The headline is broadly defensible, but the qualifications matter. Effect sizes vary by population, the strongest claims rest on shorter trials, and credible voices push back on how it's typically framed.
And all along its length, there are a series of sphincters that cut off certain chambers of the digestive tract from the other chambers. Now, also along this tube that we call the digestive tract, there's great variation in the degree of acidity, or pH as it's sometimes called. That variation in acidity turns out to give rise to different little microenvironments in which particular microbiota, microbacteria, can thrive or fail to thrive.
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Native comments, Twitter mentions, and Reddit threads about this claim — surfaced together so the conversation isn't fragmented across platforms.
Bookmarking — the dossier-vs-overview split is the right call. Most of the time I want overview; sometimes I want receipts.
Would love a "what would change this verdict" RSS feed. Sign me up if it exists.
I believe that our pH or the pH of our digestive system varies as you descend, as you go from mouth to throat and stomach. And you said that most of the microbiota are in the distal colon. Are there distinct forms of microbiota all along the length of the digestive tract, and within these other interfaces with the outside world? - Totally. Yeah. So it starts with our teeth and in our mouth, and saliva, there's a oral microbiota. These microbial species are very different than the ones that you find in the digestive tract.