Nothing I saw on percentages, just DNA sequences that were identified as from the food rather than the consumer.

Here are some articles to get search terms from, really scary stuff going back to 1997 :

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg15...cells.html

http://www.livescience.com/21902-diet-ep...ldren.html

http://advances.nutrition.org/content/1/1/8.full

http://www.gmeducation.org/briefings/p14...blood.html

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beat...xpression/

http://www.scientificamerican.com/articl...d-microrna

(09-13-2012 12:24 AM)Fly So Hi Wrote:  This is so interesting!!
Do you know the percentage of food that survives digestion or it wasn't disclosed in the study?

Very interesting! Thank you very much for the infos!

(09-13-2012 1:52 PM)Lexy Wrote:  Very interesting! Thank you very much for the infos!

There are now articles that link the microbes involved in our digestion of foods to species-specific pheromones as I detailed in the context of "epigenetic tweaking" in superorganisms. As are honeybee colonies, we are superorganisms because we harbor more bacterial cells than human cells. If you follow the scientific literature on how microbes can control our behavior, it can get scarey. But it is all part of the epigenetic continuum I have detailed, and continue to support with the latest research articles.

Sometimes I link to my own published works, but other times I need to avoid "hitting people in the face" with what they have missed. The end result is the same whether or not they missed the epigenetic link from nutrient chemicals and pheromones to behavior. They'll be forced to examine it sometime soon.

Nice concept and I agree 100%.

My opinion: The symbiosis that exists between us and human gut flora is critical to our survival. When this harmony becomes out of balance, diseases and other afflictions certainly arise. Par example an imbalance of Bifidobacterium and and overgrowth of Candida. The candida will begin producing toxins and pH manipulators. This can cause other baddies to colonize and push out beneficial bacterial diversity. The metabolic wastes of these harmful organisms need to be excreted. Certainly some of these toxins could have pheromone-like properties that may signal disease and further communicate a negative immune system issue. One can be sure this does not fare well for mate selection. I always wondered if putrescine and cadaverine had pheromone properties. I also know for a fact that putrescine-ladden females with a mild case of bv has made me run for the hills on more than one occasion. No mating involved on that tip for sure.

Without boring everyone on a lesson in microbial ecology, I have always speculated that the balance of our symbiotic partners is more important than modern medicine has given credit. Digestive balance has alot to do with our immunity and thus the signals of health we radiate. Genetic and immune diversity have timelessly been the driving force of mate selection over hundreds of years. It is thought that only recently certain characteristics have changed our mate selection material. Perhaps the media-induced vanity may be a bit to blame for this regression, idk.

People can tell when you are sick even without the runny nose and cough. I read a long time ago that some animals have even been thought to be able to identify cancers. We are just animals that think we are better than other animals so what makes us think that we do not have this ability as well? IMO, sometimes the arrogance and closed minds of the human race are often more detrimental to our survival than the diseases we attempt to identify and treat. Many non-digestive ailments of humans stem from the digestive system yet are thought to have been caused elsewhere. pH balance, the ratios of organisms, enzyme concentrations, acid production, bile the list goes on concerning the delicate balance of the GI tract in its relation to disorder.

I would assume, without getting my face in a stack of articles, that the less our immune system is activated and the better overall health we project, the more mates will cross our path in a positive manner.

A side effect of the potent antibiotic class that includes Levofloxin and Cipro is peripheral neuropathy. If gut flora were not important to the nervous system, that would be an even more unlikely side effect. The lay audience has little to no knowledge of such things, and most are better off not knowing.

Symbiosis begins in microbes due to what can be described as nutrient chemical dependent gene duplications for olfactory receptor genes that enhance the ability to detect nutrient chemicals and to recognize the difference between conspecifics and heterospecifics -- just as we do, via our pheromone signature compared to theirs.

Yep. Fluoroquinolones have definitely been attributed to peripheral neuropathy. Ulcerative colitis been liked to it as well. Celiac disease and IBS have also shown increases in PN. C Diff infections have also been known to cause PN in women as well.

Dysbacteriosis from the use of fluoroquinolones can cause the body's waste management system to overload. This overload is induced by the overgrowth of the pathogenic organisms that naturally reside in us at all times. Not only does the body get nervous and stressed when removing these byproducts from the system, some of the byproducts themselves can act as disease causing agents and or affect neurotransmitters.

If this acute imbalance is left without remedy, a chronic imbalance is left for the host to deal with. Possible irreversible PN states may occur. Could be from the antibiotics, could be from metabolic waste, could be from overload, etc. Injured beneficial colonies cannot regain control, their beneficial properties are negated, and disease sets in. Im sure this disease state can be detected by others in other ways than visual recognition.

Makes one think who is really driving the bus.. us or our symbiotes? LOL

Could it be the viruses infecting the bacteria that actually are causal? It seems to me that they are more likely to be involved in the peripheral nervous system than are bacteria, but I can't remember how I put that thought together.

[quote='thundr' pid='62237' dateline='1347764
Makes one think who is really driving the bus.. us or our symbiotes? LOL
[/quote]

I know the symbiotes are driving, as in all species. Change in nutrient chemical intake changes the intestinal microflora and the overall microbiome as well as pheromone production. The physically fit among us don't just look good, they smell good (i.e., better than most of us) which is why pheromone enhancement works. At least we can smell like we look good.

(09-15-2012 10:30 PM)jvkohl Wrote:  Could it be the viruses infecting the bacteria that actually are causal? It seems to me that they are more likely to be involved in the peripheral nervous system than are bacteria, but I can't remember how I put that thought together.

