Gut Microbiome - GoKawiil

Study 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.

nature.com · 2026-10-07

Gut bacterium Bacteroides uniformis found to cut arterial plaque in mice

Researchers at Sun Yat-sen University identified a molecule produced by the gut microbe Bacteroides uniformis that lowered cholesterol and reduced arterial plaque by roughly half in mice, according to a study published in Nature. The compound appears to act through the same biological pathway used by statins, the cholesterol-lowering drugs taken by hundreds of millions of people.

nature.com · 2026-10-07