Medical Discovery News
Science permeates everyday life. Yet the understanding of advances in biomedical science is limited at best. Few people make the connection that biomedical science is medicine and that biomedical scientists are working today for the medicine of tomorrow. Our weekly five-hundred-word newspaper column (http://www.illuminascicom.com/) and two-minute radio show provide insights into a broad range of biomedical science topics. Medical Discovery News is dedicated to explaining discoveries in biomedical research and their promise for the future of medicine. Each release is designed to stimulate listeners to think, question and appreciate how science affects their health as well as that of the rest of the world. We also delve into significant biomedical discoveries and portray how science (or the lack of it) has impacted health throughout history.
Medical Discovery News
You Are What You Poop
940 You Are What You Poop
Welcome to Medical Discovery News. I’m Dr Norbert Herzog.
And I’m Dr. David Niesel
Scientists have long studied waste, not the trash we throw out each week, but the waste that comes from our bodies and the bodies of animals.
They’re studying fecal matter to understand better the nutrition we and other animals consume. It could also improve how we control diseases such as diabetes.
One interesting fact is that of earth’s two hundred to three hundred thousand edible plants, humans have only consumed about seven thousand.
In a typical human, about ten to twenty plant species and four animal species pass through our intestines at any time.
Because digestion is an incomplete process, intact pieces of each species’ genome are left and become fecal matter or poop. There’s undigested food, billions of bacteria in our gut that aid digestion, and human cells discarded by our tissues and organs.
DNA sequencing shows what and how much was eaten. It’s way more reliable than self-reported accounts since people tend to leave out the poor foods they eat.
One surprising result was that obese children had a higher diversity of plants in their stools. An explanation is that highly processed foods have more diverse ingredients. For example, they found that a Big Mac, fries, and coffee had nineteen different plant species
Doctors gather fecal samples from their patients to diagnose disease, but this could also be a way to evaluate a person’s health. It would reveal their nutritional intake and maybe help control or prevent disease.
We are Drs. David Niesel and Norbert Herzog, at UTMB and Quinnipiac University, where biomedical discoveries shape the future of medicine. For much more and our disclaimer go to medicaldiscoverynews.com or subscribe to our podcast. Sign up for expanded print episodes at www.illuminascicom.com
