Intestinal microbiota, probiotics and mental health: from Metchnikoff to modern advances: Part I - autointoxication revisited

secondary literature · 2013

type:secondary literature

year:2013

citation:Bested AC, Logan AC, Selhub EM. 'Intestinal microbiota, probiotics and mental health: from Metchnikoff to modern advances: Part I - autointoxication revisited.' *Gut Pathogens* 2013;5(1):5. doi:10.1186/1757-4749-5-5. PubMed: 23506618.

LINK

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3607857/

SUMMARY

Historical review of the intestinal-autointoxication theory and its eventual rejection, used in this case for the disconfirmation arc. The paper traces autointoxication from its late-19th-century origins through the Metchnikoff-era enthusiasm for lactic-acid bacteria, and documents its decline. It identifies Walter C. Alvarez, an internal-medicine physician, as one of the most vehement critics of the theory: Alvarez argued that putrefactive substances are not absorbed from the intestinal tract in any harmful quantity and that autointoxication functioned as a diagnostic 'cloak of ignorance' for other conditions. The review is the appropriate secondary source for the empirical and conceptual collapse of the autointoxication framework that underpinned the sour-milk longevity claim.

NOTES

The Bested, Logan and Selhub 2013 Gut Pathogens review (Part I, ‘autointoxication revisited’) is the appropriate citation for the rise and fall of the intestinal-autointoxication theory that underpinned Metchnikoff’s sour-milk programme. The paper documents the period enthusiasm for lactic-acid bacteria and acidophilus products and then the theory’s decline, naming Walter C. Alvarez as a leading critic who challenged the claim that putrefactive substances are absorbed from the gut in harmful amounts and who characterized autointoxication as a label applied where the real cause was unknown. The review distinguishes the discarded autointoxication framework from the genuine, separately evidenced findings of modern microbiome research. Identifiers confirmed against the PubMed record (PMID 23506618) and the Crossref record (DOI 10.1186/1757-4749-5-5).