Post-Hunter-Gatherer Era Microbes and Allergic/Autoimmune Diseases Hypothesis

A hypothesis paper by Joyce Waterhouse proposing the Post-Hunter-Gatherer Era Microbe Hypersensitivity-Enhanced Colonization/Infection (PHMHEC) hypothesis. The paper argues that microbial imbalances, allergies, and stress are key factors in the rise of allergic and autoimmune diseases over the last 75 years, linking them to changes in human microbiota since the shift from nomadic lifestyles. It is published under an Open Access license on the paperswithcode platform.

Use Cases

• Testing the PHMHEC hypothesis based on described microbial and lifestyle factors.
• Modeling the relationship between microbial exposure and immune dysregulation based on the proposed mechanisms.
• Analyzing historical trends in allergic disease prevalence in connection with the post-hunter-gatherer era concept.

Strengths

• Presents a novel, structured hypothesis (PHMHEC) linking multiple disease factors.
• Explicitly identifies three common factors (microbial imbalances, allergies, stress) across diseases.
• Authored by a single researcher, providing a clear intellectual perspective.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

paperswithcode

Collection Method

Likely a published academic paper or preprint.