Pooping hippos create ‘community guts’ in African ponds

Re:Pooping hippos create ‘community guts’ in African ponds by silexia on Sunday December 12, 2021 @02:16PM (#29532616)

Fecal transplants in humans are purported to have a myriad of health benefits. I wonder if the clean water push may actually be harmful in some ways as people lose some diverse, healthy bacteria in our guts?

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Re:Pooping hippos create ‘community guts’ in African ponds by kadoban on Sunday December 12, 2021 @02:48PM (#29532942)

As far as I know fecal transplants are only known to be beneficial in some cases, presumably when there is something seriously wrong with the recipient's gut biome. It doesn't seem clear to me that clean water is bad or fecal transplants are generally helpful.

Keep in mind that lack of clean water is a _huge_ killer. The benefits would have to be ridiculous for it to be worth it.

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Re:Pooping hippos create ‘community guts’ in African ponds by ng12 on Sunday December 12, 2021 @04:22PM (#29533746)

Some chronic gastro issues like IBS and Crohn's are virtually unheard of in developing countries. There's a theory that this because people in developed countries have underdeveloped immune systems from underexposure to foodborne bacteria/viruses.

Net-net clean water is definitely more important but there's still some drawbacks.

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Re:Pooping hippos create ‘community guts’ in African ponds by culi on Sunday December 12, 2021 @05:15PM (#29534217)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis

In my native country there's a joke/saying that says that kids who ate their own shit as babies have good luck. So if someone tells you you have good luck, their making a joke about you being a shiteater lol.

I've always wondered if this might be rooted in the large number of observed health benefits associated with early childhood exposure to diverse microbiomes

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