It’s also counter-intuitive because so much of healthcare relies on basic arithmetic. Got scurvy? You are missing vitamin C, which you can add to your body via fruit. Got flu? You have a virus, which you need to remove from your airways by taking a drug. Add what’s missing. Subtract what’s unwanted. These simple equations still drive much of modern medical thought. By contrast, the maths of the microbiome are more complicated, because they involve large, changing networks of connected, interacting parts. To control a microbiome is to sculpt an entire world – which is as hard as it sounds.
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