Indeed. Although animal models of obesity (and other metabolic disorders) tend to have trouble transferring over to humans[1], this is extremely interesting. I would certainly be willing to explore that option if it actually works.
[1] Witness the number of times that scientists have figured out cures for diabetes (both Type-1 and Type-2) in their mouse models. None of them have proved effective in humans.
Question # 1: Since the woman was suffering from c.difficile - with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea - wouldnât she be dealing with the malabsorption of nutrients due to this infection ?
Question # 2 : Is a 36 pound weight gain over one year a stupendous amount ? If her BMI during her illness was 26 and she now measures a BMI of 32 (I think?) - and her daughter is also described as obese doesnât this suggest something familial, like genetics or social like diet/activity level ?
That said - I HAVE read about theories of different gut flora influencing how a body metabolizes food.
It seems like it would be more like: Picking up your neighborâs kids from the pool.
Random thought.
What about bacteria that could break down cellulose, so it could be digested by humans? Would solve quite some food-availability issues, and I heard some noise some time ago about this being researched by military, perhaps for the special-forces troops.
Then thereâs the potential to synthetize vitamins (not only the K and the few others that the critters already do, but a wider gamut) and essential amino acids.
Breaking Bread.
It would be an interesting study in unintended consequences, if nothing else. Cellulose makes up an important part of our diet as it is - itâs indigestible fiber. Weâre still finding new ways that fiber in the diet contributes to health - not just our guts, but even mental function, etc. What happens when we donât have that, anymore? A huge increase in colorectal cancers, etc? (Iâm imagining a scenario where the military develop such a thing, but being a gut bug, it spreads through the population, creating horrible health problems as it does so.)
It would also likely take more than some new bacteria to really get some benefits from it, too. We donât have the kind of stomachs that allow cows to digest it, and the protists that do the work for termites apparently cause serious parasitic infections in humans.
Okay. I gave my buddy Billy Ockham a call to get some clarity about this. I told him the details and his response was complicated. He said something about not invoking entities unnecessarily. I didnât get that part. The short version was this: Woman is sick for a long time. Gets better. Gains weight. She got healthy and can eat again. Thatâs it.
He is always right.
The lack of the stomachs may be an advantage here, as it limits the degree of conversion and therefore would only partially deplete the fiber bulk. (Worst case, we could use something else, e.g. modified lignin, for the fiber.)
It honestly warms my heart that a diverse group of such intelligent, well educated people can get behind on some good old fashion poo jokes 
How about Body Fertilization? And itâs gluten free!
))<>((
???
in the dark?
You shouldâve stayed at home, yesterday.
No, theyâre not. Related to? Similar? Sure. Essentially the same? Not even.
Yogurts may have several strains of âpro-bioticâ bacteria that is similar to that in the gut, but even the best yogurt will have no more than five or six. The flora in the human gut? Dozens, Hundreds, Thousands.
Yogurt cultures/bacteria â intestinal flora (yogurt industry marketing notwithstanding.)
Canât shallow a shit pill? Well Good News! Itâs a suppository!
Given that the alternative was âc. difficile infection resistant to available antibioticsâ, this is hardly a âSTOOL TRANSPLANTS KILLâ story. Sheâd probably be a good bit more dead, or at least had a much nastier time of it, without one.
If anything, while this isnât the outcome they wanted, this is a (single, isolated, in need of further experimental work and data gathering) suggestion that transplantation of intestinal flora does work, and does allow the properties of the donorâs normal flora to be transferred to the recipient.
Of course, this means that, as with any sort of tissue transplantation, weâll have to observe some caution about what donors we use. Given that poop is easier to come by than kidneys, we may end up being fairly strict in what donor material is deemed medically recommended for use.
It would be an interesting trick; but given that humans have a sort of âexogenous digestive systemâ (we call it âcookingâ) about as old as culture, Iâm not sure that it would displace the competing option of using similar biochem knowhow outside the body to produce food, which would require only that the organisms used not be a hazard in the final product, rather than clearing the much higher bar of full compatibility with intestinal normal flora.
With the occasional dramatic and/or ghastly exception, humans arenât really away from at least some basic social infrastructure all that often. If, say, making cellulose useful as human food were a process of similar complexity to producing cheese by encouraging the appropriate organism mix, it would still be largely available, even without advanced technology on site; but skip most of the really messy biology.
Well, the problem would be that indigestible fiber already in the diet might be digested without opening up new food sources. I.e. weâd lose the fiber already in our diets without any real benefits and people would have to start eating significant amounts of sawdust or something to replace that fiberâŚ
If nothing else, this has put me off eating chocolate bars for the day.
Obviously the gut bacteria is a possibility, but the 32 year old woman was presumably living with her fairly young daughter, and they had a similar diet. Why did the daughter suddenly become obese at the same time that the mother did? Could it be that their lifestyle changed when the mother got sick, and she was unable to prepare as much healthy food or stay as active?
Deuce ex(tract)
