#h pylori

#TBT: Researchers have found, within the stomach of a prehistoric and well-preserved ice mummy (Oetzi the Iceman, to be exact), remains of his once-thriving gut bacteria! This means that the human microbiome has existed for millenia. 

Although Oetzi’s been in the hands of scientists since 1991, researchers have only just now ventured into his stomach (largely because it was so shriveled they’ve had some trouble getting to it!), finding that it is “full of material.” In particular, they found what was presumably his last supper (meat from a deer and an alpine mountain goat), as well as DNA from a type of bacteria that lived in his gut - Helicobacter pylori. 

According to a physician and microbiologist not related to the study, “Today, H. pylori can be found in about half of the world’s population. In people who have it, it’s the dominant organism in their stomach.” 

WhileH. pylori has been known as a harmful pathogen, causing ulcers and stomach cancers, it also provides some benefits, such as protecting against acid reflux and asthma. The bacterium is probably most beneficial to scientists, who use “its evolution to map the paths of ancient populations as they moved across the globe.”

Read up on Oetzi (an interesting guy, really - he suffered from parasitic worms, Lyme disease, tooth decay, and joint problems, among other ailments, he has at least 19 living relatives somewhere in Austria, and he had 60-plus tattoos) and his gut bacteria at NPRorThe Atlantic.