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Scientists discover links between Alzheimer's disease and gut microbiota

kcl.ac.uk

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Re: Scientists discover links between Alzheimer's disease and gut microbiota

#141

Post by rrsp »

cpncrunch wrote: post #102

If you look at the scatter graphs, it's not terribly impressive. Lots of overlap, and most of the results show no difference. The one that does show a large difference still has a lot of overlap in the scatter graph, and it seems to be some outliers that bring down the mean value. It's kind of an extraordinary claim, which requires extraordinary evidence. This isn't that. What interests me more is why HN users keep p…

This field is littered with studies like this, measuring hundreds of different outcomes and then presenting the statistical noise as positive findings.

Re: Scientists discover links between Alzheimer's disease and gut microbiota

#142

Post by hanniabu »

m463 wrote: post #98

It seems like they killed the gut bacteria with antibiotics, then transferred the bacteria from alzheimer's patients, causing symptoms. I wonder if a second gut transplant from non-alzheimer's patients would reverse it?

I think that once you start having symptoms that it's too late because the bacteria has already spread outside your gut and at that point it'll be too difficult to put it back in check, it's passed the threshold

Re: Scientists discover links between Alzheimer's disease and gut microbiota

#143

Post by dereify »

jmcgough wrote: post #130

As someone who used to research neurogenesis in rats - there isn't great evidence that adult mammalian neurogenesis occurs in humans, so don't assume that this will translate to humans.

i was under the impression that DG adult neurogenesis was pretty much settled? is there any controversy abt this?

Re: Scientists discover links between Alzheimer's disease and gut microbiota

#144

Post by kens »

cpncrunch wrote: post #102

If you look at the scatter graphs, it's not terribly impressive. Lots of overlap, and most of the results show no difference. The one that does show a large difference still has a lot of overlap in the scatter graph, and it seems to be some outliers that bring down the mean value. It's kind of an extraordinary claim, which requires extraordinary evidence. This isn't that. What interests me more is why HN users keep p…

I concur; the graphs didn't show much difference to me (but I was on my phone so I couldn't be certain :-) The study seems impressive from the title, but reading it not so much. The Alzheimer's patients in the study are older, more male, and less educated than the controls, so it seems quite likely that they are eating worse which would explain the different microbiota. This could mess up the mice in multiple ways. (Seriously, the mice that receive Alzheimer's microbiota could have a stomach ache and do slightly worse on the tests.)

As for why there is so much interest on HN, I've noticed that Alzheimer's is one of the topics that is overly popular on HN, along with category theory, Lisp, and problems with Tesla, to name a few.

Re: Scientists discover links between Alzheimer's disease and gut microbiota

#145

Post by sseagull »

dappermanneke wrote: post #109
cpncrunch wrote: post #102

If you look at the scatter graphs, it's not terribly impressive. Lots of overlap, and most of the results show no difference. The one that does show a large difference still has a lot of overlap in the scatter graph, and it seems to be some outliers that bring down the mean value. It's kind of an extraordinary claim, which requires extraordinary evidence. This isn't that. What interests me more is why HN users keep p…

almost everyone on HN is interested in biology and especially biohacking but does not actually realise they have none of the necessary expertise to judge claims coming from that field; the level of discourse on these topics is sometimes worse than what I spot on reddit

To be lovingly snarky: HN in aggregate is incredibly skeptical of academic research, claiming reproducibility crises everywhere, misalignment of incentives, brutal working environments whose results can't be trusted, only in mice, etc.

Unless it either confirms their existing beliefs, or is so technical that they don't understand it. Then the research must be ok :)

Re: Scientists discover links between Alzheimer's disease and gut microbiota

#146

Post by renewiltord »

kridsdale3 wrote: post #126
dappermanneke wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

almost everyone on HN is interested in biology and especially biohacking but does not actually realise they have none of the necessary expertise to judge claims coming from that field; the level of discourse on these topics is sometimes worse than what I spot on reddit

Pish Posh! My understanding of C pointers makes me one of the smartest people in the world! Why else would I have cleared the hurdle at $COMPANY during a tremendous bull market! Clearly I can learn any discipline by mucking about for a few afternoons. What is a billion years of natural selection to my towering intellect?

Lots of people said this about SpaceX and Tesla. Besides, our towering intellect did destroy millions of years of Small Pox evolution.

Turns out some people are smart. Other people who do the same thing are stupid but it isn't a marker.

Re: Scientists discover links between Alzheimer's disease and gut microbiota

#147

Post by [deleted] »

hanniabu wrote: post #131
notamy wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wonder if simply taking antibiotics at some point, clearing everything out and repopulating the flora could help? For some GI issues, this is actually a real solution used today. I learned about it from a SIBO diagnosis, which is treated with antibiotics and dietary changes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_intestinal_bacterial_ove...

I wish it were that easy. I've had sibo for 3 years now, originally methane sibo, took 2 rounds of xifaxan and neomycin and 3 rounds of xifaxan alone and now still have hydrogen sibo. I've tried many other herbal treatments, done a ton of tests, tried probiotic loading to overcome it, but nothing seems to have really worked. Worst part is eating the same meal, for every meal, day in and day out because it's the only…

[deleted]

Re: Scientists discover links between Alzheimer's disease and gut microbiota

#148

Post by theGnuMe »

cmpalmer52 wrote: post #113

Are shady fecal transplant clinics a thing yet? Take these antibiotics for a week, then we’ll hose fecal matter from healthy, young, thin people into your intestines like a reverse enema. Move over sperm banks and blood banks, the poop bank is much easier. Only sorta joking.

You should apply to YC.

Re: Scientists discover links between Alzheimer's disease and gut microbiota

#149

Post by dekhn »

wdwvt1 wrote: post #60

Microbiome researcher here. As usual, when a microbiome paper reaches HN, I emerge to urge caution. You should be extremely skeptical of the larger conclusions drawn from this paper. The biology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is poorly understood, and the contribution of dietary and microbiome factors are extremely unclear. I think you should treat the evidence from this paper (and shared in this thread) as more like "f…

This ex-scientist thanks you for your service

Re: Scientists discover links between Alzheimer's disease and gut microbiota

#150

Post by mbrochh »

The keto community already knows that Alzheimers is a metabolic disease.

Don't eat carbs, have an active livestyle = don't become insulin resistant and you won't get Alzheimers.

In the meantime I'll just keep watching how long researchers are going to dance around the bush until they finally get it...

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