2016

Antibiotic treatment, as an important therapeutic intervention, can cause damage to the host microbiome and the intestinal mucosal barrier. In order to find a way to alleviate the side effects of antibiotics, the present study investigated the effects of fucoidan (ANP) isolated from Ascophyllum nodosum on gu

Background The human oral microbiome is formed early in development. Its composition is influenced by environmental factors including diet, substance use, oral health, and overall health and disease. The influence of human genes on the composition and stability of the oral microbiome is still poorly understood. We studied both environmental and genetic characteristics on the oral microbiome in a large twin sample as well as in a large cohort of unrelated individuals. We identify several significantly heritable features of the oral microbiome. The heritability persists in twins even when their cohabitation changes. The heritability of these traits correlates with the cumulative genetic contributions of over half a million single nucleotide sequence variants measured in a different population of unrelated individuals. Comparison of same-sex and opposite sex cotwins showed no significant differences. We show that two new loci on chromosomes 7 and 12 are associated with the most heritable traits. Results An analysis of 752 twin pairs from the Colorado Twin Registry, shows that the beta-diversity of monozygotic twins is significantly lower than for dizygotic or unrelated individuals. This is independent of cohabitation status. Intraclass correlation coefficients of nearly all taxa examined were higher for MZ than DZ twin pairs. A comparison of individuals sampled over 2-7 years confirmed previous reports that the oral microbiome remains relatively more stable in individuals over that time than to unrelated people. Twin modeling shows that a number of microbiome phenotypes were more than 50% heritable consistent with the hypothesis that human genes influence microbial populations. To identify loci that could influence microbiome phenotypes, we carried out an unbiased GWAS analysis which identified one locus on chromosome 7 near the gene IMMPL2 that reached genome-wide significance after correcting for multiple testing. Another locus on chromosome 12 near the non-coding RNA gene INHBA-AS1 achieved genome-wide significance when analyzed using KGG4 that sums SNP significance across coding genes. Discussion Using multiple methods, we have demonstrated that some aspects of the human oral microbiome are heritable and that with a relatively small sample we were able to identify two previously unidentified loci that may be involved.

Certain types of bacteria in the gut can leverage the immune system to decrease the severity of stroke, according to new research. This finding can help mitigate stroke -- which is the second leading cause of death worldwide.

Antibiotic resistant urinary tract infections are increasingly common, leaving many looking for natural alternatives. Grapefruit seed extract may be an effective treatment that is safe, affordable and easily accessible

Spinal cord injury alters the type of bacteria living in the gut and that these changes can exacerbate the extent of neurological damage and impair recovery of function, new research suggests. The study demonstrates that counteracting these changes with probiotics could aid patients’ recovery from spinal cord injuries.

Children and teenagers who are obese have different microorganisms living in the digestive tract than their lean counterparts, according to a new study.

Background Microorganisms in the human intestine (i.e. the gut microbiome) have an increasingly recognized impact on human health, including brain functioning. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with abnormalities in dopamine neurotransmission and deficits in reward processing and its underlying neuro-circuitry including the ventral striatum. The microbiome might contribute to ADHD etiology via the gut-brain axis. In this pilot study, we investigated potential differences in the microbiome between ADHD cases and undiagnosed controls, as well as its relation to neural reward processing. Methods We used 16S rRNA marker gene sequencing (16S) to identify bacterial taxa and their predicted gene functions in 19 ADHD and 77 control participants. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we interrogated the effect of observed microbiome differences in neural reward responses in a subset of 28 participants, independent of diagnosis. Results For the first time, we describe gut microbial makeup of adolescents and adults diagnosed with ADHD. We found that the relative abundance of several bacterial taxa differed between cases and controls, albeit marginally significant. A nominal increase in the Bifidobacterium genus was observed in ADHD cases. In a hypothesis-driven approach, we found that the observed increase was linked to significantly enhanced 16S-based predicted bacterial gene functionality encoding cyclohexadienyl dehydratase in cases relative to controls. This enzyme is involved in the synthesis of phenylalanine, a precursor of dopamine. Increased relative abundance of this functionality was significantly associated with decreased ventral striatal fMRI responses during reward anticipation, independent of ADHD diagnosis and age. Conclusions Our results show increases in gut microbiome predicted function of dopamine precursor synthesis between ADHD cases and controls. This increase in microbiome function relates to decreased neural responses to reward anticipation. Decreased neural reward anticipation constitutes one of the hallmarks of ADHD.

