Despite numerous #kaleidotropic detours into other interests, I'm continuing to make progress through Steve #Silberman's #NeuroTribes (as well as other #autism and #ADHD literature). I'm currently going through Chapter 10, Section VI. It's infuriating reading, because of the topic: the work (if it can be dignified with that label) of the infamous Dr. Andrew #Wakefield, the #antivax fraudster who falsely claimed to have found strong evidence that the #MMR vaccine causes autism.
Despite the emotional tough going, this section has been quite rewarding, because it has revealed a historical linkage I had been unaware of: the link between the #LeakyGut theory — so often trumpeted in the media as the source of a wide variety of physical and psychological ills — and the antivax movement. Even before Wakefield, the leaky gut theory had been a staple of the group of parents following Dr. Bernard #Rimland, another notorious antivaxer. Wakefield had originally trained as a gastroenterologist, and the idea that intestinal wall leakage was the root of all evils delighted him.
One moral I intend to draw from this story: the elevation of ANY favorable mention of #LeakyGut to red-flag status, warranting strong suspicion of antiscientific and socially toxic influences.