The new year already brings a gift to all probiotic practitioners or wannabes via Mayo Clinic Proceedings. This prestigious journal representing a very august health entity has published a primer titled “A Clinician’s Primer on the Role of the Microbiome in Human Health and Disease.” The 2014 review very nicely—and briefly–outlines evidence for the […]
Articles
Diversity Wins Against Asthma
Asthma, a chronic inflammatory disease of the lungs, has increased at a troubling pace. While outdoor environmental changes are prime suspects—industrialized nations have seen cases soar—innermost worlds are also being explored. Gut microbes are being questioned. For instance, it is known that when diversity of guy microbes is low during a baby’s first year of […]
Role for Probiotics In Autism?
Autism Spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by repetitive motions and impaired communication. While the cause of this devastating dysfunction is not clear, several theories are gathering steam: genetics, toxins, nutritional deficiencies and/or infections. And in a strange twist, many with ASD also suffer with gastrointestinal problems. This link has led researchers to question how the […]
Probiotics for Detox?
Contamination in foods and feed is a major expense and incurs disease in crops, animals and humans alike. Scientists at the National Nutrition and Food Technology Research Institute in Iran looked at the potential for lactic acid bacteria and yeasts to eliminate, deactivate or reduce availability of this contamination. The paper available here shows the ability […]
Cholesterol: A Numbers Game
Heart disease is a global killer. One biomarker, cholesterol levels, receives much attention and is usually confronted when high with dietary change and increasingly with statin medications. Probiotics have shown some promise in this area. Researcher Douglas B. DiRienzo recently assessed 26 clinical studies and two meta-analyses. Significant reductions were seen with strains of lactobacilli, […]
Hope and Hyperbole
Probiotic insiders—the scientists, manufacturers, the bloggers—can be so ensconced in all things squirmy and microscopic that we forget that the larger public may have other opinions about our little darlings. Governments, of course, will be wary: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cracked down on health claims touting the benefits of probiotics in constipation. The […]