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Author: u/mvea
URL: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.123.063914

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At this stage, purely associative at a single point in time, in a selective cohort.

If you look close enough, you’ll see tens of thousands of cohort-level differences between those with plaques and those without. The hard bit is working which of these lie on the causal pathway.

Not to say that work like this isn’t somewhat interesting - but it is the very first step in a very long process, and if we press-released every paper reporting cross-sectional gut microbe species associations with X/Y/Z we wouldn’t have time to read anything else!

I’ve linked to the primary source, the journal article, in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the press release: https://www.mynewsdesk.com/uu/pressreleases/gut-bacteria-linked-to-fatty-deposits-in-heart-arteries-3264220

This article is typical of many science articles today. There are two issues here.

One is that people in general are not able to assess and interpret what is presented. This is a skill of critical thinking that many people do not possess. As science has progressed people's ability to understand science has lagged behind. This is not just an issue with science but also in social, political and economic arenas as well. The proliferation of misinformation and its acceptance by the populace is a more generalized feature of lack of critical thinking skills. A large contributor to this lack will probably be found in educational curricula that has not kept abreast of the complexity of science and other disciplines.

On the other hand, science has not done a particularly good job of presenting its complex findings to the public in a manner that facilitates the publics ability assimilate the information and draw an appropriate conclusion.

An example is this article, which while interesting and intriguing typifies the above arguments. On the science side it fails to guide understanding about what *accociation* (gut microbiota to heart disease) might mean. Association might be anything from causal to comorbidity to no relation whatsoever. This might have been addressed more explicitly in conclusion statement. On the public side, what will the average person take away from the article... *OH my God ... too much Strepptococci in my gut is causing heart disease!*... without, too much critical thinking.

The reality of the article is that there is much about the relationship of gut microbiota to health states that is not well understood. In praise of the article, it illustrates the level of science involved in exploring this complex issue but it is not to be taken as conclusive.

As a modern society we need to be more critical in how we present information and in how we receive and understand it.

Will kombucha save me?

Trash article just from reading the title. It’s been known for a long time that a poor diet leads to a poor distribution of certain bacterial species in the GI system. A poor diet also leads to arterial atherosclerosis.

The question is whether terrible diet makes the gut bacteria live there or not. I suspect it does as eating a lot of fiber isn’t available to a lot of people.

I drink a couple swallows of kefir everyday with lunch, hopefully this protects me from these evil microbes.

Bookmark to read on my break

(not a scientist, layman opinion)The thing that I feel these gut bacteria studies seem to ignore is that the bacteria that exists in the gut is the type of bacteria that thrives on the type of food being eaten. People who eat a ton of broccoli are going to have a type of gut bacteria that thrives on broccoli, while people who eat a ton of fried chicken will have bacteria that thrives on fried chicken.

It's not the bacteria determining the person's health, it's the person's diet determining their bacteria.

Gut bacteria…is there anything they can’t do?