The Great Assumption

The Great Assumption is:

The assumption by prescribers that a medicine or medical procedure will have zero to minimal impact on the patient's microbiome and if it does have an impact it will heal on its own.

Medical Cornerstone

The Great Assumption is an unspoken cornerstone of modern medicine.

Long Time Invalidated

The Great Assumption was a valid placeholder in the process in the early days of modern medicine but lots of research indicates The Great Assumption is false and detrimental to our health. But no changes have been made in the exam room where patients meet their doctors. The Great Assumption is still part of the FDA playbook in the exam room.

The Problem

The problem is The Great Assumption is false and its failure has a detrimental impact on our health. But at the exam room level of medical care The Great Assumption is unspoken dogma. Despite all the scientific research going on right now to unlock the secrets of our collective microbiome and its impact on our health it will probably be years to decades before patients see tangible results.

The Great Assumption = Global Warming Denial

Microbiome dysbiosis = global warming.

The mentality that got us in the global warming crisis is the same mentality that gives us The Great Assumption: an unfounded belief in the capacity of the human organism to absorb and recover from the microbiome dysbiosis medicine can cause.

In 2022 I think our collective microbiome looks like the Cuyahoga River in the 1960s.

If Left Unchecked

What can we expect if The Great Assumption goes unchecked?

• Patented microbes that we have to buy to get back to replace the bugs medication eliminated.
• New drugs that do what the microbes in our microbiome whould be doing if they were there.
• Genetically modified probiotics.
• More unnecessary medicines to fix downstream problems rooted in microbiome dysbiosis.

Not Just Medicine Alters Our Microbiome But...

According to this article on the Frontiers in Pharmacology website dated August 2020:

"Medication has recently emerged as one of the most influential determinants of the gut microbiota composition and activity"

www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2020.01153/full

Has anyone's doctor has mentioned this? Ask The Great Question!!!

Flip The Great Assumption!

I am not talking about not using medicine. I am talking about including the microbiome as part of the whole human organism. I am talking about monitoring and restoring our microbiome if its health degrades for whatever reason. I am talking about not ignoring the obvious impact our microbiome has on our health.

Unfortunately I don't see modern medicine moving in that direction. Today modern medicine is synonymous with Big Pharma and Big Pharma is interested in developing new drugs. Having to pay attention to microbiome disruption caused by a medicine would cause significant disruption to drug development and distribution.

So The Great Assumption remains in place in conventional medicine. That is why patients need to ask The Great Question to be vigilant and proactive to protect this valuable health resource.