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Dysbiosis is not an answer

Nature Microbiology volume 1, Article number: 16228 (2016) Cite this article

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Dysbiosis, an imbalance in the microbiota, has been a major organizing concept in microbiome science. Here, we discuss how the balance concept, a holdover from prescientific thought, is irrelevant to — and may even distract from — useful microbiome research.

Throughout most of Western medical history, it was believed that the digestion of foods produced humours: mostly invisible liquids that were transformed into the materials that make up the body. Humoural theory dictated that diseases were caused by imbalances in these humours. A doctor's role was to help the body correct this imbalance, either by altering a patient's diet — thus changing the intake of humours — or by expelling excess humours, for example, by bloodletting1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Scott W. Olesen and Eric J. Alm are in the Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.,

    Scott W. Olesen & Eric J. Alm

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  1. Scott W. Olesen
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  2. Eric J. Alm
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Correspondence to Eric J. Alm.

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Olesen, S., Alm, E. Dysbiosis is not an answer. Nat Microbiol 1, 16228 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.228

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.228

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