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From a page at BioGaia®: “The first strain of Lactobacillus reuteri (L. reuteri) for human use, L. reuteri DSM 17938, was isolated in 1990 from the breast milk of a Peruvian mother living in the Andes. The commercial name is L. reuteri Protectis. Other human strains from BioGaia are L. reuteri ATCC PTA 5289 and ATCC PTA 6475. L. reuteri ATCC PTA 5289 used in oral health products was isolated from the oral cavity of a Japanese woman with remarkably good dental status and L. reuteri ATCC PTA 6475 was isolated from breast milk in Finland.”
Well, OK, but where did those women get those bacteria? BioGaia is a bit vague on that: “All our commercial strains are of human origin…” Put another way, just what is the natural reservoir for these species and strains? (And this is all a completely separate issue from why some of those accession numbers are “PTA”: patented.)
There are still critical unknowns in optimizing gut health.
If the natural reservoir for any crucial forms of human gut microbes is solely the human gut, there’s some risk they could go extinct, and perhaps before we even know what they are were. Dr. Davis has recently mentioned that L.reuteri may already be extinct in major swaths of most modern settler human populations.
Microbe extinction had heretofore been seen primarily as a benefit. The natural reservoir for the virii variola major and variola minor (smallpox), for example, was strictly the human population. It was made extinct there by vaccination and infection control, and now (with any luck) exists only in P4 lab freezers and computer gene models.
For any specific beneficial bacterium, virus (including bacteriophage), eukaryotic parasite, fungus (yeast), protozoan or unknown-unknown, does it take up residence permanently, or does it need to be topped-off from time to time? And in any case, what do they need to eat?
Even if “permanent”, can certain extreme events (infections, anti-microbials, radical diet shifts, ingested toxins) cause a temporary extinction? And without assured re-exposure and re-colonization, temporary may be permanent.
How important is it that people remain in contact with their ancestral natural reservoirs of gut flora? Were it critical, we might expect to see some historical evidence of collapses of migratory populations, whose guts were mortally maladapted to their new locales. Archaeologists looking for ghost colonies might want to keep this possible scenario in mind. We certainly see effects for frank diseases, where the pre-Columbian western peoples are thought to have gifted the European explorers with syphilis, and got smallpox in return.
Anything that is airborne, and can survive a few weeks that way, is likely common planet-wide; similarly for things sea-borne, or able to be carried by migratory animals, particularly birds. But it may be that some things are local, to which local genotypes were adapted, and their descendants need to be mindful of possible implications.
Some canaries in the microbiome mine might include nuclear submarine crews, and space station astronauts. These populations are cut off from terrestrial microbe sources for 3-6 months. Based on ONR and NASA study proposals, there seems to be growing awareness of problems related to this.
Colonization of other bodies in the solar system (Moon, Mars) requires that this get resolved, particularly Mars, where the perchlorates in the native soil are apt to be entirely hostile to any attempt to replicate Earth soil microbiome.
So what do we need, and where does (did) it come from?
Perhaps the top source of reference data are the surviving hunter-gatherer populations, and they are getting some study. We need to learn what we can, as rapidly as possible, before what they have to tell us is obliterated by an invasion of "healthcare" and modern food-like substances with their disastrous macronutrient balance, grain toxins, fake fat toxins, preservatives, emulsifiers and other gut antagonists.
I’m expecting the Undoctored program to be an aggressively cautious early exploiter of emergent information. ___________ Bob Niland [disclosures] [topics] [abbreviations]