounts to homeopathy How is self experimentation equivalent to homeopathy? I don't get how giving a shit about your own health is equated so quickly with a specific nonsensical, pseudoscientific sham.

This may not be, but things like Soylent which claim to solve all your nutritional and health needs by drinking it, are the equivalent of homeopathy -- like say, drinking g tea made from the horn of rhino will make your virile.

Well, I'm there with you on Soylent. And the at home FMT makes nervous as well. What I don't get is the widespread notion that: self experimentation makes you a nutter.
Post reply on HN