THE BIOME BUZZ
BUGS AND WORMS AND OTHER GREAT STUFF
Category: Uncategorized
Food Processing: Another Suspect in the ‘Globesity’ Epidemic?
Last night, I read an article that fit absolutely perfectly into my unintentional but prominent theme of the last couple of weeks: the relationship of the microbiome to weight issues…and to food: “Food Processing, Gut Microbiota and the Globesity Problem.”[i] Yup – we face…
Helminths in the Lay Press: A Few Interesting Tidbits
A couple of articles about helminths have appeared recently in the lay press that struck me for various reasons. While it’s always great to see helminth therapy getting good press, unfortunately, there tends to be misinformation printed that can often do more harm than…
The Ugly Truth About Published Science
Today’s post is off topic in terms of the biome, but very much on topic with regards to my last post, in which I bemoaned the insane amount of sensationalism that has crept into even science. Turns out, I was spot on. In discussing…
Fake News…Not Even Science is Sacrosanct
I remind myself almost daily that fake news is not new. Think of the days of William Randolph Hearst and yellow journalism. Think of all the times you’ve been on the checkout line at the grocery store and read those headlines about the woman…
The Specific Carbohydrate Diet: A First-Line Treatment (Finally)
In January of this year, I wrote about a small study on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet out of Seattle Children’s Hospital. 8 out of 10 children went into remission after only 12 weeks on SCD, which is actually a very short time. I just…
Pet Allergies…I Mean…Allergies in Pets
Three weeks ago, I walked into Petco to get a few things for my 12 year old Australian shepherd…and there she was. A local shelter was having an adoption day, and a little, white puppy made her way over to me, climbed up to…
Autism, the Biome and Potential Treatments
Fist pump! A paper that actually presents information that can help people who are sick! Woopa! As promised, here is a summary of that fantastic article[i] about autism and the biome that I discovered on Dr. MacFabe’s new website. I’ve ranted enough over the…
Helminths at the Movies
Several years ago, I was interviewed by a then-graduate student at NYU’s film school. Sharon Shattuck was studying documentary film making, and with her science background, had stumbled across and become interested in the concept of therapeutic helminths. She took the train up from…
For Valentine’s Day: A Paper that I LOVED
“…the current generation is facing an epidemic of diseases associated with dysregulated inflammation…” says Dr. P’ng Loke and his colleague, Dr. Yvonne Lim, in an article[i] I just finished on the interactions of the microbiota and helminths. This is, without a doubt, one of…
Dr. Derrick MacFabe, Autism and The Metabolome
Many years ago, I first saw Dr. Derrick MacFabe speak at an autism conference. It was among the most memorable talks I’ve ever seen. Dr. MacFabe’s research centers around the cognitive and behavioral effects of bacterial metabolites (especially short chain fatty acids). Proprionic acid…
