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In a newly published study looking at how infant gut microbes change over time, once again babies had differences in gut bacteria depending on whether they were delivered vaginally or by Cesarean section.

But what's interesting is that stopping breastfeeding changed their gut bacteria  more (to more adult-like species) than just introducing solid foods. Certain types of bacteria thrive on the nutrients breast milk provides and once these nutrients are no longer available, then other bacteria emerge that are more commonly seen in adults. In other words, stopping breastfeeding seems to drive "maturation" of the gut bacteria.

From The Scientist: Maturation of the Infant Microbiome

Like babies themselves, the intestinal microbiomes of infants start out in an immature state and over time grow into communities similar to those of adults. In a new survey of 98 Swedish babies whose microbiota were sampled several times during their first year of life, researchers found that the microbiomes of breastfed infants persisted in a “younger” state longer than those of non-breastfed babies, even after the introduction of solid foods.

The conclusion that “stopping breastfeeding—rather than introducing solids—drives maturation is a new idea, because we all thought so far that solids introduction was a key factor in changing the microbiota,” said Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello, a microbiologist at New York University School of Medicine who did not participate in the study.

Researchers from University of Gothenburg in Sweden and their colleagues found more adult-like taxa in the microbiomes of babies who stopped breastfeeding earlier, while the microbiota of babies breastfed for longer were dominated by bacteria present in breastmilk. The results, published today (May 13) in Cell Host & Microbe, are part of an effort to catalog the microbial changes that occur as children age and to note how those changes correlate with health and disease. Fredrik Bäckhed of Gothenburg and his colleagues collected stool samples from 98 moms and their newborns, and again sampled the babies’ stool at four and 12 months.

Confirming previous work, his team’s analysis found that the 15 babies born via cesarean section were colonized by different bacteria—many from oral and skin communities—than babies born vaginally, who shared numerous microbes with those present in their mothers’ stool.

For instance, in the vaginally delivered newborns’ microbiomes, genes that break down sugars in breastmilk were common. As these babies celebrated their first birthdays, the genes in their microbiomes favored the ability to breakdown starches, pectins, and more complex sugars.

“What’s nice about this paper is that they show this maturation [of the microbiome] in normal, healthy kids in a Western population follows this transition based on diet,” said Steven Frese, a postdoc at the University of California, Davis, who penned a commentary accompanying the study with his advisor, David Mills. “Being exposed to new foods promotes the growth of new bacteria that can consume them,” Frese told The Scientist.

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Amusing but also scary. The negative effects on the gut microbes of one person consuming an all fast food diet for 10 days occurred very quickly, and his gut microbes did not recover even 2 weeks after the fast food diet ended. Biggest problem seemed to be loss of gut diversity - about 40% of his gut bacterial species. Loss of gut diversity is considered a sign of ill health. Written by Tim Spector, with Tom Spector's assistance, from The Conversation:

Your gut bacteria don’t like junk food – even if you do

When Morgan Spurlock famously spent a month eating large portions of McDonalds for the purposes of his documentary Supersize Me, he gained weight, damaged his liver and claimed to have suffered addictive withdrawal symptoms. This was popularly attributed to the toxic mix of carbs and fat plus the added chemicals and preservatives in junk foods. But could there be another explanation?

We may have forgotten others who really don’t enjoy fast food. These are the poor creatures that live in the dark in our guts. These are the hundred trillion microbes that outnumber our total human cells ten to one and digest our food, provide many vitamins and nutrients and keep us healthy. 

For the sake of science and research for my book The Diet Myth, I have been experimenting with several unusual diets and recorded their effects on my gut microbes...My son Tom, a final year student of genetics at the University of Aberystwyth suggested an additional crucial experiment: to track the microbes as they changed from an average western diet to an intensive fast food diet for over a week.

I wasn’t the ideal subject since I was no longer on an average diet, but Tom, who like most students enjoyed his fast food, was. So he agreed to be the guinea pig on the basis that I paid for all his meals and he could analyse and write up his results for his dissertation. The plan was to eat all his meals at the local McDonalds for ten days. He was able to eat either a Big Mac or Chicken nuggets, plus fries and Coke. For extra vitamins he was allowed beer and crisps in the evening. He would collect poo samples before, during and after his diet and send them to three different labs to check consistency.

While it was clear the intensive diet had made him feel temporarily unwell, we had to wait a few months for the results to arrive back....They all told the same story: Tom’s community of gut microbes (called a microbiome) had been devastated.

