MC_Pterodactyl t1_j8a4ygh wrote on February 12, 2023 at 8:15 PM

Reply to comment by Deadfishfarm in The Invisible Extinction (2022) - How the loss of our internal microbiome may be linked to the rise in obesity, childhood allergies and autism. [01:20:00] by cherrybounce

sigh The way you’re handling this isn’t giving me a lot of faith in it.

I had hoped there could be a dialogue about how complex the issue is but I guess not. This doesn’t feel like the way we grow or seek the truth.

Deadfishfarm t1_j8ahez9 wrote on February 12, 2023 at 9:40 PM

There can be a dialogue about it. That's the point of saying it "may be linked". As in there's suspicion or reason to believe there could be a possible link, and we should look into it more to see if there really is a link. That's how science works. We think up a hypothesis, find evidence, and conclude the experiment.

MC_Pterodactyl t1_j8awbou wrote on February 12, 2023 at 11:29 PM

I get you. I think the problem is this has been abused very, very badly in the past. See Wakefield and his vaccines study, also convinced there may be a link between autism and bowel disorders. He abused the entire system, and chose autism as the lynchpin because many parents responded powerfully to the idea it had all happened for a reason and might have a solution.

This Dr. Brasler doesn’t sound bad, his fecal transplants sound promising in many ways to many groups. Plus it’s replicable, which is a huge boon to it being something that can prove useful.

But the problem I have is the insinuation that the rise in autism diagnoses is linked to something. The last time we went there it did decades of harm to the autistic community. It still isn’t solved today.

The public is very bad at interpreting scientific studies, and hear “a study concluded” as “truth verified”. It takes a very long time to build consensus, and therefore extremely measured use of language can be extremely helpful on the public facing side to stem conclusions by the public and then harming a whole community.

The research is valid, and should continue, but Wakefield used and abused may horribly, and so autism should receive extra care in terms of how future studies portray it lest a bandwagon of harm spark again. It’s a more sensitive arena of study than others.

That’s all I’m saying.