Source https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2025/06/evidence-of-causation-in-human-data-on-the-gut-microbiome-and-age-related-conditions/
Given a body of human epidemiological data, one can typically only draw conclusions on correlations rather than causations: biomarkers A and B correlate with age-related condition X, but may or may not be involved in causing that condition. The research community designs animal studies to produce data on causation, and in many cases it is quite reasonable to lean on the results of those studies as support for the same path of causation in humans, but one can’t run those same causation-focused studies in humans.
Thus the research community has developed strategies to tease out support for causation from correlational human data. Mendelian randomization brings in data on genetic variants that are known to affect specific biomarkers or outcomes of age-related disease. When segmenting the human…
Source https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2025/06/evidence-of-causation-in-human-data-on-the-gut-microbiome-and-age-related-conditions/
Given a body of human epidemiological data, one can typically only draw conclusions on correlations rather than causations: biomarkers A and B correlate with age-related condition X, but may or may not be involved in causing that condition. The research community designs animal studies to produce data on causation, and in many cases it is quite reasonable to lean on the results of those studies as support for the same path of causation in humans, but one can’t run those same causation-focused studies in humans.
Thus the research community has developed strategies to tease out support for causation from correlational human data. Mendelian randomization brings in data on genetic variants that are known to affect specific biomarkers or outcomes of age-related disease. When segmenting the human…
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