First multiple "Overselling the microbiome award": the Daily Mail article on Germs

At the recent "Future of Genomic Medicine" meeting, George Church gave me some grief over my "Overselling the microbiome award" because he thinks (rightly) that some people also undersell the microbiome. So I set out today to find an example to give out such an award.  And within seconds I bumped into this: Germs: There are bugs that cure infections, protect against stroke and even keep your skin clear | Mail Online in the Daily Mail.  Wow.  And not in a good way.  Oh well, so much for the underselling award.  Just the title made me cringe.  And so so so so many of the details are so so bad. Where to start.  I guess from the beginning. ".The secret lies in the balance of the bugs, which exist in a fragile ecosystem. Knock one out and the system goes haywire." Umm.  No.  Not that I know of.  Knock one out?  What evidence is there for this?  None. "Imbalances in gut bacteria, for instance, have been linked with diabetes, obesity, autism, eczema, psoriasis, asthma and inflammatory bowel conditions such ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease" ".... may even ... cause ... multiple sclerosis " Holy crap.  That sounds awesome.  Except that there are all correlations so far with no known causative role at least in humans. Then they list some of the other good things microbes apparently have been proven to do: "ANXIETY-BUSTING GUT BACTERIA" "It seems that the type of bugs you have in...
Source: The Tree of Life - Category: Medical Scientists Authors: Source Type: blogs