4 ms·
> The bacteria that live in our guts influence everything from nutrition to autism. You might think an article in Science could manage to avoid a deeply mislea
by civilized 5y ago
> The bacteria that live in our guts influence everything from nutrition to autism.
You might think an article in Science could manage to avoid a deeply misleading falsehood before completing its very first sentence.
Despite some statistical correlations and mouse studies, the idea that gut bacteria influence autism in humans is poorly supported. And recent studies suggest the influence may go in the other direction. [1]
Just keep in mind that "top" journals like Science, Nature, and PNAS have a tendency to publish flimsy ideas if the result is sensational. They are the tabloids of science and must be taken with a hefty pinch of salt.
[1] https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/body-and-mind/autism-gut-microbiome-link-causation-disputed/ https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/body-and-mind/autism-gut-m...
- ramraj07 5y agoIt's an active area of investigation, and you're right that there's yo-yoing. But note that the article discussed in your ref is published in Cell, the same journal that also published some of the original work it's refuting. As much as NatSciCell publish sensationalized work, high impact work pretty much universally gets published there still. It's like the nytimes. Popular to crap on it, but in the end they still put out good journalism.