* the authors have already started a company and pursued a patent on their ayurvedic-derived formulation
* the figure 1(a) in their paper (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-25382-z#Fig1) doesn't show a big difference from plain probiotics to their formulation, but does show some oddities in the Y-axis where, for the control group, there were clearly exactly just 10 flies' mortality measured (integer steps down), but apparently many, many more for other cases scaled to the 0-10 axis.
* it's unclear if the treatments/evaluations where blinded – the word 'blind' is not found in the Nature article
* the 1st comment on the Nature article wonders: "the control flies didn't live to their normal expected age or even close. What gives?"
(Perhaps the flies that lived longer just had more food in total?)
I think this paper has value, in that it basically replicates the SCFA diet results others have seen. But the qPCR graphs are kinda hopeless.
>the authors have already started a company and pursued a patent on their ayurvedic-derived formulation
The fruit fly microbiome is exactly 2 organisms. The human microbiome is somewhat more complex - several hundred genera at least. It's pretty hard to draw a connection between the microbiomes of these two animals.
1. Wayyyyy too much industry involvement, much of it not properly disclosed (OP here is a classical and representative example).
2. Lots of research from relatively small and "less known" institutes, done by researchers with hard to verify credentials.
3. Low scientific standards. That'd include:
- Refusal to share data
- Refusal to share data analysis methods
- Not keeping the basics of a double-blinded test
- No reproduction, and not even the possibility of independent reproducibility, as the methods are described so vaguely.
Remember when it was vitamin D?
But they are still way better than the diseases they cure, and definitely better than death!
I feel as though there is some degree of ostrich-syndrome when it comes to the deterioration of American physical and mental health. Something is causing this change, and most convenient explanations (lethargic lifestyles, internet, etc) do not really work since that would imply a comparable decline in other areas that have also seen such changes, yet the correlations there are spotty at best.
A lot of factors are probably involved as you say, but if I had to guess at the elephant-in-the-room dominant factor I'd say it's the US's model of what's euphemistically called "health care" and "health insurance." It's a complete no-brainer that people who can't afford medical treatment are dying earlier.
I think it is implied that the cause of death is ageing? What else would it be (lab fruit flies don't have predators)?
I found a hint here: http://genomics.senescence.info/species/entry.php?species=Dr...
> Little is known about causes of death in old fruit flies but cardiac ageing has been reported [0981].
That sentence indicates that the question is not very well researched?
If that is true I find it amazing that there are ageing studies, shouldn't their own cause of death be well-known?
To @gweinberg, if you are reading this, what do you base this on? You wrote
> few of them die from age related causes
For comparison, dietary restriction increases longevity in rats and mice by up to 45%, but this may only be in lab animals
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&ge...