## Health

Human health depends on balance. Microbial life is essential for normal immune and metabolic function, yet dysregulation or excessive exposure can contribute to disease. Maintaining health is less about elimination and more about preserving a resilient equilibrium.

We can and should eliminate serious risks, but at the same time maintain a healthy balance. For example, living in a highly sterile environment may actually be detrimental to health and immune system development.

Modern health thinking often swings between extremes:

- Sterility obsession → allergies, autoimmunity, fragile immunity  
- Anything-goes naturalism → infections, chronic inflammation  

A future focus on health may involve striking a balance between these two approaches: eliminating serious risks while allowing controlled exposure that helps train and strengthen the immune system.

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## Principles for Maintaining Health

1. Precaution where low-cost  
   - Avoid easily preventable hazards (e.g., chemicals, pesticides, radiation, plastics, contaminated water).
2. Support resilient barriers  
   - Gut, skin, and lung barriers protect against pathogens and toxins; maintain them through diet, hygiene, and lifestyle.  
3. Encourage healthy microbial exposure  
   - Natural environments, fermented foods, and diverse diets help train immunity and maintain microbial balance.  
4. Minimize chronic low-grade exposures  
   - Reduce unnecessary chemicals, heated plastics, and environmental toxins that may stress the body over time.  
5. Focus on systems, not single causes  
   - Recognize that inflammation, metabolism, and microbial balance are interconnected; no single intervention solves everything.  
6. Adapt and remain flexible  
   - Science evolves; remain open to new evidence and adjust practices accordingly.  

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## Safety First

Health is personal. Always consult your healthcare provider before making drastic lifestyle changes.  

These texts are informal, written by the GitHub author, and AI-reviewed to ensure information is up-to-date at the time of writing. Science evolves, so make sure to check current research and news for the latest insights.

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## Private Research

We conduct private research on various topics and include reports in subsequent folders of interest. However, we are not professional scientists. We use [Elicit](https://elicit.com) to generate AI-assisted reports, which scan hundreds of millions of scientific papers to find relevant information about potential harmful effects or data discussed in these texts, including references and links.  

These reports are informal and meant to provide notice or precautionary guidance based on current research. They should not be treated as absolute truth. AI isn't perfect, it can misinterpret studies, overgeneralize, or miss nuances, so human judgment is still essential. Therefore we do manually check and correct the texts, re-read them and update them accordingly if required.

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## Disclaimer

This is not official medical advice. These texts are informal. Always consult a qualified professional when making significant health changes.  

We waive all liability resulting from use of these texts. Please use common sense, and seek expert advice for additional guidance. While precautions are taken and AI-reviewing methods help catch mistakes, errors may still occur.

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## License

All texts are licensed under the [MIT License](https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT).