Guardian article

I saw this too. Any of the great minds here have any ideas as to what it might be logical to do if this research is right?

Huh that's a new one on me.

"Certain bacteria in the gut are known to convert bile acids, produced by the liver, into other substances, called secondary bile acids – these substances have recently been suggested to have an anti-inflammatory role."

"The team analysed faeces from patients in each group, finding that patients treated for ulcerative colitis had far lower levels of certain secondary bile acids than the other group. Their faeces contained far less evidence of bacterial genes necessary for the production of these substances.They also had less diverse bacteria in their faeces that the other group, and more specifically, far lower levels of ruminococcaceae. Such bacteria are among those able to convert bile acids to secondary bile acids."

"However, she said it was still unclear if the shift in bacteria and depletion of secondary bile acids were a cause or an effect of such conditions."

The last line is the real-kicker. We know we have wacky bacterium/virus/fungi mixes of intestinal bacterium, lower diversity, more baddies, and less goodies. However, is that a symptom or causative (I believe it is a symptom and others here would say causative).