Behind the microphone: microbiome transplant — cooties can cure you
Do you ever go back to your notes from a trade show or a keynote and remember what was said? I rarely do, but to prepare for our most recent episode of our podcast Discovery Matters, I was happy to find what I had jotted down months earlier.
Back in Philadelphia in early June, Conor McKechnie, our Chief Marketing Officer, and I were sitting next to each other listening to a keynote about microbiomes. He’s obsessed; I’m only interested. I scribbled phrases like:
“The best medicine is already inside us.”
“2lbs of bacteria in our gut!”
“Anything put inside a vagina should be considered a medical device.”
Oh yes, there were raised eyebrows, and a bit of giggling. But understanding the microbiome is serious science, and serious business. We knew immediately we wanted to hear more from Jacques Ravel and Colleen Cutcliffe. They’re the ones we speak to in our episode about microbiomes.
Or if you prefer, Spotify.
Advice from Philly: Love your germ factory
We were able to interview Colleen immediately after the talk. We remarked on how important timing is to tell the microbiome story. She’s been studying microbiomes so much longer than you’ve seen it in headlines on Bored Panda. Our society is suffering a rise in allergies and food sensitivities, as illustrated by the Thanksgiving food table.
Traditional fare on this American holiday is turkey, potatoes, bread, followed by pumpkin pie and ice cream. Oh, it’s a feast of poultry, carbs, white sugar, and dairy. These days, the parties that I go to feature several hyphenated menu cards. “Gluten-free, lactose-free, meat-free,” and so on. Colleen asks: Are we too clean?
As an aside, Colleen readily admits that while teaching her kids about microbiomes, they throw it back at her when they don’t want to take a bath. “But it’s good for us to be dirty!” It’s a fine line, that parenting thing.
Our interview with Jacques was more recent — only last week, as a matter of fact. He travels and speaks often about the microbiome, connecting it to women’s health. I love the moment when he says, and I’m paraphrasing: ‘There was at time the best that we could do for women’s health is tell them to wipe front to back.’ We can do better, so much better than that.
Taboo is relative
Jacques is fearlessly tackling the prude in all of us, to improve our awareness and our health.
The microbiome is not an area of science without controversy. Conor says so himself in a recent blog on LinkedIn. I hope that you’ll listen as Conor and I chat with Colleen and Jacques for some basics about the microbiome and why you should make friends with those two pounds of germs inside you, because they can cure you.
Originally published at https://medium.com on November 18, 2019.
