GoKawiilStudy tracks ancient human gut microbes vanishing in industrialized populations
Researchers studying the Tsimane people of Bolivia, working with the Gran Consejo Tsimane governing body and local communities, analyzed fecal samples to trace gut microbial species that appear to have migrated globally with early humans but are now disappearing in industrialized societies. The research, approved by multiple US and Bolivian institutional review boards, also provided participants with parasite screening and treatment as a direct health benefit, alongside decades of broader health and education support from the binational Tsimane Health and Life History Project.