All posts tagged: gut microbiome

Gut microbiome changes can signal Parkinson’s disease risk years before symptoms

Gut microbiome changes can signal Parkinson’s disease risk years before symptoms

Published by Jenni Sidey

A person can seem healthy and still carry subtle biological signs of trouble long before the first tremor or slowed movement appears. In Parkinson’s disease, one of those early signals may be living in the gut. A new study led by researchers at University College London found that people with Parkinson’s have a distinct pattern of gut microbes, and that similar patterns also appear in some people who do not yet have the disease, including those with a known genetic risk. That raises a striking possibility: changes in the microbiome could help flag elevated Parkinson’s risk before symptoms begin. Parkinson’s is already one of the world’s fastest-growing neurological disorders. By the time doctors can diagnose it through motor symptoms, more than half of the brain’s dopamine-producing neurons have typically already been lost. That makes early detection one of the field’s biggest priorities. Professor Anthony Schapira of the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology said the need is urgent. “Parkinson’s disease is a major cause of disability worldwide, and the fastest growing neurodegenerative disease in terms …

Simple blood test can accurately spot dementia years before diagnosis

Simple blood test can accurately spot dementia years before diagnosis

Published by Jenni Sidey

Before the symptoms of cognitive loss are severe enough to be diagnosed, something in the blood seems to be changing. That is what a new study out of the University of East Anglia supports. Scientists looked at blood and stool samples taken from older adults. It was found that there are associations between changes occurring in the blood and those that could indicate the presence of early cognitive decline. In particular, the research indicates that chemicals associated with gut bacteria may have an impact on the brain much sooner than formal diagnoses of dementia occur. In this study, published in the journal Gut Microbes, the researchers worked with 150 adults aged 50 and older. All of the participants were grouped into three comparable (matched) groups of 50 participants each: cognitively healthy adults, individuals with subjective cognitive impairment (SCI), and individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Subjective cognitive impairment (also known as self-reported cognitive impairment) means that an individual believes they are becoming forgetful, but their abilities to perform well on standard neuropsychological tests remain intact. …

Milk and wheat proteins identified as potent defenses against cholera

Milk and wheat proteins identified as potent defenses against cholera

Published by Jenni Sidey

A glass of milk and a slice of bread do not look like medicine. But a new study from UC Riverside suggests that certain proteins in common foods can make it far harder for cholera bacteria to take hold in the gut, at least in mice. The research found that diets high in casein, the main protein in milk and cheese, and diets high in wheat gluten sharply reduced how much cholera bacteria could colonize the intestines. The difference was not subtle. The team saw “up to 100-fold differences in the amount of cholera colonization as a function of diet alone,” said Ansel Hsiao, an associate professor of microbiology and plant pathology at UC Riverside and the study’s senior author. “I wasn’t surprised that diet could affect the health of someone infected with the bacteria,” Hsiao said. “But the magnitude of the effect surprised me.” Cholera, a severe bacterial infection that causes diarrhea, can kill if untreated. Public health officials typically focus on clean water and rapid rehydration. Antibiotics can shorten illness, but they do …

Daily fiber supplement relieves arthritis pain, study finds

Daily fiber supplement relieves arthritis pain, study finds

Published by Jenni Sidey

A scoop of fiber stirred into yogurt may not sound like much of a pain treatment. But in a new clinical trial, that simple routine eased knee osteoarthritis pain, improved grip strength, and appeared easier for people to stick with than a digital physiotherapy program. The study, called INSPIRE, tested inulin, a prebiotic fiber found in foods such as chicory root and Jerusalem artichoke, in adults with knee osteoarthritis. Researchers from the University of Nottingham reported that after six weeks, people taking inulin had less knee pain than those given a placebo. The work was published in Nutrients. Knee osteoarthritis is one of the most common joint disorders in older adults. It wears down the joint, causing pain, stiffness, and trouble moving around. Exercise is a standard first-line treatment, but many people find it hard to maintain. Pain medicines can help, though they also come with risks. “This study raises the exciting possibility that a simple dietary change, adding a fibre supplement to your breakfast or yogurt, could meaningfully reduce pain and improve physical function,” …

‘Smart Underwear’ sheds new light on just how often humans pass gas

‘Smart Underwear’ sheds new light on just how often humans pass gas

Published by Jenni Sidey

Scientists at the University of Maryland have taken on a problem most people laugh about and doctors struggle to measure. Their solution is Smart Underwear, a small wearable device that tracks intestinal gas in daily life. By focusing on hydrogen in flatus, the team is rewriting what scientists know about how often people actually pass gas and what it says about the gut. For years, doctors have relied on guesswork. In 2000, gastroenterologist Michael Levitt summed up the challenge, writing, “It is virtually impossible for the physician to objectively document the existence of excessive gas using currently available tests.” Most earlier estimates depended on self reports or short lab tests. Both miss events and fail during sleep. That gap pushed assistant professor Brantley Hall and his colleagues to try something different. Their device clips discreetly to the outside of underwear and works around the clock. “Objective measurement gives us an opportunity to increase scientific rigor in an area that’s been difficult to study,” Hall said. Smart Underwear overview: (A, B) The final version of the …