Background: Since the description of the normal human gut microbiome in healthy individuals using broad-range polymerase chain reaction, there has been great advancement in the techniques used to conduct microbiome research and applications of this research across health, gastrointestinal diseases, and nongastrointestinal diseases. Summary and Key

Allergology International is the official journal of the Japanese Society of Allergology and publishes original papers dealing with the etiology, diagnosis and treatment of allergic and related...

Colorectal cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States and fourth-leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. While cancer is largely considered to be a disease of genetic and environmental factors, increasing evidence has demonstrated a role for the microbiota (the microorganisms associated with the human body) in shaping inflammatory environments and promoting tumor growth and spread. Herein, we discuss both human data from meta'omics analyses and data from mechanistic studies in cell culture and animal models that support specific bacterial agents as potentiators of tumorigenesis—including Fusobacterium nucleatum, enterotoxigenic Bacteroides fragilis, and colibactin-producing Escherichia coli. Further, we consider how microbes can be used in diagnosing colorectal cancer and manipulating the tumor environment to encourage better patient outcomes in response to immunotherapy treatments.

New research is helping to tease out the mechanics of how the gut microbiome communicates with the cells of its host to switch genes on and off. The upshot of the study, another indictment of the so-called Western diet (high in saturated fats, sugar and red meat), reveals how the metabolites produced by the bacteria in the stomach chemically communicate with cells, including cells far beyond the colon, to dictate gene expression and health in its host.

This guy is saving lives with his poop, and maybe you can, too.

The healing powers of honey have been known for thousands of years. Now a researchers has discovered a powerful link between a medicinal type of honey and the destruction of a fungus that can cause blindness or even death.

