THE BIOME BUZZ
BUGS AND WORMS AND OTHER GREAT STUFF
Tag: allergy
FMT Reduces Sensitivity to Peanuts Even in the Highly Allergic
A quick note this week to tell you about a very exciting clinical study that was just reported this weekend, out of Boston Children’s Hospital. The trial was a phase one, and thus small – only 15 participants, aged 18-33, who have severe peanut… Continue Reading “FMT Reduces Sensitivity to Peanuts Even in the Highly Allergic”
Prevotella: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
How many times on this blog have a talked about how insanely complex is the human biome? Yesterday, I had one of those moments where I almost threw up my hands and thought, “I give up!” Everything seems so damn contradictory. Then, of course,… Continue Reading “Prevotella: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”
Progress on Treating Food Allergy: Manipulating the Bacterial Microbiome
As you all know, I am always on the look out for good news on the “what can we do about it now” front – or at least meaningful progress toward a solution. I very much enjoyed an article yesterday in Scientific American on… Continue Reading “Progress on Treating Food Allergy: Manipulating the Bacterial Microbiome”
The Maternal Microbiome and Risk for Food Allergy in Babies
The big (biome) buzz of the last couple of weeks: research just published out of Australia shows that the presence of a certain species of gut bacteria, Prevotella copri, in pregnant women protects babies from developing food allergies – at least within their first… Continue Reading “The Maternal Microbiome and Risk for Food Allergy in Babies”
Helminths and the Microbiome: An Anti-Inflammatory Partnership
It isn’t often that I find new research on helminths and equally rare to find one on the interactions of the various species of resident in the gut, so I was particularly pleased to find an actual human clinical study looking at how the… Continue Reading “Helminths and the Microbiome: An Anti-Inflammatory Partnership”
Fermented Foods and Infant Health
Reading and writing about epidemiological research is not my favorite, but I spotted a study on Tuesday that captured my interest as it’s in the vein of “things you can do now,” which you all know IS my favorite. Looking to ascertain the health… Continue Reading “Fermented Foods and Infant Health”
The Deworming Question: A Good Idea? Pointless? Detrimental? The Evidence Mounts…
Last month, a meta-analysis paper came out searching the medical literature through the year 2018, looking for evidence of the benefits promised by the worldwide efforts at deworming school children, recommended by all global advocacy organizations including WHO. The authors, from the Department of… Continue Reading “The Deworming Question: A Good Idea? Pointless? Detrimental? The Evidence Mounts…”
The Promise of Fecal Microbiota Transplant
Over the weekend, I read a great little article about the potential applications of fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) in treating a huge variety of diseases.[i] Of course, we are sorely lacking in clinical trials for almost all but still, there is hope to be… Continue Reading “The Promise of Fecal Microbiota Transplant”
Allergy and Asthma Risk in Children: A Gut Bacteria Metabolite Culprit Identified
Two weeks ago, I wrote about a retrospective study out of Loyola University in which researchers looked at the relationship of the early introduction of antibiotics to the development of allergy and asthma. If you recall, they found, “Exposure to these medicines in their… Continue Reading “Allergy and Asthma Risk in Children: A Gut Bacteria Metabolite Culprit Identified”
Antibiotics in Early Childhood: The Road to Asthma and Allergy
When my son was just 36 hours old, he was re-hospitalized with a fever and put onto 5 days of IV antibiotics. (You can read more about his history here.) He was given more oral antibiotics right before his first birthday. Once I learned… Continue Reading “Antibiotics in Early Childhood: The Road to Asthma and Allergy”
