when i first heard about the gut biome, 6 or 8 years ago or however long ago that was, i pretty much saw the future. designer poop. i feel that i have pretty sweet poop, so to speak. lots of things about me i don’t recommend to people, but my gut spins like a top. first thing, i’d have my poop trademarked. you laugh now. but what’s to keep someone from replicating my proven biome in a lab? so, first you protect your intellectual property. then you place it on the market. just, don’t expect a liberal return policy from me.
You’re 100 years late to the party, actually. Google “Mutaflor”: a German doctor by the name of Alfred Nissle isolated E. coli bacteria from the gut of a WWI soldier who was remarkably resistant against diarrhea in the trenches, registered the trademark “Mutaflor” and henceforth sold these bacteria as probiotics. They’re still being marketed today. So in a way, when you take Mutaflor, you’re eating part of the shit of a soldier who’s probably been dead for around 100 years now…
I don’t know how they would know. If a certain microbiome is naturally occurring then detecting it wouldn’t mean much. And it sounds like the evidence is anecdotal. I actually researched the fecal transplant a bit for other health issues but there’s just not a ton of research on it’s longer term benefit.
Test for feces in the blood maybe (I wonder if Lance would have tested positive, he was definitely full of shit)? They could check for foreign bacteria in the gut, but who wants to get randomized for the post-race colonoscopy? Hell I might intentionally tank on the podium to dodge that bullet… (although after some races you’re 3/4 the way there, with the ass pisses(aka the pizzazz, so to speak…)
Like anything, the science is too young on things like fecal transplants or poop pills to be able to answer long term effect questions…