The reason egg consumption is associated with elevated cancer risk may be the TMAO, considered the “smoking gun” of microbiome-disease interactions. Subscribe to NutritionFacts.org’s free newsletter to receive our B12 infographic that covers the latest research takeaways and Dr. Greger’s updated recommendations: https://nutritionfacts.org/subscribe/ What did the egg industry do in response to this information? Distort the scientific record of course! See Egg Industry Response to Choline and TMAO (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/egg-industry-response-to-choline-and-tmao). This is not the first time the egg industry has been caught in the act. See, for example: • Who Says Eggs Aren’t Healthy or Safe? (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/who-says-eggs-arent-healthy-or-safe) • Does Cholesterol Size Matter? (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/does-cholesterol-size-matter) • How the Egg Board Designs Misleading Studies (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-the-egg-board-designs-misleading-studies/) • Debunking Egg Industry Myths (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/debunking-egg-industry-myths) • Eggs and Cholesterol: Patently False and Misleading Claims (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/eggs-and-cholesterol-patently-false-and-misleading-claims) For background on TMAO see my original coverage in Carnitine, Choline, Cancer, and Cholesterol: The TMAO Connection (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/carnitine-choline-cancer-and-cholesterol-the-tmao-connection). This is all part of the microbiome revolution in medicine, the underappreciated role our gut flora play in our health. For more, see: • Stool pH and Colon Cancer (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/stool-ph-and-colon-cancer) • Bowel Wars: Hydrogen Sulfide vs. Butyrate (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/bowel-wars-hydrogen-sulfide-vs-butyrate) • Putrefying Protein & “Toxifying” Enzymes (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/putrefying-protein-and-toxifying-enzymes) • Microbiome: The Inside Story (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/microbiome-the-inside-story) • Prebiotics: Tending our Inner Garden (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/prebiotics-tending-our-inner-garden) • What’s your Gut Microbiome Enterotype? (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/whats-your-gut-microbiome-enterotype) • How to Change your Enterotype (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-to-change-your-enterotype) • Paleopoo: What We Can Learn from Fossilized Feces (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/paleopoo-what-we-can-learn-from-fossilized-feces) • Gut Dysbiosis: Starving Our Microbial Self (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/gut-dysbiosis-starving-microbial-self) • Egg Industry Response to Choline & TMAO (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/egg-industry-response-to-choline-and-tmao) • Is Obesity Infectious? (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/is-obesity-infectious) • How to Develop a Healthy Gut Ecosystem (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-to-develop-a-healthy-gut-ecosystem) • How to Become a Fecal Transplant Super Donor (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-to-become-a-fecal-transplant-super-donor) Have a question about this video? Leave it in the comment section at http://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-our-gut-bacteria-can-use-eggs-to-accelerate-cancer and someone on the NutritionFacts.org team will try to answer it. Want to get a list of links to all the scientific sources used in this video? Click on Sources Cited at http://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-our-gut-bacteria-can-use-eggs-to-accelerate-cancer. You’ll also find a transcript and acknowledgements for the video, my blog and speaking tour schedule, and an easy way to search (by translated language even) through our videos spanning more than 2,000 health topics. If you’d rather watch these videos on YouTube, subscribe to my YouTube Channel here: https://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=nutritionfactsorg Thanks for watching. I hope you’ll join in the evidence-based nutrition revolution! -Michael Greger, MD FACLM Image credit: Praveen via pixabay. Image has been modified. https://NutritionFacts.org • Subscribe: https://nutritionfacts.org/subscribe • Donate: https://nutritionfacts.org/donate • Podcast : https://nutritionfacts.org/audio • Facebook: www.facebook.com/NutritionFacts.org • Twitter: www.twitter.com/nutrition_facts • Instagram: www.instagram.com/nutrition_facts_org • Books (including the NEW How Not to Diet Cookbook): https://nutritionfacts.org/books • Shop: https://drgreger.org

A study sheds new light on the connection between the gut and the brain, untangling the complex interplay that allows the byproducts of microorganisms living in the gut to influence the progression of neurodegenerative diseases.

