Radiolab - Guts (the Microbiome and More)

On this week's episode of Radiolab with Robert Krulwich the topic is guts, as in stomach and intestines - including (in "Gut Feelings") the microbiome ("the ecological community of commensal, symbiotic, and pathogenic microorganisms that literally share our body space") and the powers of probiotics to affect mood and mind. Random fact: there is 10 times more non-human DNA than human DNA in our bodies.

More on the microbiome:

• The NIH HMP Working Group. 2009. The NIH Human Microbiome Project. Genome Res. 2009 December; 19(12): 2317–2323. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2792171/

Guts

Season 10 | Episode 7





Guts (Charles Michelet)
This hour, we dive into the messy mystery in the middle of us. What's going on down there? And what can the rumblings deep in our bellies tell us about ourselves?

We stick our hand in a cow stomach, get a window into our core (thanks to a hunter who became a walking science experiment in the 1800s), and listen in on the surprising back-and-forth between our gut and our brain. And we talk to a man who kind of went out of his mind when a medical procedure left him (for a little while) gutless.

Correction: An earlier version of this piece implied that subjects in the human probiotics study were given a larger dose of probiotics than they actually were. We also compared the results of the study to the effect of giving people anti-anxiety medication. The subjects did experience a significant positive mood change, but the researchers did not compare that result to the effect of anti-anxiety medication. The audio has been adjusted to reflect these facts.

Guests:

John Cryan, Frederick Kaufman, Jonah Lehrer, Jon Reiner, Mary Roach, Arlene Shaner and Carl Zimmer

Holey Cow 

 

Tim Howard sticks his hand in a cow's stomach (WNYC)

Not long ago, writer Mary Roach got a real hands-on lesson on the gut: she got to stick her hand inside a real live cow stomach, and experience digestion from the inside. When we heard about her adventure, we had to try it ourselves—so producer Tim Howard headed to Rutgers University to see, feel...and smell...a fistulated cow firsthand.

Then, we get a peek inside another stomach, this time a human one. Mary returns, with help from writer Fred Kaufman, to tell the improbable story of Dr. William Beaumont and hunter-turned-living-science-experiment Alexis St. Martin. In 1822, an accidental shooting left St. Martin with a hole in his gut that wouldn't heal, but didn't kill him either. Instead, the opening gave Dr. Beaumont a one-of-a-kind window into the human body. And the strange relationship that developed between doctor and patient changed the way we understand digestion.

Read more:

• Fred Kaufman, A Short History of the American Stomach
• New York Academy of Medicine Where Jad and Robert visited the rare book room to read Dr. Beaumont’s book
• Mary Roach
• Fred Kaufman

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Gut Feelings 

"Be kind to your stomach" (Seymour Nydorf, 1914-2001 / National Archives and Records Administration/Wikimedia Commons)

While Jad was on paternity leave, Carl Zimmer told Robert and producer Soren Wheeler about the ecosystem inside each and every one of us. According to Carl, when we're in the womb, we have no bacteria in us at all, but as soon as we're born we start gathering up the bugs. And by the time we're grown, we have a three-pound organ of others inside our guts.

With the help of some bacteria, swimming mice, and neuroscientist named John Cryan, we learn that this organ does much more than just help us digest food. And finally, Jonah Lehrer joins Carl to help us understand what the bugs in our gut have to say about the feelings in our heads.

Correction: An earlier version of this piece implied that subjects in the human probiotics study were given a larger dose of probiotics than they actually were. We also compared the results of the study to the effect of giving people anti-anxiety medication. The subjects did experience a significant positive mood change, but the researchers did not compare that result to the effect of anti-anxiety medication. The audio has been adjusted to reflect these facts.

• Jonah Lehrer
• Carl Zimmer

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* * * * *

Gutless

Jon Reiner (Sarah Wilmer)

Back in 2009, Jon Reiner was feeling as healthy as he ever had. Jon has Crohn's disease--an autoimmune condition that affects his gastrointestinal system--but it had been in remission for a year. He was eating like a horse and felt terrific. But then one afternoon, a strange and ferocious pain struck him in the gut. It felt as if his insides had exploded. Because, well, they had. Jon was rushed into surgery and survived, but when his doctors met him afterward in recovery, they told him he there'd been a complication: in order for Jon's gut to heal fully, they'd have to shut it down and feed him intravenously. For a while. The doctors told Jon the nutrients he'd receive would give him everything he'd need to survive. But they were wrong.

This is a story about the deep power of the gut--not just to shape our minds, but to keep us from losing them. It's a story that suggests chewing and swallowing and digesting aren't just things we do to stay alive ... but things we do to stay, well, human.

Read more:

• Jon Reiner, The Man Who Couldn't Eat
• Jon Reiner's Esquire article "The Man Who Couldn't Eat"

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Big Think - Humans: 10% Human and 90% Bacterial

Interesting stuff . . . .

Humans: 10% Human and 90% Bacterial

by SPARKS & HONEY CULTURAL STRATEGISTS
MAY 22, 2013

We are moving from a multi-decade focus on killing ALL bacteria via soaps, detergents, antibiotics and hand sanitizer, to a new understanding of the complex bacterial system in our bodies and in the world around us.

We now understand that humans are 90% microbial but only 10% human. The average human has over 100 trillion microbes in and on their body, and many of the latest discoveries are challenging previously held ideas about good and bad bacteria. We are witnessing the shift from a World ruled by the antibacterial obsessed and non-stop antibacterial marketing, to one that has a heightened awareness of the importance of the microbial ecosystem (the microbiome).

In sparks and honey’s recent report, Time to Get Dirty: Why the Ancient Wisdom of Microbes is the Future of Health, we explore five emerging areas that are shaping the conversations and debate around the microbiome.

Understanding an invisible World: microbes have been ignored because they haven’t been understood and because they are invisible to our eyes. This lack of understanding has allowed decades of poor relationships with these microscopic beings. Our modus operandi was to kill them, rather than synchronize with them. The debate over the microbiome will rage on, as the fear of the invisible and little understood will drive the masses in the short-term.

Helicopter parents and Purell: parents have become obsessed with keeping their kids clean – constant washing, sanitizing and keeping the kids out of the dirt. Contrary to popular beliefs, many of these practices not only kill bad bacteria, but also destroy the important good bacteria. Can parents begin to embrace Ancient Wisdom and create a greater balance with the microbial world?

Bacteria and Chronic Illness: Scientists have discovered that allergies, obesity and many other illnesses are linked to our microbiome. We continue to explore the importance of microbe integration during birth, breast-feeding and even contact with nature.

Mapping your MicroBiome: just as we spent the last two decades creating a deeper understanding of our genome, Scientists are now beginning to map our microBiome. Companies such as AmericanGut and uBiome are blazing the trail of microbial research and microbiome mapping.

Microbial Feng Shui: As the latest research in microbiology begins to fuel other industries, we are seeing microbes being leveraged in diet, food, beauty products and even design. Recently, the Ted presentation from Jessica Green explained the important role microbes play in our everyday lives.

This shift is an opportunity to begin to adjust market research, product design, and consumer messaging to work with the recent discoveries in microbiology. Will we soon see a backlash against antibiotics, hand sanitizers, and household cleaning products? Will Modern Families begin to embrace “playing in the dirt” and building a healthy microbial ecosystem for their families?

This backlash will lead to new opportunities for brands that understand how to navigate the shift to a new relationship with our microbiome.

To learn more about the world of the microbe, download our free report here.

sparks & honey is a next generation agency that helps brands synchronize with culture. Follow us on Twitter at @sparksandhoney to stay up to date on the latest high energy trends.