Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

>I would hope people don't now start doing fecal transplants for treating depression, or Alzheimers, or schizophrenia.

Why not? That would be a fast way to find out if it works.



Because if they keep eating a poor diet that encourages an unhealthy biome, they're going to defeat the point of a fecal transplant.


And you don't know what downsides fecal transplants may have. There's clear preliminary evidence that gut microbiomes can drive obesity. Imagine giving someone who is not obese / diabetic a fecal transplant to treat depression.

That doesn't work (the treating depression part), but suddenly, this person becomes more susceptible to obesity / develops diabetes.

These things must not be rushed into!


I'm not sure if you're alluding to this, but it's supposedly already happened.

https://academic.oup.com/ofid/article/2/1/ofv004/1461242


Damn. Thanks for the link. I was just speculating..

I don't think the authors are drawing a casual effect here; in effect, this is scientific anecdata: hey, we tried this and this happened. We think you should know.

I think it's great they published the result, even if the n=1.

Assuming this is due to the fecal transplant, it just goes to show, we are messing with a major functional system in the body. And we should tread very very carefully. Scary..




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: