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Category: microbes

Published on Leave a comment on Psoriasis Has A Microbiome
Healthy skin Credit: Wikipedia

Well, the results of new research about skin with psoriasis compared to healthy skin isn't surprising. The research found that skin with psoriasis has a distinct microbiome (community of bacteria, viruses, fungi) - one that is different from that of healthy persons.

A main finding was that the types of bacteria were lower (less diversity) on the psoriatic skin. Greater diversity of bacteria is considered good - a sign of health. Levels of Staphylococcus were higher in the psoriatic skin, but healthy skin had higher levels of Cutibacterium and Kocuria.

Oher research also supports the view that microbes are somehow involved with the development of psoriasis. The hope is that someday treatment could be just taking a probiotic pill or applying certain microbes to the skin, perhaps in a lotion. Wouldn't that be great?

Excerpts from Medscape: Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis Show Distinctive Skin Microbiomes

The bacterial diversity in lesional and nonlesional skin of patients with psoriasis (PsO) with or without psoriatic arthritis (PsA) was significantly lower than that of healthy control skin, based on data from 74 individuals. ...continue reading "Psoriasis Has A Microbiome"

Published on Leave a comment on Healthy Babies Have Thousands of Viruses In The Gut
Toddler Credit: Wikipedia

It turns out that the baby gut microbiome is loaded with all sorts of viruses, and most of the species were unknown till now. All the viruses living in the gut is the virome. Analyzing baby poop is a way to find out what viruses live in the gut (intestines) of babies.

A team of scientists did an in-depth analysis of the poop (from diapers) of healthy one year old Danish children and found more than 10,000 new virus species! The overwhelming majority of the viruses are phages, which are viruses that attack and inhabit bacteria. There were many more viruses than bacteria in the baby poop.

Most of the phages are harmless, but some others are not so harmless, and this results in immune responses from the human host. In other words, all of this is normal and part of "training" the immune system in early childhood. The researchers named the newly discovered viruses after children participating in the study (e.g., Amandaviridae, Andyviridae).

By the way, it is normal for multitudes of viruses, bacteria, and fungi to live in the gut of humans throughout life - it's the gut microbiome.

Excerpts from Washington Post: Scientists identify thousands of unknown viruses in babies’ diapers

Research involving Danish babies’ dirty diapers has provided a plethora of information on previously unknown viruses — and the best view yet of the makeup of the infant gut microbiome. ...continue reading "Healthy Babies Have Thousands of Viruses In The Gut"

Published on Leave a comment on Higher Physical Activity Levels Associated With Less Severe COVID-19

The more physically active a person is before getting COVID-19, the lower the rates of hospitalization, deterioration events, and death from COVID-19 infection. In other words, physical activity is protective.

The results of a Kaiser Permanente member analysis of 194,191 adults with COVID-19 infection found a strong dose-response relationship - with higher physical activity levels before COVID-19 associated with less severe outcomes.

What levels of exercise were reported by patients? In the 2 years before a COVID-19 infection, physical activity/exercise levels reported by patients were categorized as: always inactive (10 minutes per week or less), mostly inactive (0 to 60 minutes per week), some activity (60 to 150 minutes per week), consistently active (greater than 150 minutes per week), and always active (always greater than 150 minutes per week).

No matter the sex, race, ethnicity, age, BMI categories, whether one had cardiovascular disease or hypertension - the results were generally consistent for everyone. Bottom line: Aim for 150 minutes of physical activity or more every week. [similar results earlier study]

From Medical Xpress: More exercise linked to less-severe COVID-19 outcomes

Kaiser Permanente members who were more physically active prior to being diagnosed with COVID-19 had a lower risk of severe outcomes, according to research published Dec. 15, 2022, in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. ...continue reading "Higher Physical Activity Levels Associated With Less Severe COVID-19"

Published on Leave a comment on Studies Find Fungi In Cancer Tumors

We all know that microbes (fungi, viruses, bacteria) live throughout our bodies - this is the human microbiome or microbiota. What is really interesting is that cancer tumors also have microbiomes (tumor microbiome), and these microbial communities are different than that found in healthy people (without tumors).

For a while it has been known that tumors (e.g., breast cancers) have different bacterial species than healthy tissue - the microbiome is different. Several recent studies find that tumors can also contain fungi, and cancers with certain fungal species have worse outcomes than those without the fungi. The mycobiome is the community of fungi that live in or on humans.

Also, the combination of fungal species are different depending on what kind of cancer that a person has. A group of scientists have put together a list (mycobiome atlas) of the distinctive fungi that are found with 35 different cancer tumors. This is exciting because in the future cancers could potentially be found by the microbial (fungi and bacteria) DNA they shed in the blood.

