I have read and heard in many places that once you lose a friendly microbial species from your intestinal microbiome, it is gone forever and cannot be restored. Yet, fecal transplants seem to suggest that perhaps lost species can be restored. Do we know for certain that it is impossible to restore lost diversity? It seems that if we can be reinfected with pathogenic microbes like c. diff and h. pylori after having cleared them, that we should also be able to restore beneficial native species.
Hey skboren, congrats and thanks for being the first non-mod post! 🙂
I don't agree that once you've lost a species it can never come back. Your reasoning is solid, and we are constantly exposed to microbes that can populate the gut. I've seen a major bloom of dozens of different microbes I never had when taking taurine and when I started working on my circadian rhythms, though stool tests aren't 100% reliable.
Overall, depending on the species, I believe it is possible to repopulate your gut.
Dave