Realising the importance of our microbiome: Best ideas of the century

Realising the importance of our microbiome: Best ideas of the century

Published by skeptic

“The gut microbiome has transformed our understanding of human health,” says Tim Spector at King’s College London, co-founder of the Zoe nutrition app. “We now know our microbes influence everything from metabolism and immunity to mental well-being.” While this understanding has accelerated over the past 25 years, humans have long used microbes to influence health. While they didn’t realise what they were doing, the Romans used bacterial-derived remedies to “guard the stomach”, for instance. In the 17th century, microbiologist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek first described the parasite Giardia, from his own stool. Yet it took another two centuries for scientists to validate his findings, and until the 21st century to appreciate how deeply the microbes that line our guts and skin affect our well-being. By the 1970s, researchers were making headway, realising that gut microbes could influence how drugs are broken down, altering their efficacy. Experiments with faecal transplants hinted at how microbial communities might restore health. But it was only in the 2000s, with rapid advances in genetic sequencing and computing, that the field was truly transformed. Early genome sequencing revealed …

Man whose gut made its own alcohol gets relief from faecal transplant

Man whose gut made its own alcohol gets relief from faecal transplant

Published by skeptic

Righting a man’s microbial wrongs stopped his body from producing intoxicating amounts of alcohol Science Photo Library / Alamy A man in Massachusetts whose gut started brewing its own alcohol, which made him heavily intoxicated, has finally recovered after swallowing multiple doses of bacteria from a healthy person’s faeces. The man, a retired US Marine officer in his 60s, started experiencing odd symptoms after taking multiple courses of antibiotics to treat an inflamed prostate. He had been fit and healthy, and had only an occasional alcoholic drink, but he suddenly began feeling very drunk, disoriented and sleepy on a regular basis. The man visited the emergency department on several occasions, but no one believed he hadn’t been drinking. Eventually, he was diagnosed with auto-brewery syndrome, a rare condition in which microbes in the gut produce large amounts of alcohol. His severe intoxication made it difficult to perform his normal daily tasks. He also had to have a breathalyser lock installed in his car to ensure he didn’t drive while over the limit. After connecting with …

Gut microbes are reshaping how scientists think about brain evolution

Gut microbes are reshaping how scientists think about brain evolution

Published by Jenni Sidey

A new study from Northwestern University is reshaping how scientists think about brain evolution. The research suggests that the gut microbiome does more than aid digestion. It may also influence how brains develop, function, and meet their high energy needs. The work is led by Katie Amato, an associate professor of biological anthropology at Northwestern and the study’s principal investigator. Her team set out to explore a long-standing puzzle in evolutionary biology. Humans have the largest brains relative to body size among primates, yet brains are extremely costly organs to build and maintain. They consume large amounts of energy, especially glucose. How evolution met those demands has remained unclear. Amato’s group focused on a possible contributor that has received little attention in this context: the gut microbiome. These communities of microbes help break down food, produce metabolites, and regulate metabolism. Previous work from Amato’s lab showed that microbes from larger-brained primates generate more metabolic energy when transferred into mice. The new study goes further by examining whether those microbes also change how the brain itself …

Stool chemistry may reveal your diet, and signal heart risk

Stool chemistry may reveal your diet, and signal heart risk

Published by Jenni Sidey

A simple stool sample may hold a clearer record of what you eat than a food diary ever could. In a new study, researchers analyzed the “faecal metabolome,” the mix of small molecules in stool created as your gut and its microbes break down food. Those chemical traces captured the push and pull between diet and the gut microbiome, and they helped predict both eating patterns and future heart disease risk. The team studied 2,647 adults from two large U.K. cohorts, TwinsUK and ZOE PREDICT1. They combined three kinds of information: detailed diet questionnaires, gut microbe species data, and measurements of 650 stool metabolites. Then they used machine learning to test what those metabolites could reveal about everyday eating habits. The results suggest stool chemistry can act like a “receipt” from your gut. It reflects what goes in, and what your microbes do with it. Faecal metabolites act as a readout of habitual diet and bridge the gap between diet and the gut microbiome. (CREDIT: Nature Communications) A Chemical Snapshot Of Diet And Microbes Diet …

Meet CoralME: A new way to see the hidden metabolism of your gut

Meet CoralME: A new way to see the hidden metabolism of your gut

Published by Jenni Sidey

The community of microbes living in your gut is small to the eye but huge for your health. Trillions of bacteria, viruses and fungi help you digest food, train your immune system and keep harmful germs in check. When this balance slips, problems such as inflammatory bowel disease can follow. Until now, scientists could describe which microbes were present, but not clearly what they were doing from moment to moment inside your body. Researchers at the University of California San Diego have now built a powerful new tool to close that gap. The platform, called coralME, turns massive microbiome datasets into detailed computer models that show how gut microbes use nutrients, make products and interact with each other and with you. The work, published in Cell Systems, offers a fresh way to see the hidden metabolism of your gut and how it shifts in disease. Turning Microbial Genomes Into Living Road Maps The core of the approach is a type of detailed computer model known as an ME-model. The letters stand for metabolism and expression. …