Alcohol, Bowel Movements May Confound Microbiology Studies

A review offers a glimpse of previously unconsidered variables that could hinder efforts to identify true correlations between disease and gut microbiome composition.

Written byMax Kozlov

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Gut microbes represent a complex ecology of tens of trillions of bacterial cells that have far-reaching effects—from mental health disorders to cardiovascular health. While the composition of the microbiome has been correlated with certain diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, it is hard to unpack whether such associations are just correlation, a consequence of the health condition, or a cause or contribution of the illness.

A review published in Nature on November 4 aims to search for potentially confounding variables by analyzing physiological and lifestyle differences between people with and without a particular disease and identifying differences that might be associated with the composition of the gut microbiota.

The Scientist spoke with National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases immunologist Ivan Vujkovic-Cvijin, a postdoc and coauthor of the review, about its findings.

Ivan Vujkovic-Cvijin: I’ve been involved in the field of examining how the gut microbiome may ...

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Meet the Author

Max Kozlov
Max is a science journalist from Boston. Though he studied cognitive neuroscience, he now prefers to write about brains rather than research them. Prior to writing for The Scientist as an editorial intern in late 2020 and early 2021, Max worked at the Museum of Science in Boston, where his favorite part of the job was dressing in a giant bee costume and teaching children about honeybees. He was also a AAAS Mass Media Fellow, where he worked as a science reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Read more of his work at www.maxkozlov.com.
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