Abstracts
Microbes Are What You Eat
Most nutritional therapists and others that regard the role of the bacterial populations in the human gut as being a significant part of our capacity to operate and function in health or otherwise, understand that food choice has an effect.
A recent study on mice published in Science raises some very interesting early observations.[1] The same group published an earlier study exploring the same strategy.[2] Aware that food choices alter bacterial colony ratios and may favour certain bacterial species over others, mice were impregnated with a small number of commonly found human bacteria (10) and then were fed, via human pureed baby food concentrations of 4 commonly consumed ingredients. The researchers state that some 60% of the variation in species is attributable to dietary food choice.
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The Appendix – Why We Need It
The term vestigial organ is used to describe tissues that are typically in a degenerate, atrophied, or rudimentary condition, and the appendix has long been characterised as such a tissue. The work of Dr’s William Parker and Randall Bollinger have raised a number of interesting observations that indicate this tissue should be given an updated and relevant title.
To coin a phrase it is a ‘reservoir of dogs bacteria’, providing a safe repository or bank of bacterial species able to re-colonise in the event of a traumatic disruption of the microbial mix, such as that experienced after diahorrea or antibiotic use.[1]
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Review of Role of Probiotics & IBS Resolution
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Functional gut problems, such as those classified by the Rome criteria as IBS are a significant health problem for many people. The use of probiotics as a single or multiple intervention offers a potential route to resolution, but the data is as yet inconsistent and in need of further clarification. This is the opinion of a group from Thames Valley University in a recently published review.[1]
L-Theanine Reduces Anxiety – Quickly
L-theanine is an amino acid found in tea leaves. Previous studies of dietary supplements of L-theanine have suggested a therapeutic benefit in reducing stress, promoting relaxation, and improving the quality of sleep.
Akiko Higashiyama, from University of Shiga Prefecture (Japan), and colleagues have found that daily L-theanine supplementation at 200 mg/day helps people with anxiety to focus on their daily activities. The researchers recruited 18 healthy University students and assessed their anxiety levels using a standardised rating scale. Student with high anxiety were put in one group, while students with minimal anxiety were put in another group. Both groups received water or water plus 200 mg of L-theanine per 100 ml of water. [1]
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Vitamin D and Parkinson’s Disease Correlations Identified
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Back in 2008 a team of researchers published a paper in the Archives of Neurology that exposed a striking incidence of Vitamin D deficiency in patients diagnosed with Parkinsons Disease.[1] They compared the Parkinson’s patients with healthy controls and patients with diagnosed Alzheimers disease. In both groups the Parkinson’s patients presented with reduced Vit D status compared to the others.
Allergic to Peanuts? For some eating them may help.
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In one more of the rapidly developing field of immunotherapy in the treatment of allergy by training the oral tolerance mechanisms in our bodies, a group of 22 children (median age 11) with peanut allergies were fed under medical supervision a dose of peanuts made into flour and mixed in chocolate over several months.[1]
Tolerance of baked goods containing milk is good prognostic indicator.
Many people suffer from an allergy to cow’s milk and other common foods, and whilst avoidance of the trigger has long been seen as the gold standard of management an evolving mechanism for treatment is being developed using oral tolerance triggers to restore food exposure competence.
Studies in several clinical trials in allergen-sublingual immunotherapy (SIT) have demonstrated that the induction of a tolerant state against allergens in many ways represents a key step in the development of a healthy immune response against allergens. Several cellular and molecular mechanisms have been demonstrated: allergen-specific suppressive capacities of both inducible subsets of CD4(+) CD25(+) forkhead box P3(+) T-regulatory and IL-10-secreting type 1 T-regulatory cells increase in peripheral blood; suppression of eosinophils, mast cells, and basophils; Antibody isotype change from IgE to IgG4.[1]
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Gluten Sensitivity NOT Coeliac – does it exist?
There are questions in the literature, at Dr’s Surgeries, in hospitals and in clinics relating to the existence of gluten generated problems including, increased gut permeability and gastrointestinal symptoms in patients that do not diagnostically qualify as being coeliac.
In fact many people will state they are aware that not eating gluten helps them, and aids well -being , and may even resolve quite significant physical distress. They note recovery on a GFD and yet still have problems achieving medical and family support for their activities.
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Chondroitin Sulphate and Bones
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The position taken by more conservative assessors of the role of micro-nutrient supplementation as a mechanism for managing joint damage is that there is little evidence of any quality to support unequivocal recommendations. Yet many people have found improvement beyond that which may be engendered by the ubiquitous placebo benefits due to time and x-ray confirming changes. That is unless placebo can increase articular cartilage in which case we can all settle down to a night time drink sweetened with those magic pills of sugar! – or would that be an ethically challenging Morpheus inducer?
Antibiotics and IBD in Childhood
Inflammatory Bowel Disease such as Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn’s blight people’s lives and restrict their functionality. The formative years of our lives represents the time when microbiological partnerships are being formed to provide lifelong co-dependence on each other. The role of the microbiota in immune tolerance in the gut and elsewhere is increasingly understood but is still an area rich for investigation.
In this study of Danish children a nationwide cohort study was conducted of all Danish singleton children born from 1995 to 2003 (N=577,627) with individual-level information on filled antibiotic prescriptions, IBD and potential confounding variables.[1] Using Poisson regression, rate ratios (RRs) of IBD were calculated according to antibiotic use. Antibiotic use was classified according to time since use, type, number of courses used and age at use.
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