Tom’s gut had seen massive shifts in his common microbe groups for reasons that are still unclear. Firmicutes were replaced with Bacteroidetes as the dominant type, while friendly bifidobacteria that suppress inflammation halved. However the clearest marker of an unhealthy gut is losing species diversity and after just a few days Tom had lost an estimated 1,400 species – nearly 40% of his total. The changes persisted and even two weeks after the diet his microbes had not recovered. Loss of diversity is a universal signal of ill health in the guts of obese and diabetic people and triggers a range of immunity problems in lab mice.

That junk food is bad for you is not news, but knowing that they decimate our gut microbes to such an extent and so quickly is worrying...We rely on our bacteria to produce much of our essential nutrients and vitamins while they rely on us eating plants and fruits to provide them with energy and to produce healthy chemicals which keep our immune system working normally.

We are unlikely to stop people eating fast food, but the devastating effects on our microbes and our long term health could possibly be mitigated if we also eat foods which our microbes love like probiotics (yogurts), root vegetables, nuts, olives and high-fibre foods. What they seem to crave, above all else, is food diversity and a slice of gherkin in the burger just isn’t enough.

Tom Spector. Credit: Tim Spector

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More studies need to be done, but the possibility of simply taking 500 mg twice a day of nicotinamide (a vitamin B3 derivative) to reduce the incidence of basal and squamous cell carcinoma is exciting.

Nonmelanoma skin cancer is the most common cancer in the world.

From Medical Xpress: Study: Vitamin B3 may help prevent certain skin cancers

For the first time, a large study suggests that a vitamin might modestly lower the risk of the most common types of skin cancer in people with a history of these relatively harmless yet troublesome growths.

In a study in Australia, people who took a specific type of vitamin B3 for a year had a 23 percent lower rate of new skin cancers compared to others who took dummy pills. In absolute terms, it meant that vitamin takers developed fewer than two of these cancers on average versus roughly 2.5 cancers for the others.The study did not involve melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer. Instead, it aimed at more common forms—basal and squamous cell cancers. He and other doctors with the oncology group said the vitamin, called nicotinamide, could offer a cheap, easy way to lower risk.

The study involved 386 people who had at least two skin cancers in the previous five years. They took either 500 milligrams of the vitamin or dummy pills twice a day for a year. Neither they nor their doctors knew who got what until the study ended.

Besides reducing the rate of skin cancers, vitamin use also seemed to cut the rate of precancers—scaly patches of skin called actinic keratoses—by 11 percent after three months of use and 20 percent after nine months. Participants were tracked for six months after they stopped taking their pills, and the rate of new skin cancers was similar in both groups. "The benefit wears off fairly quickly," Damian said. "You need to continue taking the tablets for them to continue to be effective."

Nicotinamide is thought to help repair DNA in cells damaged by sun exposure. It is not the same as nicotine, the addictive stuff in tobacco. It's also not the same as niacin and some other forms of B3, which can cause flushing, headaches and blood pressure problems. Those problems were not seen with nicotinamide in the study. Nicotinamide is sold over the counter, is easy to take, and "there are essentially no side effects," Schilsky said.

 Credit: WebMD, Healthwise, Inc.

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Image result for Mediterranean dietMore support for health benefits of a Mediterranean diet. Results of a  study comparing brain health in groups of older people (in their 60s and 70s) suggest that a Mediterranean diet supplemented with olive oil or nuts may counter-act age-related cognitive decline (overall their cognitive test scores held steady). But the group assigned to the low-fat diet (the control group) worsened on cognitive tests. The Mediterranean diet emphasizes eating vegetables, fruits, legumes (beans), nuts, whole grains, seeds, olive oil, fish, moderate consumption of dairy products (mostly as cheese and yogurt), moderate wine consumption (optional), and low consumption of meat and meat products.From the Wall Street Journal:

Mediterranean Diet Boosts Brain Power, Clinical Study Finds

The Mediterranean diet, supplemented with a handful of nuts or a few tablespoons of olive oil a day, can counteract the effects of aging on the brain’s ability to function, a new clinical study suggests.

The study, published online Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, was unusual in that it employed rigorous scientific practices to test the effect of the diet on health....Data gathered from previous observational studies suggested that adhering to a Mediterranean-type diet related to better cognitive function and a reduced risk of dementia, but observational studies have limitations, he said.

The Mediterranean diet, which has also shown benefits in cardiovascular health, emphasizes vegetables and fruits, unrefined grains and beans. It also includes fish and wine and minimal consumption of meat and full-fat dairy products.

The study involved 447 cognitively healthy participants, 55 to 80 years of age, who were divided into three groups. Two groups followed the Mediterranean diet and added either 30 grams of mixed nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds) a day, or five tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil a day. The third group, acting as a control, was advised to follow a low-fat diet. The subjects were followed for a median of just over four years.

