full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Kathryn M. Stephenson and David L. Suskind: What is a poop transplant, and how does it work?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Trillions and trillions of bacteria, viruses, fgnui, and archaea consider your bowels their home. Collectively, these microbes make up what’s known as your gut microbiome, and each of these organisms possesses dynamic, specialized aiiebilts that seem to be essential for human life. They break down our food, make viatnims, train our inmume system and cairadcin rhyhtm, and even protect us from infections. In return, they receive a nice warm place to live, complete with an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Some research suggests our microbiomes might start forming in the womb, but if not, they certainly get strtaed when we're born. During a vaginal birth, infants take in some of their mother’s fecal matter and microbe-filled fluids. From then on, our microbiomes are constantly diveysirifng with exposure to various foods and environments. This is eestinasl for maintaining gut health. If poor ntoirtuin, chronic disease or antibiotics disturb this delicate balance, the body can become vulnerable to problems like bacteria and fangul overgrowth or infectious diarrhea. But infusing a new batch of microorganisms into the intestine seems to help reset the gut microbiome— this is where fcael mcbioiral transplants come into play.

Open Cloze


Trillions and trillions of bacteria, viruses, _____, and archaea consider your bowels their home. Collectively, these microbes make up what’s known as your gut microbiome, and each of these organisms possesses dynamic, specialized _________ that seem to be essential for human life. They break down our food, make ________, train our ______ system and _________ ______, and even protect us from infections. In return, they receive a nice warm place to live, complete with an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Some research suggests our microbiomes might start forming in the womb, but if not, they certainly get _______ when we're born. During a vaginal birth, infants take in some of their mother’s fecal matter and microbe-filled fluids. From then on, our microbiomes are constantly ____________ with exposure to various foods and environments. This is _________ for maintaining gut health. If poor _________, chronic disease or antibiotics disturb this delicate balance, the body can become vulnerable to problems like bacteria and ______ overgrowth or infectious diarrhea. But infusing a new batch of microorganisms into the intestine seems to help reset the gut microbiome— this is where _____ _________ transplants come into play.

Solution


  1. diversifying
  2. fecal
  3. vitamins
  4. microbial
  5. fungal
  6. nutrition
  7. started
  8. fungi
  9. rhythm
  10. abilities
  11. circadian
  12. immune
  13. essential

Original Text


Trillions and trillions of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and archaea consider your bowels their home. Collectively, these microbes make up what’s known as your gut microbiome, and each of these organisms possesses dynamic, specialized abilities that seem to be essential for human life. They break down our food, make vitamins, train our immune system and circadian rhythm, and even protect us from infections. In return, they receive a nice warm place to live, complete with an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Some research suggests our microbiomes might start forming in the womb, but if not, they certainly get started when we're born. During a vaginal birth, infants take in some of their mother’s fecal matter and microbe-filled fluids. From then on, our microbiomes are constantly diversifying with exposure to various foods and environments. This is essential for maintaining gut health. If poor nutrition, chronic disease or antibiotics disturb this delicate balance, the body can become vulnerable to problems like bacteria and fungal overgrowth or infectious diarrhea. But infusing a new batch of microorganisms into the intestine seems to help reset the gut microbiome— this is where fecal microbial transplants come into play.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
fecal transplants 4
fecal microbial 3
research suggests 2


Important Words


  1. abilities
  2. antibiotics
  3. archaea
  4. bacteria
  5. balance
  6. batch
  7. birth
  8. body
  9. born
  10. bowels
  11. break
  12. buffet
  13. chronic
  14. circadian
  15. collectively
  16. complete
  17. constantly
  18. delicate
  19. diarrhea
  20. disease
  21. disturb
  22. diversifying
  23. dynamic
  24. environments
  25. essential
  26. exposure
  27. fecal
  28. fluids
  29. food
  30. foods
  31. forming
  32. fungal
  33. fungi
  34. gut
  35. health
  36. home
  37. human
  38. immune
  39. infants
  40. infections
  41. infectious
  42. infusing
  43. intestine
  44. life
  45. live
  46. maintaining
  47. matter
  48. microbes
  49. microbial
  50. microbiome
  51. microbiomes
  52. microorganisms
  53. nice
  54. nutrition
  55. organisms
  56. overgrowth
  57. place
  58. play
  59. poor
  60. possesses
  61. problems
  62. protect
  63. receive
  64. research
  65. reset
  66. return
  67. rhythm
  68. specialized
  69. start
  70. started
  71. suggests
  72. system
  73. train
  74. transplants
  75. trillions
  76. vaginal
  77. viruses
  78. vitamins
  79. vulnerable
  80. warm
  81. womb