THE BIOME BUZZ
BUGS AND WORMS AND OTHER GREAT STUFF
Tag: Diabetes
Yet MORE on Akkermansia, This Time as a Pasteurized Probiotic!
A few weeks back, I shared a post about a recent study that looked at using our old friend, Akkermansia muciniphila (a quick summary of some of the findings re: this probiotic bacteria are in a postscript below) to improve glucose tolerance and insulin levels. …
Helminth Therapy: A Call to Action
An interesting opinion piece by Dr. William Parker, of Duke University, and colleagues at a couple of Czech Universities, just appeared in Trends in Parasitology.[i] To summarize, the paper makes two key points: A. These scientists hold the belief that the interaction between human…
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…
Evolutionary Mismatch, the Human Biome…and a Bit More on Obesity
Recently there was a lot of discussion on the Biome Buzz’ Facebook page in regards to a post on obesity, wherein some people expressed their opinions that our current epidemic of obesity is due to nothing more than people eating too much junk food. …
Can Helminths Help Alleviate the Obesity Epidemic? The Evidence (Slowly) Mounts
Remember last week when I told you all that I have a million great new pieces of research to write about? Well, things have only gotten worse(or is it better?!) since then. I found a bunch more stuff to keep us all very busy…
Biome Bliss: An Interesting New Prebiotic Supplement
A week ago or so, I got an email from a company that makes a really interesting prebiotic product. They offered to let me try it out on myself, and after looking through their website, I readily agreed. (I took my first dose this…
High Fructose Corn Syrup and the Growth of Colorectal Tumors
Today’s post is a little off topic but I can’t not share this research[i] with you, especially considering the post I wrote a few weeks back about “lysogenic” bacteria. If you remember, it was about those types of bacteria that carry dormant viral DNA…
Food Allergy, the Microbiome and Epigenetics
Last week I wrote about how nitric oxide, a communication molecule naturally produced by our bodies, is also produced by the bacteria of our gut. The molecule attaches to thousands of proteins in our bodies and can turn genes on and off, greatly affecting…
How Do the Microbiota Communicate with Their Host? Scientists Have Cracked the First Mechanism!
I don’t know if you remember but back in December, I wrote about research into how phages (viruses that kill bacteria) can understand the language of bacteria, allowing them to spy on their fellow gut inhabitants, thereby optimizing their own existence. Discoveries into inter-species…
A Trio of New Helminth Papers
Three articles were recently published on helminths that are worth sharing with you. Two studied the immune effects (in rodents) of the species, Hymenolepis diminuta. (This species is native to rodents and one currently used in helminthic therapy.) The third summarized research into using…
