While often life-saving, hospitals can be dangerous to your health. Exposed to infections, lack of sleep and poor nutrition, patients may spiral down into the intensive care unit (ICU) where two critical illnesses are common: sepsis and acute respiratory failure. A role for microbes Microbes are emerging as key players in the genesis, advance and […]
Age of Anxiety Calls for Probiotic Research
With soaring numbers of people taking anxiety-reducing drugs, it is good to remember that anxiety is a highly-valuable defense mechanism evolved over many thousands of years of evolution. Anxiety triggers cortisol release in essential fight-or-flight responses. Ergo, a calm demeanor in the face of real threats may cost life or limb. These days, the mounting stress […]
Vegan Alternatives to Yogurt: So Simple to Make at Home
If you want to taste a new yogurt every single day of the year, your supermarket can meet the challenge. Most of this abundance is of the cow’s milk variety. If you prefer a vegan option—for health or personal reasons—yogurt alternatives made from soy milk are available but a bit harder to find. Note that labelling […]
Do Microbes Drive Metabolic Improvement after Bariatric Surgery?
Bariatric surgery for severe and morbidly obese (Body Mass Index (BMI) >35–40) brings swift results: dramatically reducing cardiovascular risks and diabetes. Current thinking credits immediate changes in the gut microbiome for the metabolic improvements observed after bariatric surgery. Indeed, research has painted a picture of gut microbes in those suffering from overweight or obesity […]
Sloppy Reporting Undermines Claims of Probiotic Safety
First do no harm. Probiotics appear to be outside the purview of drastic side effects reported for many supplements. No warnings of possible death and dismemberment scroll probiotic labels. Among manufacturers, researchers and clinicians in the industry, probiotics are considered safe. Theoretical risks include systemic infections, deleterious metabolic activities, excessive immune stimulation in susceptible individuals, gene […]
Change in Fecal Microbes after a Month of Probiotics
Supplements have always had detractors. “Expensive urine” was what vitamin poppers were said to be making in the early days of mega doses nearly 50 years ago. With the cost of probiotic supplements, it is fair to ask: are we creating costly stool? Many millions of people take probiotic supplements trusting in a benefit to […]