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Interesting perspectives on the microbiome here.
I always had the somewhat quaint idea that our guts are full of friendly microbes, but what if the microbiome is largely parasitic, at least in the long run?
@foaylward I think every beneficial symbiosis is a truce of some kind...never 100% beneficial. We still have conflicts with our former bacterial symbiont now mitochondria: https://www.quantamagazine.org/genetic-struggles-within-cells-may-create-new-species-20170927/
@rspfau yes certainly. And it's all context dependent. I was just surprised to hear the perspective that the microbiome could have a mostly negative impact on longevity.
@foaylward They may have an overall negative impact on longevity relative to some nonexistent ideal, but remove the gut biome and you die. The benefits outweigh the costs many fold. We're completely dependent on its existence. So it can't be parasitic--which by definition is a relationship where one party benefits to the detriment of the other.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170321-why-your-diet-may-be-bad-for-your-gut-bacteria