Tag: Colitis

Much remains mysterious about the factors influencing human inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but one aspect that has emerged as a key contributor is the gut microbiome, the collection of microorganisms dwelling in the intestines. Diet is known to profoundly affect this microbial community, and special diets have been used as therapies for intestinal disorders including

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a common gastrointestinal disorder affecting 10 — 20 per cent of people. Abdominal pain, bloating and altered bowel habit significantly affect patient’s quality of life and can force them to take days off work. Previous research (the ACTIB trial) led by Professor Hazel Everitt at the University of Southampton in

In recent decades, patients in Europe coming in for colectomies, or surgical procedures targeted at the colon, have not been routinely subjected to what is known as bowel preparation, where the bowel is emptied before the operation. In the United States , on the other hand, cleansing the bowel is relatively common. Several extensive retrospective

Inflammatory bowel diseases are chronic, painful disorders of the intestine that afflict roughly 1.5 million people in the United States. Yet the underlying mechanisms of these diseases, which include ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, are not well understood. Even patients with the same diagnosis can have drastically different responses to treatment, and their symptom flare-ups

Millions of people take capsules of probiotics with the goal of improving their digestion, but what if those bacteria were also able to detect diseases in the gut and indicate when something is awry? New research from the Wyss Institute at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School (HMS) has created an effective, non-invasive way to

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found, in mice, that treatment with an antibiotic reduces the size of lesions caused by endometriosis. The researchers are planning a large, multicenter clinical trial to test the drug metronidazole in women who have the painful condition. The study is published online April 30

Cutting-edge discovery in the lab of Catherine Hunter, MD, from Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago offers a new direction toward treatment of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) — a devastating intestinal emergency that occurs in up to 10 percent of premature infants. NEC is a leading cause

A tree’s growth is dependent on nutrients from the soil and water, as well as the microbes in, on, and around the roots. Similarly, a human’s health is shaped both by environmental factors and the body’s interactions with the microbiome, particularly in the gut. Genome sequences are critical for characterizing individual microbes and understanding their

Researchers at Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and colleagues, discovered a promising direction toward understanding the development of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a devastating intestinal disease commonly affecting premature infants, in order to treat it. Studying the early cellular events leading to NEC in a mouse

Men with inflammatory bowel disease have four to five times higher risk of being diagnosed with prostate cancer, reports a 20-year study from Northwestern Medicine. This is the first report to show men with inflammatory bowel disease have higher than average PSA (prostate-specific antigen) values, and this group also has a significantly higher risk of

Newborns require special diagnosis and treatment considerations for an infectious diarrhea known as Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) infection, according to a new evidence-based white paper published today in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. The publication is in conjunction with the release of a companion review

Married people who fight nastily are more likely to suffer from leaky guts — a problem that unleashes bacteria into the blood and can drive up disease-causing inflammation, new research suggests. It’s the first study to illuminate this particular pathway between bad marriages and poor health, said lead author Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, director of the Institute

It turns out that exercise can do more than slim down your waistline and boost heart health. It might also make what’s inside your gut healthier, according to a new study by San Francisco State University. In this first-of-its-kind study, just published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, recent SF State

Scientists headed by ICREA researcher Angel R. Nebreda at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) report a new mechanism that contributes to the development of inflammation-associated colon cancer and points to new therapeutic targets. The study has been published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine. More than a million people worldwide are diagnosed

Millions of neurons in the gastrointestinal tract coordinate their activity to generate the muscle contractions that propel waste through the last leg of the digestive system, according to a study of isolated mouse colons published in JNeurosci. The newly identified neuronal firing pattern may represent an early feature preserved through the evolution of nervous systems.

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

New research coordinated by Karolinska Institutet in Sweden links certain DNA variants to increased risk of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in women. The findings, published in the scientific journal Gastroenterology, might help explain why IBS is more common in women than in men. Irritable bowel syndrome is the most common gastrointestinal disorder. More than 10