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Secret to longevity may lie in the microbiome and the gut

sciencedaily.com

1–10 of 47 posts

Re: Secret to longevity may lie in the microbiome and the gut

#4
I'm a believer in the importance of the microbiome, but this study seems fishy:

* the authors have already started a company and pursued a patent on their ayurvedic-derived formulation

* the figure 1(a) in their paper (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-25382-z#Fig1) doesn't show a big difference from plain probiotics to their formulation, but does show some oddities in the Y-axis where, for the control group, there were clearly exactly just 10 flies' mortality measured (integer steps down), but apparently many, many more for other cases scaled to the 0-10 axis.

* it's unclear if the treatments/evaluations where blinded – the word 'blind' is not found in the Nature article

* the 1st comment on the Nature article wonders: "the control flies didn't live to their normal expected age or even close. What gives?"

(Perhaps the flies that lived longer just had more food in total?)

Re: Secret to longevity may lie in the microbiome and the gut

#5

In a few years we might look back at this period and think: oh, it was at the time when we thought gut bacteria was the solution to every health problem known to mankind. Remember when it was vitamin D?

It's better than to ignore it's part of a healthy body.

Re: Secret to longevity may lie in the microbiome and the gut

#7
post #5

In a few years we might look back at this period and think: oh, it was at the time when we thought gut bacteria was the solution to every health problem known to mankind. Remember when it was vitamin D?

It's better than to ignore it's part of a healthy body.

But important to remember we're composites of organs, tissues, and cell types/structures.

Re: Secret to longevity may lie in the microbiome and the gut

#8
> Scientists fed fruit flies with a combination of probiotics and an herbal supplement called Triphala that was able to prolong the flies' longevity by 60 percent and protect them against chronic diseases associated with aging.

For comparison, dietary restriction increases longevity in rats and mice by up to 45%, but this may only be in lab animals

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3299887/

Re: Secret to longevity may lie in the microbiome and the gut

#9

In a few years we might look back at this period and think: oh, it was at the time when we thought gut bacteria was the solution to every health problem known to mankind. Remember when it was vitamin D?

Vitamin D is still going strong, recent studies about the benefits to every thing from fetal babies to lower belly fat to reducing mental illness.

Re: Secret to longevity may lie in the microbiome and the gut

#10

In a few years we might look back at this period and think: oh, it was at the time when we thought gut bacteria was the solution to every health problem known to mankind. Remember when it was vitamin D?

Maybe one day we'll realize that there is no single factor for good health. Maybe it's Vitamin D AND gut bacteria AND lot of other factors that are even individually different?
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