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I don't think new research studies are dismissed or discussion discouraged on this forum. Studies are critiqued, not just accepted at face value. As for the four categories of research you appear to think are being wrongly dismissed, I think you should consider them separately as they have been...

This extensive study from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), examines the effects of more than 1000 human targeted drugs on 40 strains of the most dominant gut microbial species. It is published in the prestigious journal Nature, a reflection of the high quality of the research...

I find LDN very helpful for dampening an overactive sympathetic nervous system and stabilising blood pressure. I recall others reporting beneficial autonomic effects (probably on PR). Whether this is mediated by the action of naltrexone on TLR4, which is thought to be the reason for the...

There is a related thread discussing a report on this study, rather than the actual study. I discussed what fructans actually are in that thread that noted that The original paper also misses the point. In any case, the study itself is not terribly impressive. In the summary they state In...

Yes they both sequence segments of the 16S rRNA gene which is specific to bacteria and for which there is an extensive database. I'm not sure if they sequence exactly the same segment of the gene but even if they used different segments it would make little difference to the overall result.

Don't get too caught up in the detail. It is a very technical paper and you really don't need to know about most of it. I linked it because Fig 3 gives a graphic summary of the identity of the common core of most abundant species. In this paper, Fig 3 gives a graphical overview of the major...

Only a tiny proportion are identified by commercial culture-based techniques, but DNA sequencing techniques can detect everything that is there (including non-bacterial inhabitants). This is how we know about the completely distorted picture given by the older tests. It is true that many of...

Those statements are based on the distorted picture of the gut given by culture based tests. Once DNA sequencing techniques were applied to the gut microbiota it became apparent that the aerobic species detected by culture were very minor constituents. If you look at any general survey of the...

Thrombocytes are platelets. These are the small blood cells that clump together to form a clot. Platelet count is one element of the standard full blood count. Slight elevations are common and are unlikely to mean much. The article linked by @Mattie explains the significance of more serious...

Ferritin is an acute phase protein so also increases in the inflammatory response. So elevated ferritin can indicate iron overload, liver damage/disease and various other illnesses. Here is a useful summary. Mild elevations of ferritin (300- 1000 ng/l) are very common and may not mean anything...

My impression is that my hypersensitivity - to both drugs and other things - is both selective and variable. When I first got sick around 2000, I was supersentive to everything, food, chemicals, supplements, allergic rhinitis out of control - don't think I was taking any prescription drugs then...

I'm getting wary of studies on the gut microbiota. When they first started coming out the concepts and technology involved were all so new that each one was interesting. Now they've become fashionable and everyone it seems is trying to get on the bandwagon. The result is a lot of pretty boring...

Absolutely. Low fat anything is junk, it has to be loaded up with additives to make it palatable.

I experienced it personally. I was an outsider who had discovered something new (being a woman in a male-dominated scientific world didn't help either). A common response was, to the effect - "But how could you have discovered something new? That means we missed it and we are the experts. You...

What a great study! A reminder to seek out food as uncontaminated by industrial processing as possible. And of course real icecream has no need for trehalose - it's just cream, egg yolk, sugar and fruit (or other flavouring). Industrial processes substitute cheap ingredients which can't...

Please note that folic acid is not a natural form of folate and while we can convert it into a useable form, the process is not without problems. Folic acid is processed by the enzyme dihydrohydrofolate reductase (DHFR) in a two step reaction. First folic acid is converted to dihydrofolate...

Please note that folic acid is not a natural form of folate and while we can convert it into a useable form, the process is not without problems. Folic acid is processed by the enzyme dihydrohydrofolate reductase (DHFR) in a two step reaction. First folic acid is converted to dihydrofolate...

The active form of vitamin D, calcitriol, does act as a hormone - that is its normal role - nothing to worry about. It has widespread metabolic effects well beyond bone mineralisation and bone growth. The usual form of vitamin D supplement is cholecalciferol, aka vitamin D3. Think of this as a...

I have had the short synacthen test. It didn't have any adverse effects, nor did I get any boost from it.

Even if the miRNA study does show a real statistical difference between the test and control patients (which I doubt since in their original publication they specifically say they didn't correct for multiple comparisons - ) what on earth does this have to do with calcium in cells? I am tired...