Possibly. Viral infection of bacterial populations could have some effect. What I was leaning toward is the metabolic byproducts of microbial imbalance causing PN or other neuro disorders, ie the excretions of these pathogenic organisms (fungal, viral, bacterial).

I will use candida again just as an example. Acetaldehyde is a waste product of candida and is the cause of much of the harm done by the overgrowth (other than setting up shop for more bad guys to flourish). It can affect the metabolic functions of the body as well as the endocrine, neurological and immune system. It cannot be excreted from the body very easily if at all.

Heres a quick outside of box thinking. Molybdenum is capable of breaking down fungal waste into acetic acid. Acetic acid can be removed easily. If such resources as rare trace minerals are being used in great quants to remove these pathogenic wasteproducts then deficiency sets in, possibly allowing other ailments to proliferate. Im sure these ailments do not signal vigorous health status.

Symptoms of molybdenum deficiency may include seizures, increased heart rate and rate of respiration, mental retardation, nausea and vomiting, and coma, according to the Merck Manuals Online Medical Library. A simple deficiency state was created based on fungal overgrowth. While modern medicine is busy treating the seizures in the brain of the afflicted patient, a rampant candida infection is busy in the guts causing it indirectly.

Thats just a spade I threw on the table but the mechanism idea is solid. When something is out of balance it creates imbalances elsewhere. Butterfly effect it seems.

(09-15-2012 10:30 PM)jvkohl Wrote:  Could it be the viruses infecting the bacteria that actually are causal? It seems to me that they are more likely to be involved in the peripheral nervous system than are bacteria, but I can't remember how I put that thought together.

I've read that facultatively lysogneic viruses (viruses which don't have to kill their host cell, but can propagate with them for a time before becoming virulent and busting out from their host, for anyone here following along) are capable of causing an ongoing Herxheimer type reaction. At least according to one study that I don't have on hand. Unfortuantely, I haven't seen a lot of effort put in to diagnosing or treating this type of problem. Phage technology could attack gut flora selectively enough, but outside of Tsibli or some clinic in central America or a few NIH studies, that seems to be a painfully slow tech to develop. There seems to be some phage research in China as well, maybe started by exchange with the soviets a long time ago. But I couldn't find anyone willing to discuss details when I was there.

Quote:2soon2care:
Lots of research to come on this type of feedback mechanism for sure, and probably an even bigger backlash against Genetically Modified Organisms in our food chain.

While the question of how we interact with foods is fascinating there are issues with how this particular article treats the matter. (I agree that it will fuel the backlash against GMOs, but question whether that's rational.)

The Bt toxin is very specific to insects and has an excellent safety profile as regards humans. All plants produce secondary metabolites (chemicals not required for growth) that serve as pesticides.

Further, the study regarding pesticides only shows that pesticides can cross the placental barrier. Well, yeah. Of course. That has NOTHING to do with the harms of genetic modification as a distinct process from hybridization or open pollination (the latter of which would introduce even more novel DNA than GMOs, and it would be uncontrolled.) If Monsanto had used selective breeding to make a glyphosphate resistant soybean, would people be happier with that? I wouldn't. If people in general want to make glyphosphate illegal or regulate it more strictly, that'd be fine. But what this glyphosphate portion of the study is really talking about is the presences of pesticides which are used on GMO foods, not GMO foods themselves. Which is a strangely common deficit in articles critical of GMOs. I've read article after article about the harms of GMO food and they've all failed to deliver on their promises, at least so far. GMOs, in and of themselves, are not more harmful than non-GMO foods. Any problem found so far in GMOs can also be produced by non-GMOs. Monoculture is problematic, but before GMOs you had hybrids, which also promoted monoculture.
... sorry for the rant. This is a thing with me.

Quote:A side effect of the potent antibiotic class that includes Levofloxin and Cipro is peripheral neuropathy. If gut flora were not important to the nervous system, that would be an even more unlikely side effect.

Why? These drugs seem to have an impact on mitochondrial function. I'm often surprised fluroquinolone class antibiotics aren't considered far more toxic than they're claimed to be.

Quote:Here's a study saying that fluoroquinolones don't interfere with mitochondrial function.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC171543/

Quote:But here's a study saying that inhibitors of eukaryote DNA gyrase also inhibits mammalian DNA gyrase.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/227861

Quote:High concentrations of fluoroquinolones (and other antibiotics)...during 48 h of incubation inhibited proliferation and metabolic activity...The measurement of extracellular lactate concentration revealed that fluoroquinolones (and other antibiotics)...impaired mitochondrial energetics in high concentrations.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1797653/

I haven't had time to explore the choline- acetylcholine- acetaldehyde connection that appears to lie at the core of adaptive evolution via ecological, social, neurogenic, and socio-cognitive niche construction, but would welcome the involvement of someone like you who might better be able to put the pieces together.

The regulation of glucose in gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) by choline seems to be the key as the mammalian GnRH molecule can be traced to its origins as the alpha-mating pheromone in brewer's/baker's yeast. Thus, we have the origins of cellular energy required for movement towards a food source or opposite sex conspecific at the advent of sexual reproduction in a single-celled organism, and can extend the molecular mechanisms to gene duplication and copy number variation via the epigenetic effects of nutrient chemicals, such as forms of glucose required for speciation that is controlled by pheromones.

Are you familiar with the ENCODE project's data released on Sept 5? Everyone says that we don't know the molecular mechanisms that are required to explain the diversity across species, when its obvious that the mechanisms are directly (i.e., epigenetically) driven by nutrient acquisition and pheromones. Lots of folks can't seem to recognize what is as clear as the nose on their face.