They still have much to learn.
Not being my line of work, can you back that up?
A straw man is a form of argument and an informal fallacy based on giving the impression of refuting an opponent’s argument, while actually refuting an argument that was not presented by that opponent. One who engages in this fallacy is said to be “attacking a straw man”.
40 years ago in Med School the number of “gut hormones” known at that time was escalating wildly. Even then there were a number that were known only by their actions and yet to be identified. Part of learning is learning just how much you don’t know and every question answered asks at least twenty more.
First off, if you desire a cogent response, don’t go accusing a person of being straw man (a blatant misuse of the term in this case). I almost dismissed your comment, but I’m in a good mood today. I’ve written 250k words in all of my works and performed THOUSANDS of hours of research pursuant to my health recovery and what ultimately resulted in my (still unpublished/unfinished) books.
As stated, there IS some enlightening content in that article, but it will be FIFTY YEARS before they understand the gut (they know next to nothing now).
I know: I recovered from a condition which has no medical name and referenced only by internet-searchable terms.
Furthermore, a doctor was CURING Celiac disease over 70 years ago. So why are people being told that it is incurable???
On the article, just a couple of examples (I have to get back to my day job):
1. “By breaking down nutrients and helping them pass through the walls of the bowel, these microbes serve as a sort of gatekeeper between what is eaten and what actually makes it into the body.”
False. The diverse colony of the microbiome slows the absorption process, permitting digestion of a healthy endocrine system to occur via the excretions of the liver. The microbiome also helps convert nutrients into bioavailable compounds for absorption. The microbiome’s primary role is to protect the intestinal villi, the TRUE gatekeeper of the gut. Absorption is a process referenced as “Transcellular Transport.”
Evidence (PPT with terms for search): https://www.naspghan.org/files/documents/pdfs/training/curriculum-resources/physiology-series/Water_and_electrolytes_final_NASPGHAN.ppt
2. “Researchers have only recently shown that these antibiotics kill off some of the microbes that occur normally in the gut and help livestock, and people, digest food.”
False. This is knowledge nearly half a century old,
Evidence: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/847290/1/10798311.pdf
I could go on. In short, this article is a continuation of a biased medical community seeking out single-point fixes for a very convoluted problem with multiple paths of causation...ironically resulting in similar yet very diverse symptoms across the populace.
This is why I tongue-in-cheek coin packaged probiotics “snake oil”: You can take all the probiotics you would like, but they won’t solve a damned thing if the body isn’t permitted to heal. That means REMOVING that which damaged the digestive system in the first place BEFORE permanent damage occurs.
I.e., “leaky gut” (a non-medical term) may not be fully recoverable due to damaged colon. Same goes for Crohn’s and Celiac disease.
Furthermore, a person’s microbiome and, by consequence, their immune system, develops slowly and continuously throughout childhood until around late-teens. The makeup of a person’s microbiome is as much a product of their environment as what a person consumes (and likewise does NOT consume). Until medicine fully-understands the gut, it is more effective for a person in dire straits to buy another’s fecal sample and do a transplant via a Youtube video than seeing a doctor.
That’s the pathetic footnote to all of this crap (pun intended).