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Just the other day there was an article on scientist discovering that a parasitic plant infused RNA to change the host's characteristics to help the parasite. Wouldn't it be interesting if our gut bacteria change our appetites to survive? From a natural selection stand point it makes perfect sense.

As long as they don't make me watch reality shows.

toxoplasmosis has been shown to make rats take bigger risks and venture out into a known cats territory more often.
This get the rat killed and eaten completing the incubation cycle from cat to rat to cat.

So bacteria definitely change our behavior!

Or make me climb up a tree then pop out of my head.

Good guffaw .
Sounds like they are already having their own reality show, inside of us!

Thanks for posting inflammabl -really interesting to see the emerging info coming out on our gut.

!!!
Thankfully, my bacteria don't have that urge either! That would provoke all-out war!

From the article:



Very interesting. Thanks for posting. Obesity and cancer prevention would be a HUGE advancement.

I really prefer progressive research, instead of re-researching all the nonsense that has been proven wrong or all the things we already know. Now to transform this knowledge into treatment...

No it doesn't. There's several diseases which include typical behaviors as some of the symptoms. Just think of wheat or drugs for that matter and their effects on our mood. It's not much of a stretch to think bacteria and other microorganisms could drive the host's behavior to their advantage. This is the most extraordinary example of the phenomenon that I know of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophioc...ps_unilateralis

Unlike the fungus-ant relationship, our behavior would more likely be altered through hormones since that's how our behaviors are regulated. Sex hormones (find a mate or not), hunger hormones (eat or not), stress hormones (fight or flight), etc. The article talks about the vagus nerve so I guess it's possible some of this interference is done through that.

Unfortunately they will spend most of the money trying to develop a pill to solve the problem. Hopefully the diet studies will get adequate funding to progress too. It always amazes me how people think nothing of ingesting something extra (pill or potion) but balk at the idea of removing something (like wheat) to solve their ills.

Exactly. Most think nothing of putting who knows what IN their body, but ask them to avoid putting something known to cause issues, and we are merely foil-hat fanatics. Can't live without bread?! More like won't. And then they exhibit addiction behaviors and get uber defensive at the suggestion. Many people don't want to recognize science if it suggests they change their eating habits or behaviors. Easier to just take a magic pill so they don't have to make an effort. Not everything works that way. There is no magic. There is only biological response to a change. And with pills, the side-effects can often be negative. (I won't start on anti-depressants and my experience with them.)

But that's humanity for you. Have we always been so lazy? Or is it an effect of the point/click-instant-gratification syndrome? Or the prowess of Big Pharm and their marketing depts?

Those are wise words, jessdamess.

I had a neighbor who walked her dog every day but needed a cane to walk.

I gave her the arthritis/bursitis diet (it's low-carb and low arachadonic acid) and within a couple of weeks, she was walking without the cane.

She continued to walk without the cane for months, and then I noticed she started using it again.

I asked her if the diet quit working for her, and she responded that she quit the diet because she just couldn't give up her pasta and couldn't give up her fruit and couldn't give up her _______ (fill in the blank).

Notice it was "her" pasta, "her" fruit etc.

I've noticed that people take possession of the things they don't want to give up.

My dad had Type 2 diabetes. Instead of controlling it with his diet, he took pills. He could still make insulin, but was resistant, so the pills encouraged his body to make even more insulin. Insulin is very inflammatory, and almost as bad as the sugar it is meant to control. The insulin burned out the blood vessels in his heart and kidneys and he went into an early grave.

If you can do it with diet, it's much better than taking the un-magic pills. Of course you will have to give up "your" ________.

Back on topic.

I've often mused that we humans could be just a support system for the bacteria that inhabit us. We can't live without gut bacteria to help us digest our food. And in every cell we have mitochondria.

These mitochondria are not us, they don't share our DNA and are separate living organelles living in every cell in our body (close relative to a bacterium). If we didn't have these mitochondria in our cells, we would die, as they use the food we eat to create ATP, the fuel we run on. So since the human cannot live without the mitochondria and various bacteria strains, do they live in us, or are we simply a host for them?

I guess it depends on your viewpoint. From the viewpoint of the mitochondria, you may just be their house.

Bob

Exactly, and sadly, true. For my diabetic mother she has to have "her" tomato soup and cheetos. Yes, cheetos in tomato soup...shuddering. And her baked Lays. And her raisin bread...slippery slope... The list keeps getting longer.




Very interesting thought! And good point. It's symbiotic though, isn't it? Or isn't it...hmmmm. I always found mitochondria fascinating. Oops...I think you just sent me down another rabbithole. I have enough up in the air as it is! My reading list is getting unwieldy.

We are hard-wired to NOT give up those things that give us pleasure. It's just that in a natural environment, things that give us pleasure and things that are good for us are the same things.

We are so "clever" we've messed up that equation.

You are so right WereBear.

I knew a guy who had quadruple bypass surgery. The first thing he did when he got out of the hospital is buy a pack of cigarettes.

And some humans have gone the other way and decided that denying themselves all pleasure is their goal in life.

Like the religions that say, "Dancing is evil" and so on. I don't want to get into a religious discussion here, we all have a right to believe what we think is the truth, but for me, a religion, a cult, a club, or anything else that denies innocent non-harmful pleasures is nothing I want to join.

Humans are strange animals. Our wonderful brains that have given us so much can also be our worst enemy at times.

Re: mitochondria

Jess, it might be symbiotic but then again. As you said hmmmmmm.

We who have sexual reproduction will (sadly) die, but the bacteria or organelle that reproduces by simple cell division (mitosis if I remember my biology) in theory never dies. After all, when the cell divides, which is the original? Neither or both? It can't be neither as one has to be the original and they are identical in every way so it must be both. If both then the cell lives forever even if one of the pair dies.

I read there are only 7 strains of mitochondria, passed down from mother to fetus. It seems like they have a pretty successful strategy using us for their hosts.

And for the plant kingdom, the chloroplasts do the same thing.

Makes me feel pretty insignificant.

Just pondering - thinking out loud.

Bob

I had a friend, who once had an acquaintance, who had spent like 20 years of his life cataloging what he believed was a "distributed intelligence" in something we have a vaccine for -- and that being in the vaccine (so it actually is maintained indefinitely) is part of its plan -- he said at first he laughed, it was the wildest, stupidest idea he'd ever heard, but after the guy spent hours showing him everything from newspaper articles to obscure research articles to you name it, he was so blown away that he was speechless. He didn't know what to say because what CAN you say, the guy had a lifetime of basically 'stalking' this thing that was essentially stalking humans in its own way. What a trip.

Less spooky and more to your point, here's a paper online:

I think my bacteria like surfing the internet.