However, no one knows really why the fungi are in the tumors. For example, are they aiding the cancer development? Or is the cancer allowing the fungi to grow? Are the fungi interacting with the immune system? Or??

Several recent articles discuss this exciting new research.

From NY Times: A New Approach to Spotting Tumors: Look for Their Microbes

Look up an image of a tumor on Google, and you’ll probably end up with a brightly colored cluster of cancer cells on a drab background of healthy tissue. But for Lian Narunsky Haziza, a cancer biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, the picture looks very different. A tumor may also contain millions of microbes, representing dozens of species.

Scientists have long known that our bodies are home to microbes, but have tended to treat tumors as if they were sterile. In recent years, however, researchers have laid that notion to rest, demonstrating that tumors are rife with microbes. ...continue reading "Studies Find Fungi In Cancer Tumors"

Published on Leave a comment on Saline Nasal Rinses Reduce COVID Hospitalizations And Death

Well, this is interesting.... Saline nasal rinses (which are popular among persons with sinus issues) apparently is very helpful if one gets COVID-19. A recent study found that starting daily saline rinses two times per day after COVID-19 symptoms start, significantly lowers the risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19.

To make your own saline nasal rinse: mix 1/2 teaspoon each of baking soda and salt in a cup of bottled or boiled (and then cooled) water. Put it into a saline rinse bottle or nasal bulb syringe and use.

In the study, among persons who did nasal saline rinses - less than 1.3% of the 79 study subjects age 55 and older who enrolled within 24-hours of testing positive for COVID-19 experienced hospitalization. No one died. Symptoms also resolved faster.

Among persons who didn't do nasal saline rinses: 9.47% of patients were hospitalized and 1.5% died in a similar group during the same time frame (Sept. 24 and Dec. 21, 2020).

By the way, all persons in the study were 55 or older, and had preexisting medical conditions such as obesity. Also, adding iodine to the nasal rinses did not make a difference. Plain saline rinses were sufficient.

From Medical Xpress: Twice-daily nasal irrigation reduces COVID-related illness, death

Starting twice daily flushing of the mucus-lined nasal cavity with a mild saline solution soon after testing positive for COVID-19 can significantly reduce hospitalization and death, investigators report. ...continue reading "Saline Nasal Rinses Reduce COVID Hospitalizations And Death"

Published on Leave a comment on Preventing Cancers By Eating Foods Containing Resistant Starch

It is very exciting whenever a study has good results in preventing cancer, especially if this is from simply eating certain foods. This recently occurred in a large study of people with a high hereditary susceptibility to certain cancers, called Lynch syndrome.

The study found that just eating some resistant starch (e.g., the amount in a green tipped banana) daily was enough to cut the incidence of upper GI cancers (e.g., pancreatic, bile duct, stomach, and duodenal cancers) by 60% over the next ten years. These are fabulous results.

However, it did not have an effect on the incidence of colorectal cancer and endometrial cancer.

In the well-done study (conducted in England, Wales, and Finland), people were randomly assigned to either a group that ate 30 grams of resistant starch daily or a placebo daily for up to 4 years. Then they were all followed for up to a further 10 years, and a portion up to 20 years. [Note: the researchers said the 30 g daily was equivalent to one slightly green banana]

Resistant starch is a type of dietary fiber found in foods such as slightly green bananas, potatoes, whole grains, beans, chickpeas, lentils, and seeds. Resistant starch is not digested in the small intestine, but is fermented by gut microbes to produce beneficial short-chain fatty acids, such as butyrate, in the colon (large bowel).

Bottom line: Eat a variety of fiber rich foods (whole grains, legumes, fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts) daily, including foods that provide resistant starch. Your gut microbes and health will thank you!

From Science Daily: Cancer study: Major preventive effect from resistant starch in people with Lynch syndrome

A trial in people with high hereditary risk of a wide range of cancers has shown a major preventive effect from resistant starch, found in a wide range of foods such as oats, breakfast cereal, cooked and cooled pasta or rice, peas and beans and slightly green bananas.
...continue reading "Preventing Cancers By Eating Foods Containing Resistant Starch"

Published on Leave a comment on Largest Bacteria Ever Found Are Size Of Eyelashes
The bacteria (next to a dime), are about human eyelash size. Credit: Tomas Tyml/The Regents of the University of California, LBNL

Some bacteria are visible to the naked eye and as long as human eyelashes! The recently discovered centimeter long bacteria, now called Thiomargarita magnifica, live on sunken leaves in Caribbean mangrove swamps.

