I've never believed that changing one's diet will cure autoimmune diseases. The autoimmunity is from a genetic alteration. Diet could possibly help dampen effects, but diet is difficult to control, not just "willpower" but environmental exposure, and the metabolic pathways are long and quite diverse from person to person.
The bigger question is how do we control the gut microbiota effectively and accurately?
ALSO, I must point out:
>> Consumption of a high-fat, low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet (KD) improves MS-related symptoms in humans
This is a SKEPTICAL claim, as the footnote trial references used do NOT state this.
Most people have an incredibly shitty diet that can be improved 10x by implementing simple rules.
Some people are ignorant, some people are lazy, some people are addicted, some people straight up don't care
My dad didn't even know the difference between carbs and sugar, as in if his doctor told him to eat 100gr of carbs per day he wouldn't know what's best between sweet potatoes or pure white sugar. It's almost like not knowing you need o2 to breath or water to survive
One would hope, and perhaps I'm wrong here, that people with serious autoimmune diseases are past this phase, and have already tried altering their diet to improve their symptoms and extend their lives.
Your general skepticism of the impact of diet on autoimmune disease modification is warranted, but only in a very hand-wavy sense. Also…
1. The article does not claim that diet modification cures autoimmunity
2. Autoimmunity is partly but not wholly genetic, and the genetic component usually can’t be described as “a genetic alteration”— it’s more a collection of a large number of interacting genetic predispositions (and that is usually coupled with various environmental and random factors). Either way, diet and genetics interact in many ways.
3. It is not at all surprising (in general) to find that interventions at the level of lipid metabolism result in measurable changes in disease model biomarkers… Although the specifics are very interesting. This is a great paper.
It does say "protect against," though, which to me raises the question of "protects against to what extent?"
Which, related to your point about collections of interacting genes: I ran a Promethease report on my genetic data, and it said I had 15-20 different genes associated with an elevated risk of a particular autoimmune disease that I do, in fact, currently suffer from. So in a case like that, I suspect (but obviously can't say for sure) that protective diets have a much harder battle to fight than for someone who doesn't have all those genes.
It’s not completely wrong, it’s just way too specific. Autoimmunity usually has an important (known) genetic basis.
I just wouldn’t word it as something so simple as “a genetic alteration”. It’s usually more like “a combination of hundreds of genetic predispositions”, which could comprise acquired mutations as well as natural variants of various genes. And that is quite often mixed in with a few dozen environmental or epidemiological factors.
Typo in title: "shape" should be "shapes". Otherwise it's just a string of nouns.
Title character limit, adding the "s" results in
>1 too long
I find it more readable to have shapes, maybe change microbiota to microbiom to save a character?
it says shapes on mine
In mice
This is a very valid comment, for once— especially as we’re talking about a disease model rather than the disease itself.
Nonetheless, we gain very important and interesting mechanistic insights from this, which truly helps us better understand human pathobiology.
(biochemist)
I've never believed that changing one's diet will cure autoimmune diseases. The autoimmunity is from a genetic alteration. Diet could possibly help dampen effects, but diet is difficult to control, not just "willpower" but environmental exposure, and the metabolic pathways are long and quite diverse from person to person.
The bigger question is how do we control the gut microbiota effectively and accurately?
ALSO, I must point out:
>> Consumption of a high-fat, low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet (KD) improves MS-related symptoms in humans
This is a SKEPTICAL claim, as the footnote trial references used do NOT state this.
Most people have an incredibly shitty diet that can be improved 10x by implementing simple rules.
Some people are ignorant, some people are lazy, some people are addicted, some people straight up don't care
My dad didn't even know the difference between carbs and sugar, as in if his doctor told him to eat 100gr of carbs per day he wouldn't know what's best between sweet potatoes or pure white sugar. It's almost like not knowing you need o2 to breath or water to survive
One would hope, and perhaps I'm wrong here, that people with serious autoimmune diseases are past this phase, and have already tried altering their diet to improve their symptoms and extend their lives.
Your general skepticism of the impact of diet on autoimmune disease modification is warranted, but only in a very hand-wavy sense. Also…
1. The article does not claim that diet modification cures autoimmunity
2. Autoimmunity is partly but not wholly genetic, and the genetic component usually can’t be described as “a genetic alteration”— it’s more a collection of a large number of interacting genetic predispositions (and that is usually coupled with various environmental and random factors). Either way, diet and genetics interact in many ways.
3. It is not at all surprising (in general) to find that interventions at the level of lipid metabolism result in measurable changes in disease model biomarkers… Although the specifics are very interesting. This is a great paper.
(biochemist)
It does say "protect against," though, which to me raises the question of "protects against to what extent?"
Which, related to your point about collections of interacting genes: I ran a Promethease report on my genetic data, and it said I had 15-20 different genes associated with an elevated risk of a particular autoimmune disease that I do, in fact, currently suffer from. So in a case like that, I suspect (but obviously can't say for sure) that protective diets have a much harder battle to fight than for someone who doesn't have all those genes.
The devil is in the details, but you ask the right questions.
> The autoimmunity is from a genetic alteration
That's quite the sweeping claim. What are you basing that on?
It’s not completely wrong, it’s just way too specific. Autoimmunity usually has an important (known) genetic basis.
I just wouldn’t word it as something so simple as “a genetic alteration”. It’s usually more like “a combination of hundreds of genetic predispositions”, which could comprise acquired mutations as well as natural variants of various genes. And that is quite often mixed in with a few dozen environmental or epidemiological factors.
Autoimmune diseases having a genetic basis is a completely different statement than saying they occur because of genetic alteration.
You are correct and I want to be accurate. Autoimmune is genetic risk alleles plus environment, whereas cancer is genetic alteration.
https://pathology.jhu.edu/autoimmune/development
Your cancer comment is generally wrong for the same reason your autoimmunity comment was generally wrong.
I give laypeople a bit of leeway on language precision.
"Diet could possibly help dampen effects"
If you are on the Standard American Diet, and having autoimmune disorders, then improving any diet can 'dampen', and that might be enough.
Don't think anybody thinks diet is a 'cure' of autoimmune disorders, just some improvement.
All of your statements are inconsistent with what we actually know.