Dark Matter: The New Science of the Microbiome

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There’s a lot of science in the book to support my hypothesis. It’s for anyone who is interested in how we can improve our health and who wants to understand why we get disease and how to prevent it, so I have tried to make it easy to understand. Dietary and lifestyle changes in westernised societies which seemed a good, convenient, palatable (and, boy oh boy, profitable) idea at the time now emerge as causes of a mass of chronic diseases and damaging health conditions. You and people near you have almost certainly got some. Yet it is only now, as we are beginning to discover the microbiome's enormous potential, that we are realising it is in grave danger, being irrevocably destroyed through the globalisation of our diets, the war on bugs and the industrialised world. While an FMT might be a new idea to many of us today, the medical practice of faecal transplant is ancient, and it has been drunk as “yellow soup” since the 4th century AD for the treatment of infective diarrhoea. In 1958 an innovative surgeon, Dr Ben Eiseman, administered faecal enemas to his patients in Denver, Colorado, with severe and recurrent C diff infections. It was remarkably effective, but like all important medical discoveries, this intervention was largely ignored at the time of its first report. A very small Italian study using a similar commercial probiotic, Sivomixx, piqued his interest after it suggested acute Covid patients treated with it might be less likely to end up in ICU or to die, and eight times less likely to suffer respiratory failure. Bjarnason is hoping to start a larger study in the next few months.

With dazzling science and fascinating stories spanning from the dawn of humankind to the current race to develop personalised healthcare, and practical advice on how to nurture your microbiome through your diet and lifestyle, this pioneering book will change the way you think about human health forever. In this ground-breaking book, surgeon and expert on the microbiome, James Kinross, takes us on a guided tour of our extraordinary inner universe, showing how our relationship with microbes may hold the key to why we are increasingly succumbing to diseases and conditions such as cancer, Alzheimer's, autoimmune conditions and allergies. He highlights how hyperglobalization and our addiction to antibiotics has transformed our internal ecosystems and why this matters so much to our future health and happiness. We compared these diets to those in Sub-Saharan Africa where rural communities have very high-fibre, plant-based diets. They eat meat very rarely, and when they do, it is very lean. They exercise a lot and live in social communities, where they farm together, cook together and share plates of food. So, they exchange and share microbes through lots of different routes. As a result, they have a much more diverse and resilient population of gut micro-organisms than we do. I knew the gut microbiome was important to our health and I wanted to focus my future career on understanding how": Meet James Kinross Engaging ... [ Dark Matter] stands out in revealing the microbiome through the eyes of a clinician who sees each patient not just as a human, but as a human entwined with a complex, dynamic ecosystem New ScientistRay was readmitted to St Mary’s critically unwell and was soon diagnosed with Clostridium difficile (C diff) infection (officially, this bacteria has now been renamed Clostridiodes). A “hospital-acquired infection”, this disease is a complication of 20th-century medicine and an unintended consequence of Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin, the first effective mass-produced antibiotic, in 1928. It is a global problem that afflicts 500,000 people in the United States each year and it kills 29,000 of them. Eat fermented foods Tim Spector favours kombucha, kefir and kimchi, as well as unpasteurised cheeses Love the story about how animals, and humans can have a poo transplant, which in some cases can save your life. Our gut microbiome is being badly damaged in our early lives. This not only promotes inflammation and sensitises us to a poor diet, but our microbiomes are less resilient and diverse. That’s why at a population level we’re seeing alarming increases in the risk of colorectal cancer, asthma, allergies, rheumatoid arthritis and other chronic conditions.

A microbiome refers to all the microscopic organisms within a particular environment, and all of the things that they need to sustain themselves. They exist at lots of different scales and we have them all around, on and inside us. So, for example, our planet has a microbiome and we have microbiomes on our skin and in our lungs and in our gut. Our microbiomes have evolved with us and they change and grow with us over our lifetime. They have an important symbiotic role in our health: they need us to survive, but we need them too. Why is the gut microbiome important?

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Books» Non-Fiction» Medicine» Other branches of medicine» Pathology» Medical microbiology & virology In this mindblowing book, scientist and surgeon James Kinross explains how the organisms that live within us have helped us evolve, shaped our biology and defined the success of our species. But just as we have discovered this delicate and complex ecosystem within us, it is being irrevocably destroyed through antibiotic addition, industrial food production, the globalisation of our diets and lifestyles, and the destruction of our environment.

Absolutely! I am mainly vegetarian now. I’ve deleted all my food takeaway apps and I cook food from scratch as much as possible. I’m careful about what I buy and knowing where my food comes from. So, if I eat meat, for example, I want to know about its provenance and that no antibiotics were used in its production. I also try to eat more socially and family meal-times are really important for me. When we’re touching and sharing different plates, we are exposed to each other’s microbes. We need that exposure to keep our systems in balance. In this mindblowing book, scientist and surgeon James Kinross explains how the organisms that live within us have helped us evolve, shaped our biology and defined the success of our species. But just as we have discovered this delicate and complex ecosystem within us, it is being irrevocably destroyed through the globalisation of our diets and lifestyles, our addiction to antibiotics, and the destruction of our environment. The logistics of preparing an FMT should not be underestimated. Faecal donors have to be found – harder than you might think. Most of us are squeamish about pooing in pots, and we struggle to do it on demand. Some studies use friends and families, others use members of staff, volunteers or “pooled” samples taken from lots of donors mixed together. What I particularly loved about this book is its strong scientific foundation. Kinross, a world-leading microbiome scientist and surgeon, offers a wealth of relevant insights drawn from his personal experience and over two decades in the field. The book serves as a much-needed, up-to-date summary of what is going on in this rapidly developing area of study.

Everything we’re doing now is scratching the surface,” says Spector. “We are maybe 10% of the way there, because every week, we’re discovering something new. Humans want an easy answer [to improve our gut health], but you shouldn’t take anyone seriously who doesn’t say it’s complicated,” he says. “There’s a massive industry that needs a simple message to sell its products. They want to say all you’ve got to do is eat this bar, this yoghurt or this protein drink.”