2 ms·
> the causal pathway The article very clearly distinguishes between the cause and a cause. "Alzheimer’s is a complex disorder, not a one stop shop" and so on.
by notacoward 8y ago
> the causal pathway
The article very clearly distinguishes between the cause and a cause. "Alzheimer’s is a complex disorder, not a one stop shop" and so on.
> best explained by correlation than causation
They did more than that. They also found gingipains in the brains of patients. Those had to come specifically from P.gingivalis infection, not the other factors you mention. They identified a plausible causal pathway involving tau and amyloid beta, and they induced their production by introducing P.gingivalis in mice. That's a lot more than merely equating correlation with causation.
Skepticism is good. Ignoring what has been presented is not skepticism, and neither is jumping from correlation to non-causation. That's just contrarianism.
- josephby 8y agoMice don’t get Alzheimer’s. Inducing plaques is not the same thing as giving mice Alzheimer’s.
- notacoward 8y agoNo, it's not, but it proves that the link between gingipains and plaque is reproducible. That's part of the causative chain, so it still refutes the glib contrarianism to which I was replying.