Unraveling the role of the microbiome in major depressive disorder
1–10 of 34 posts
Re: Unraveling the role of the microbiome in major depressive disorder
#2Maybe depressed people eat a lot of junk food.
Re: Unraveling the role of the microbiome in major depressive disorder
#3Maybe depressed people eat a lot of junk food.
Discussed in the paper:
> These food groups, which are an important part of the Mediteranean diet, are associated with an increased abundance of bacteria with anti-inflammatory properties. That well-studied diet is known not only to affect the gut microbiome by increasing the abundance of microbes that produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), but also to shorten episodes of depression.
Re: Unraveling the role of the microbiome in major depressive disorder
#4Maybe depressed people eat a lot of junk food.
Not sure why you're getting downvoted, this is a good point.
Re: Unraveling the role of the microbiome in major depressive disorder
#5Maybe depressed people eat a lot of junk food.
Is your comment adding an informed opinion on this topic? Or are you perhaps smart in one area and think you can just wing an opinion on this topic?
I live with someone with clinical depression. One of the most maddening things for her is the astounding number of people who have absolutely no idea what they are talking about offering "helpful" opinions. No, they aren't helpful, they are hurtful.
When someone trivializes the problem such as you have, it adds the body of disinformation on the topic that seeps into mainstream opinion: that depressives have done something to deserve what they are suffering, or that there is some simple solution that they just too stupid or unwilling to do that will fix things, or that they have some perverse desire to remain depressed, or they lack the character to "buck up" and put their depression behind them.
Re: Unraveling the role of the microbiome in major depressive disorder
#6Maybe depressed people eat a lot of junk food.
Would you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to HN? You've done it a lot, unfortunately, and we're trying for something different here.
If you've read the paper and found a reason to criticize the work for not taking this obvious objection into account, your comment should say specifically what that reason is. If not, then "Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Threads are sensitive to initial conditions, so it's particularly important not to post crap comments when a thread is new. Since it takes time for more thoughtful comments to start appearing, conscious restraint is needed here.
Re: Unraveling the role of the microbiome in major depressive disorder
#7Maybe depressed people eat a lot of junk food.
When people are depressed they tend to eat junk food to boost their mood
Re: Unraveling the role of the microbiome in major depressive disorder
#8Maybe depressed people eat a lot of junk food.
Not sure why you're getting downvoted, this is a good point.
I downvoted because by the HN guidelines comments should try to be curious and interesting and because “Please don't post shallow dismissals”.
The abstract mentions that diet affects gut microbiome and that gut microbiome has a “shaping effect” on psychiatric disorders:
> “A growing body of literature shows that the gut microbiome plays a shaping role in a variety of psychiatric disorders, including major depressive disorder (MDD). In this review, the interplay between the microbiome and MDD is discussed in three facets. First, we discuss factors that affect the onset/development of MDD that also greatly impinge on the composition of the gut microbiota—especially diet and stressful life events.”
That is, the comment is low effort, and dismissive, and unsubstantiated speculation. Are we supposed to conclude that “depressed people eat junk food” is all there is to it? Citation requested. Are they just saying “depressed people eat junk food”? Boring. Are they saying “maybe depressed people eat junk food”? Is there a reason to have “maybe” there? Might they not?
Re: Unraveling the role of the microbiome in major depressive disorder
#9Re: Unraveling the role of the microbiome in major depressive disorder
#10Maybe depressed people eat a lot of junk food.
Not sure why you're getting downvoted, this is a good point.
Causality, and the reason they think it could be diet->mood instead of the other way around, is discussed in the original link, so this comment adds nothing and in fact subtracts by being less informed than the link itself.