What’s more important: probiotics or prebiotics? And where best to get them? Subscribe to NutritionFacts.org’s free newsletter to receive our B12 infographic that covers the latest research takeaways and Dr. Greger’s updated recommendations: https://nutritionfacts.org/subscribe/ We have shifted to a new look for our videos, pulling in motion graphics design specialists to help mix things up. This one was done by Avocado Video’s (http://www.avocadovideo.com/) Lucas Kavanagh (http://www.lucas.fyi/) and Jesse Lupini (http://www.jesselupini.com/). Lucus is a scientist passionate about finding innovative ways to communicate intricate concepts who says he’s “excited to be working with NutritionFacts to help make peer-reviewed health information accessible to anyone.” Jesse is a director and producer with a love for science and education who say she’s “thrilled to be working with NutritionFacts, a beacon of science-driven health information in a sea of online nutritional voodoo and pseudo-science.” The microbiome is one of the most exciting research areas in medicine these days. For more, see for example: • Bowel Wars: Hydrogen Sulfide vs. Butyrate (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/bowel-wars-hydrogen-sulfide-vs-butyrate/) • Putrefying Protein & “Toxifying” Enzymes (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/putrefying-protein-and-toxifying-enzymes/) • Microbiome: The Inside Story (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/microbiome-the-inside-story/) • What’s your Gut Microbiome Enterotype? (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/whats-your-gut-microbiome-enterotype/) • How to Change your Enterotype (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-to-change-your-enterotype/) • Paleopoo: What We Can Learn from Fossilized Feces (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/paleopoo-what-we-can-learn-from-fossilized-feces/) • Egg Industry Response to Choline & TMAO (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/egg-industry-response-to-choline-and-tmao/) • Is Obesity Infectious? (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/is-obesity-infectious/) • How to Develop a Healthy Gut Ecosystem (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/How-to-Develop-a-Healthy-Gut-Ecosystem) More on health sources of prebiotics in: • Prebiotics: Tending our Inner Garden (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/prebiotics-tending-our-inner-garden/) • Gut Dysbiosis: Starving Our Microbial Self ---(mentioned in video?) (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/gut-dysbiosis-starving-microbial-self/) • Resistant Starch and Colon Cancer (http://nutritionfacts.org/videos/resistant-starch-and-colon-cancer) • Gut Microbiome - Strike It Rich with Whole Grains (http://nutritionfacts.org/videos/gut-microbiome-strike-it-rich-with-whole-grains) Have a question about this video? Leave it in the comment section at http://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-to-become-a-fecal-transplant-super-donor and someone on the NutritionFacts.org team will try to answer it. Want to get a list of links to all the scientific sources used in this video? Click on Sources Cited at http://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-to-become-a-fecal-transplant-super-donor. If you’d rather watch these videos on YouTube, subscribe to my YouTube Channel here: https://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=nutritionfactsorg Thanks for watching. I hope you’ll join in the evidence-based nutrition revolution! -Michael Greger, MD FACLM Image credit: Newtown graffiti via flickr. Image has been modified. Icons created The Noun Project. https://NutritionFacts.org • Subscribe: https://nutritionfacts.org/subscribe • Donate: https://nutritionfacts.org/donate • Podcast : https://nutritionfacts.org/audio • Facebook: www.facebook.com/NutritionFacts.org • Twitter: www.twitter.com/nutrition_facts • Instagram: www.instagram.com/nutrition_facts_org • Books (including the NEW How Not to Diet Cookbook): https://nutritionfacts.org/books • Shop: https://drgreger.org

What we eat determines what kind of bacteria we foster the growth of in our gut, which can increase or decrease our risk of some of our leading killer diseases. Subscribe to NutritionFacts.org’s free newsletter to receive our B12 infographic that covers the latest research takeaways and Dr. Greger’s updated recommendations: https://nutritionfacts.org/subscribe/ If that was the supplement industry’s response, how did the egg industry react? See my video Egg Industry Response to Choline and TMAO (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/egg-industry-response-to-choline-and-tmao). For more background on TMAO, see Carnitine, Choline, Cancer, and Cholesterol: The TMAO Connection (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/carnitine-choline-cancer-and-cholesterol-the-tmao-connection/). Our gut flora are what we eat! Check out: • Microbiome: The Inside Story (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/microbiome-the-inside-story) • Prebiotics: Tending Our Inner Garden (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/prebiotics-tending-our-inner-garden) • What’s Your Gut Microbiome Enterotype? (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/whats-your-gut-microbiome-enterotype) • How to Change Your Enterotype (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-to-change-your-enterotype) • Paleopoo: What We Can Learn from Fossilized Feces (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/paleopoo-what-we-can-learn-from-fossilized-feces/) • Gut Dysbiosis - Starving Our Microbial Self (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/gut-dysbiosis-starving-microbial-self) • Is Obesity Infectious? (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/is-obesity-infectious) Have a question about this video? Leave it in the comment section at http://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-to-develop-a-healthy-gut-ecosystem and someone on the NutritionFacts.org team will try to answer it. Want to get a list of links to all the scientific sources used in this video? Click on Sources Cited at http://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-to-develop-a-healthy-gut-ecosystem. You’ll also find a transcript of the video, my blog and speaking tour schedule, and an easy way to search (by translated language even) through our videos spanning more than 2,000 health topics. If you’d rather watch these videos on YouTube, subscribe to my YouTube Channel here: https://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=nutritionfactsorg Thanks for watching. I hope you’ll join in the evidence-based nutrition revolution! -Michael Greger, MD FACLM Image credit: MelSi via pixabay. Image has been modified. https://NutritionFacts.org • Subscribe: https://nutritionfacts.org/subscribe • Donate: https://nutritionfacts.org/donate • Podcast : https://nutritionfacts.org/audio • Facebook: www.facebook.com/NutritionFacts.org • Twitter: www.twitter.com/nutrition_facts • Instagram: www.instagram.com/nutrition_facts_org • Books (including the NEW How Not to Diet Cookbook): https://nutritionfacts.org/books • Shop: https://drgreger.org

