The Gut Microbes of African Hunter-Gatherers

You said: Lots of different things cause lots of different diseases.

Due to my genetic disorder, I am supposed to be overrun with disease and simply accept dying from it. I have been steadily getting well for the last thirteen years, which is very frequently met with incredibly dismissive feedback. (My favorite being: Thirteen years of steady forward progress is not evidence I know anything, it is mere wild coincidence. Stranger things have happened.)

My genetic disorder is known to cause the tissues to be too acid. There are multiple books about how the typical American diet is too acid. If you get certain kinds of sudden acidosis (this comes to mind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabetic_Ketoacidosis), they will promptly hospitalize you because it can be deadly within 72 hours. Yet, it is not standard practice to treat or even test for acidosis with my condition. Ant-acids are only prescribed for gut issues like GERD and acid reflux which can occur with my condition. Anecdotally, other people with CF report that they have fewer lung issues when on acid blockers and similar for their gut issues.

Altering my diet to make my body less acid has been one of the cornerstones of getting myself well. I have seen articles linking anti-biotic resistance and biofilms to high acidity and seen research that biofilms can be broken up and anti-biotic resistance reversed if acidity is addressed. Yet, again, this remains not a standard treatment for my condition, which kills you by fostering infections and, ultimately, antibiotic resistance in those infections.

My life expectancy is not supposed to be that high for a modern Westerner. It is supposed to be roughly mid-thirties (granted, my form of CF has an undetermined life expectancy, yet I did nearly die in my mid thirties).

Anyway, I just know of lots of different bits of information linking inflammation, acidity, infection and many of the issues typical of my disorder. So a) I would really like to see more biochemical data (like ph balance of sample tissues) in studies of this sort and b) I am ...flummoxed as to why people seem to think we do not have enough data to say, yea, verily, acidity is a primary issue we should treat for to control symptoms of various conditions. (Because there are a lot of conditions associated with my genetic disorder but not unique to it, such as early onset osteoporosis, diabetes, arthritis and on and on.)

I have spent a lot of years reversing symptoms of my genetic disorder as well as reversing issues in my special needs sons. Altering my diet is a very big part of that. Humans have been around a long time. Some of the issues my sons and I have are relatively "new." I spend a lot of time wondering how much that is a product of "new" environments rather than "new" biological issues within humans themselves, if that makes any sense.

My dad was old enough to be my grandfather. He grew up on a farm, without the constant noise of modern life. When I lived with my parents during my divorce, I realized my oldest son had many things in common with my father. I had never before realized. The sensitivity to noise that is viewed as pathological and worthy of labeling as ASD or as having sensory issues is something both my parents had. They were just old, grew up in a different era, and expected the house to be kept quiet. No on acted like their preferences were a "special need" requiring a label...etc.

Sorry if that is not very clear. I wonder a lot at how much our modern "ills" are really a product of our modern lives -- of environments that did not exist until recently but which we view as something "normal" that "everyone" should be capable of coping with. It isn't looking for confirmation bias. It is wondering how much bias exists in some of the assumptions we make in how we frame certain kinds of problems.

IBS (and Crohn's, which is really just a type of IBD), is an immune disorder characterized by chronic, uncontrolled inflammation. All the disease's symptoms stem from this state, so the specific germs involved may or may not be all that important, the body's reaction to them is. When you get down to it, many disease states are just a consequence of regulation of inflammation failing at a critical location.