I don't know whether to shudder or to be excited by the amazing large size of the bacteria. These bacteria are the largest ever found, and are about 5000 times the size of most bacteria (which can only be seen under a microscope).

In fact, Dr. Levin of Washington Univ. pointed out that these bacteria can't even rightly be called microbes, because microbes are by definition microscopic! (She wrote a commentary accompanying the research report in the journal Science). A number of things are amazing about the huge bacteria!

Excerpts from NPR: Think all bacteria are microscopic? Tell that to these centimeter-long monsters

Bacteria typically live out their teeny-tiny lives in the microscopic realm, but now scientists have found a gargantuan one the size and shape of a human eyelash. ...continue reading "Largest Bacteria Ever Found Are Size Of Eyelashes"

Published on Leave a comment on Vaccines May Help With Long COVID

There has been much concern with the persistence and lack of good treatments for persons with long COVID. This is when symptoms persist long-term (for months or years!) after the initial COVID-19 infection, even if the infection seemed pretty mild at the time. The symptoms can be quite severe, even with multiorgan effects, and result in disability.

This is why the possibility of those with long COVID getting the COVID vaccine and showing quick improvement in their symptoms is great news. However, there is debate over how many people with long COVID are actually helped - a review of studies looking at this suggest under 20%. However, the good news is that most people with long COVID slowly improve over time, even without any post COVID vaccines.

Please note: Vaccines reduce the chance of developing long COVID by about half among people who are vaccinated before they develop covid-19.

Excerpts from Medical Xpress: Vaccines may lessen long COVID for some, but more study is needed

Vaccination after infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, is associated with a decrease in the likelihood of long COVID symptoms, finds a large study of U.K. adults published today by the BMJ . ...continue reading "Vaccines May Help With Long COVID"

Published on Leave a comment on One Million Deaths And Counting

Any moment now there will be officially 1 million deaths from COVID-19 in the United States. A horrible, horrible number. And while the majority of COVID-19 deaths has been in the elderly, nearly 250,000 has been in persons younger than 65, and around 61,000 of these deaths were in people under the age of 50.

COVID-19 was the leading cause of death among US adults between the ages of 45 to 54 years - 30,361 deaths in 2021! (The  data still isn't in for the last 2 months) More than cancer, heart disease, accidents, etc. Yikes!

There were half a million deaths before the vaccines, and since vaccines - another half a million deaths, primarily in those who were unvaccinated. Actually, it is generally accepted that the number of actual COVID-19 deaths is higher than a million - these are just the known deaths.

Bottom line: Get vaccinated and boosted!

Excerpts from Dr. Jeremy Faust's article at Inside Bulletin, authored by Dr. Jeremy Faust: The million US Covid dead are younger than you think.

One million people have now died of Covid-19 in the United States. As awful as this milestone is on its own terms, it is more painful because so many deaths were preventable. And more of these deaths occurred in younger people than is commonly realized.  ...continue reading "One Million Deaths And Counting"

Published on Leave a comment on Pancreatic Cancer Has a Distinct Gut Microbial Pattern
Pancreas with cancer (red dot) Credit: Wikipedia

Pancreatic cancer is typically discovered only when it is advanced, very hard to treat, and typically with poor outcomes. Interesting recent research found that the gut microbiome is distinctive in persons with pancreatic cancer, even in the early stages. Perhaps this finding will lead to an easy noninvasive way to screen for pancreatic cancer.

Researchers in Spain and Germany looked at both the community of microbes (microbiome) living in the mouth and the gut (shown in a person's feces). They took samples from healthy persons, individuals with pancreatic cancer, and persons with chronic pancreatitis  and found that the bacteria in the stool were predictive for pancreatic cancer (but not those in the mouth).

The "fecal microbiota signature" or pattern of microbes in those with pancreatic cancer had an increase in some microbes (e.g., Fusobacterium nucleatum) and a decrease in others (e.g., Faecalibacterium prausnitzii) - when compared to healthy individuals.

By the way, Fusobacterium nucleatum is found increased in other cancers, such as colon cancer, and beneficial and anti-inflammatory Faecalibacterium prausnitzii is reduced in a number of diseases. Eating a diet rich in high fiber foods (whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, seeds, nuts) increase the numbers of F. prausnitzi in a person's gut microbial community.

From Medical Xpress: Distinct gut microbial profile may identify pancreatic cancer, irrespective of stage

A specific panel of gut microbes may identify pancreatic cancer, irrespective of how far the disease has progressed, suggests research published online in the journal Gut. ...continue reading "Pancreatic Cancer Has a Distinct Gut Microbial Pattern"