By now you probably know how important your gut health is to your overall health. If not, you need to! Eighty percent of your immune system is in your microbiome, your body’s bacteria, which help your body with just about every process, including digesting your food, thinking clearly, and even maintaining a healthy weight. Your […]

Should we be concerned about high-choline plant foods such as broccoli producing the same toxic TMAO that results from eating high-choline animal foods such as eggs? Subscribe to NutritionFacts.org’s free newsletter to receive our B12 infographic that covers the latest research takeaways and Dr. Greger’s updated recommendations: https://nutritionfacts.org/subscribe/ Support NutritionFacts.org with a donation at http://www.NutritionFacts.org/donate. That was a fun video to record. Can you hear the frustration in my voice reading paper after paper proposing these ridiculous (but profitable!) answers when the safe, simple, side-effect free solution was staring them in the face the whole time? Makes me think of so many parallels, to the least of which are: • How Not to Die from Heart Disease (https://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-not-to-die-from-heart-disease/) • How Not to Die from Diabetes (https://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-not-to-die-from-diabetes/) • How Not to Die from High Blood Pressure (https://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-not-to-die-from-high-blood-pressure/) For more on TMAO, the “smoking gun” of diet-microbiome-disease interactions, see: • Eggs, Choline, and Cancer (httpss://nutritionfacts.org/video/eggs-choline-and-cancer/) • Carnitine, Choline, Cancer, and Cholesterol: The TMAO Connection (https://nutritionfacts.org/video/carnitine-choline-cancer-and-cholesterol-the-tmao-connection/) • Egg Industry Response to Choline and TMAO (https://nutritionfacts.org/video/egg-industry-response-to-choline-and-tmao) • How to Develop a Healthy Gut Ecosystem (httpss://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-to-develop-a-healthy-gut-ecosystem/) • How to Treat Heart Failure and Kidney Failure with Diet (https://nutritionfacts.org/video/How-to-Treat-Heart-Failure-and-Kidney-Failure-with-Diet) Have a question about this video? Leave it in the comment section at http://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-to-reduce-your-tmao-levels and someone on the NutritionFacts.org team will try to answer it. Want to get a list of links to all the scientific sources used in this video? Click on Sources Cited at http://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-to-reduce-your-tmao-levels. You’ll also find a transcript and acknowledgements for the video, my blog and speaking tour schedule, and an easy way to search (by translated language even) through our videos spanning more than 2,000 health topics. If you’d rather watch these videos on YouTube, subscribe to my YouTube Channel here: https://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=nutritionfactsorg Thanks for watching. I hope you’ll join in the evidence-based nutrition revolution! -Michael Greger, MD FACLM Image credit: Sally Plank via Flickr https://NutritionFacts.org • Subscribe: https://nutritionfacts.org/subscribe • Donate: https://nutritionfacts.org/donate • Podcast : https://nutritionfacts.org/audio • Facebook: www.facebook.com/NutritionFacts.org • Twitter: www.twitter.com/nutrition_facts • Instagram: www.instagram.com/nutrition_facts_org • Books (including the NEW How Not to Diet Cookbook): https://nutritionfacts.org/books • Shop: https://drgreger.org

Antibiotics can be a controversial topic. While they can help tremendously for some specific infections in the body, they can also wreak your gut.