31–40 of 71 posts
I've worked on some metagenomics projects in the past, I admit I don't know too much about uBiome, but what I do know is that it is really hard to figure out what bacteria, archaea and fungi are in a given stomach. consider that you can only cultivate a very small % of bacteria and archaea which means you can only find the genome of a given species that is living in a natural environment (often a very extreme environ…
From the article: "I was able to significantly affect my microbiome with an FMT" A huge pet peeve of mine is people claiming "significance" when they have no such thing. You have two data points and no controls. Even a simple control like another data point to see natural variation in your microbiome without an FMT is not present. Or sequencing a gut sample from your friend to show your sample moved in line with his…
1) At t=0 2) At t=x [no transplant] 3) At t=x2 [after transplant]
The thing you actually need to compare is the variation between the difference of 1 and 2 and 1 and 3. The variation between 1 and 2 measures the general variation in your gut biome. So now you have a baseline of what to expect under "normal" variation. So, how does this compare to what you see after the transplant?
Beyond this, how do you control for literally everything in your life around both samples? Maybe you were sick? Maybe you'd been to the gym? Maybe you ate a banana? How do these things affect the microbiome? Without this kind of information its very difficult to draw any kinds of conclusions regarding the impact of a transplant.
As an analogy - lets say I don't know anything about night and day.
I look at my window at some time (say in the morning). It's light. I then write the sentence "LET THERE MY NIGHT" on my wall in marker pen at around 8pm and look at my window. Behold - it's night! So, from this I might conclude writing on my wall brought about the night.
ALL that being said, being curious and engaged in this type of thing is only good. The important thing to bear in mind is that without some thought to experimental design the conclusions drawn cannot really be described as conclusions. This is a great first post, but the determination of natural variation in the gut mirobiome is needed before the impact of the transplant can even be considered.
From the article: "I was able to significantly affect my microbiome with an FMT" A huge pet peeve of mine is people claiming "significance" when they have no such thing. You have two data points and no controls. Even a simple control like another data point to see natural variation in your microbiome without an FMT is not present. Or sequencing a gut sample from your friend to show your sample moved in line with his…
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.
Does "pro-biotic" refer only to beneficial prokaryotic organisms or are there known beneficial "pro-biotic" foreign eukaryotes?
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…
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.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
There is also the added advantage that you also know whether the test subject is complying with the experimental protocols. The disadvantage is that the person running the experiment on you is an amateur that may not necessarily be aware if the experiment is harmful.
Given that many physicians can't be certain of the results when they prescribe treatments and medications, I figure that if they can roll the dice like that without even having a stake in the outcome, people who take greater risks for greater payouts are not crazy. They are just less risk-averse.
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…
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.