Our skinny period
Probably early 80s
Cat is Whiskers
The latest Economist has a very interesting medical
article that – while it doesn’t have an obvious connection to ovarian cancer –
I would like to pass on to you.
Autism is
often in the news, so you know what it is.
Now doctors talk about “ASD”, which stands for autism spectral disorder. Asperger’s syndrome is on the ASD
spectrum. One in 59 newborns currently express
some form of ASD.
Well, it
turns out that ASD likely results from an abnormality in gut bacteria, and may
respond to something called MTT (microbiota transfer therapy), involving –
among other things – that favorite of 11-year-old boys, fecal transplants. (See ancient blog https://ljb-quiltcutie.blogspot.com/2012/11/microbes-maketh-man.html
for context.)
It appears that certain gut bacteria are
necessary to the proper functioning of several neuro-transmitters that play a
vital role in the brain. Detailed and
convincing cause-and-effect is absent, but it is robustly demonstrated that
people with ASD consistently lack
specific bacterial species common to the human to the alimentary
tract.
This
(recognition of the vital role of gut bacteria in human health) is described by
some as a “paradigm shift” (think: plate tectonics or the atomic theory). The research described by the Economist has been fast-tracked by the
FDA, and is being avidly pursued by an outfit called Fox Therapeutic Group,
located in Massachusetts. If Fox were on the stock exchange and I had any money I would buy some of their stock. But they aren’t. and I don’t.
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