Tag: bacteria

The link between our gut bacteria and immune system is complex and crucial to our health. Recent studies have started to reveal parts of this link, but a lot remains undiscovered. For instance, certain good bacteria were found to regulate our body’s — and brain’s — response to stress. Gut bacteria also modulate the body’s

Welcome aboard WH air …Where no one catches a cold, gets hobbled by jet lag or is served inedible food. Note these flight attendants’ easy travel tips and prepare to fly the healthy skies. Heather Sanchez Hydrate pre-boarding The humidity on most planes is typically less than 20 per cent (for comparison, the humidity in your

Feeling uncomfortable down there is not as uncommon (or embarrassing) as you might think. Whether it’s a flora imbalance or sex-related prob at play, the tricky thing is figuring out what’s caused the issue and whether there could be something more serious going on. That’s why we hit up Integrative Medicine Expert Dr Cris Beer,

When food poisoning strikes, we’re quick to point the finger at the suspicious chicken pad thai we had the night before. But more often than not, the culprit is actually a totally different ingredient: eggs. “Eggs are a brilliant food but you can assume the shell is carrying salmonella,” Lydia Buchtmann, spokesperson for the Food

Raise your hand if you’ve ever worn your sweat-soaked gym kit multiple times before giving it a rinse. There’s no way to sugar coat it: it’s a pretty darn dirty habit. But as it turns out, a surprising number of us are guilty as charged. According to research from fitness and yoga brand Sculptmode, one

The recent, nationwide E. coli outbreak tied to romaine lettuce might have stemmed from a contaminated irrigation canal, health officials said. The outbreak that sickened 210 people and killed five since March now seems to be over, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A few months ago, health officials had traced back

Chemical compounds produced by the bacteria in our gut could be used to spot the early stages of liver disease, according to new research. The findings, published in the journal Nature Medicine, hint at the potential for chemical by-products produced by the microbes living inside us to be used as early warning signs of disease,

Your kitchen towel may harbor a number of different bacteria, a new study finds. But does that mean your towel can actually make you sick? Although the new finding may sound gross, it doesn't mean you should ditch your kitchen towel; experts said the bacteria found on the towels in this study aren't particularly concerning

A hospital outbreak of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) became more worrisome when researchers found resistance genes being shared among unrelated bacteria via plasmids and other mobile genetic elements. This new research will be presented at ASM Microbe, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, held from June 7th through June 11th in Atlanta, Georgia.

A unique bacterial strain isolated from a patient with pelvic pain may represent a promising path to treating prostate cancer with immunotherapy, according to a Northwestern Medicine study published in Nature Communications. The study demonstrated how the bacterial strain travels directly to the prostate and induces low-level inflammation, boosting the effectiveness of immune checkpoint inhibitor

Immunization with beneficial bacteria can have long-lasting anti-inflammatory effects on the brain, making it more resilient to the physical and behavioral effects of stress, according to new research by University of Colorado Boulder scientists. The findings, if replicated in clinical trials could ultimately lead to new probiotic-based immunizations to protect against posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Activation of the immune system by an infection may temporarily disrupt formation of long-term memories in healthy, aging rats by reducing levels of a protein required for brain cells to make new connections, suggests new research published in eNeuro. Cognitive decline in old age is thought to be gradual, as in Alzheimer’s disease. However, an

UCLA scientists have identified specific gut bacteria that play an essential role in the anti-seizure effects of the high-fat, low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet. The study, published today in the journal Cell, is the first to establish a causal link between seizure susceptibility and the gut microbiota — the 100 trillion or so bacteria and other microbes

Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and collaborators have published the first major results from the American Gut Project, a crowdsourced, global citizen science effort. The project, described May 15 in mSystems, is the largest published study to date of the human microbiome — the unique microbial communities that inhabit our

A little-explored group of immune cells plays an important role in the regulation of intestinal bacteria. Changing metabolic states of the microbes have an effect on defense cells at different stages of alert or rest, as researchers from the Department of Biomedicine at the University and University Hospital of Basel report in the journal Mucosal

The urine of kidney disease patients contains a diverse mix of bacteria such as Staphylococcus and Streptococcus, according to a study by researchers at Loyola Medicine and Loyola University Chicago. The bacteria diversity generally was higher among kidney patients who also experienced urinary urgency (sudden, urgent need to urinate). The study findings could lead to

Eczema is the most common skin disease worldwide. People suffering from it often deal with a lifetime of painful symptoms. A new clinical trial is testing a natural treatment that researchers hope will provide a long-term solution for those dealing with the dry, itchy and painful skin that comes with chronic eczema. The trial uses

An incentive to switch to e-cigarettes? Smokers have more ‘bad’ and less ‘good’ bacteria than vapers putting them at greater risk of disease, finds study This puts them at higher risk of colon cancer, colitis, Crohn’s disease and obesity E-cig users have similar microbiomes to those without the notoriously bad habit Scientists today labelled the

New research from the Department of Food Science (FOOD) at the University of Copenhagen suggests that in the not-too-distant future, it might be possible to drink a cocktail of selective viruses (bacteriophages) that travel directly into the gut and kill the disease-causing bacteria without the use of antibiotics, and without harming the beneficial commensal intestinal

A sepsis awareness and management programme has demonstrated overall success in terms of improved sepsis detection, but has led to an increase in the number of E. coli blood stream infection cases presented, calling into question the targets used by Health Boards and set by the Welsh Government. Sepsis is a serious complication of an