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A comment on Modern city dwellers have lost about half their gut microbes. Parent comment

Re:Modern city dwellers have lost about half their gut microbes by woodruffw on Thursday June 30, 2022 @06:16PM (#31939385)
Please, for the love of all that is good and holy, do not give yourself hookworms.
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Re:Modern city dwellers have lost about half their gut microbes by theonething on Thursday June 30, 2022 @07:10PM (#31939891)
I get they are bad, but you seem to speak from experience, either yours or others. Out of curiosity, why not? What can happen?
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Re:Modern city dwellers have lost about half their gut microbes by woodruffw on Thursday June 30, 2022 @07:34PM (#31940124)
The history of hookworms in the US is the history of millions of intellectually and physically stunted children and adults[1].

[1]: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/how-a-worm-gave-the-so...

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Re:Modern city dwellers have lost about half their gut microbes by gdudeman on Thursday June 30, 2022 @08:08PM (#31940434)
There is a great Radiolab show about both the South and modern research into hookworms.

If you have 2-10 hookworms and eat a modern diet (higher in iron), you're probably going to be fine.

If you have 30-50, you're going to have abdominal discomfort and some side effects.

If you have insane allergies or autoimmune disease, the risk/reward seems pretty incredible.

Worst case scenario if you're an adult with hookworms is you take some antibiotics and they go away.

This https://twitter.com/jimmybernot/status/1354443837897388033 is one person's story about participating in those studies.

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