The results showed that, compared with the control group, memory function remained stronger in the Mediterranean diet plus nuts group, while frontal (attention and executive function) and global cognition benefited in the Mediterranean diet plus olive oil group.

The diminished decline in cognitive function likely stems from the abundance of antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents found in the supplemental foods, Dr. Ros said. Olive oil and nuts are rich in phenolic compounds that might counteract oxidative processes in the brain, leading to neurodegeneration, the study said. “If you can delay your age-related cognitive decline, you can process tasks with higher speed,” said Dr. Ros.

The research was a substudy of a larger investigation, designed by Dr. Ros, that found the Mediterranean diet, supplemented with additional olive oil or nuts, reduced the incidence of major cardiovascular events among people at high cardiovascular risk. That study, which involved nearly 7,500 participants and known by the acronym Predimed, was published in 2013.

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Image result for dark chocolateGreat results (dark chocolate improves attention and lowers blood pressure), but keep in mind that the research was sponsored by the Hershey company. But not to worry, it basically found what other studies have found - that chocolate is a stimulant that activates the brain. From Science Daily:

Eat dark chocolate to beat the midday slump?

Larry Stevens eats a piece of high-cacao content chocolate every afternoon, which is in part because he has developed a taste for the unsweetened dark chocolate. It's also because research shows that it lowers blood pressure and his new study reveals that it improves attention, which is especially important when hitting that midday slump.

"Chocolate is indeed a stimulant and it activates the brain in a really special way," said Stevens, a professor of psychological sciences at NAU. "It can increase brain characteristics of attention, and it also significantly affects blood pressure levels."

Historically, chocolate has been recognized as a vasodilator, meaning that it widens blood vessels and lowers blood pressure in the long run, but chocolate also contains some powerful stimulants. Stevens said his team wanted to investigate if people who consume chocolate would see an immediate stimulant effect.

Stevens and his colleagues in the Department of Psychological Sciences performed the EEG study with 122 participants between the ages of 18 and 25 years old. The researchers examined the EEG levels and blood pressure effects of consuming a 60 percent cacao confection compared with five control conditions...The results for the participants who consumed the 60 percent cacao chocolate showed that the brain was more alert and attentive after consumption. Their blood pressure also increased for a short time.

The most interesting results came from one of the control conditions, a 60 percent cacao chocolate which included L-theanine, an amino acid found in green tea that acts as a relaxant. This combination hasn't been introduced to the market yet, so you won't find it on the candy aisle...."L-theanine is a really fascinating product that lowers blood pressure and produces what we call alpha waves in the brain that are very calm and peaceful," Stevens said. For participants who consumed the high-cacao content chocolate with L-theanine, researchers recorded an immediate drop in blood pressure. 

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Another piece of research that shows that eating more fish and less meat plus the Mediterranean diet is beneficial - this time it's linked to larger brain volume and "delaying age-related atrophy of the brain". Perhaps some other beneficial health-related behaviors are also occurring in these groups, but the link with better brain health and more fish, less meat, and Mediterranean diet is consistently occurring in research. From Medscape:

Mediterranean Diet Linked to Larger Brain Volume

Adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MeDi) may prevent brain atrophy in old age, new research suggests.A large cross-sectional study by investigators at Columbia University in New York linked adherence to the MeDI to larger brain volume in an elderly population, suggesting this type of diet has the potential to prevent brain atrophy and, by extension, preserve cognition in the elderly.

"Our study suggests that adhering to MeDi may prevent cognitive decline or AD [Alzheimer's disease] by maintaining the brain structure or delaying aging-related atrophy," said study investigator Yian Gu, PhD. Previous research has linked the MeDi to a reduced risk for AD and slower rates of cognitive decline in the elderly. "

The aim of the current study was to investigate the association between adherence to the MeDi and structural MRI-based measures of both brain volume and cortical thickness among elderly individuals participating in the Washington Heights-Inwood Columbia Aging Project (WHICAP).The study cohort included 674 multiethnic Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 years or older living in an uptown area of New York City andfish who had no signs of dementia.

All participants underwent high-resolution structural MRI as well as assessment of MeDi adherence based on a 61-item food-frequency questionnaire....A higher score (ranging from 0 to 9) indicated better MeDi adherence. The investigators assessed intracranial volume (ICV), total brain volume (TBV), total gray matter volume (TGMV), total white matter volume (TWMV), and cortical thickness (CT).... the investigators found that those with higher MeDi adherence scores (5 to 9) had larger TBV , TGMV, and TWMV compared with those with lower MeDI scores (0 to 4).

Among the 9 food components of MeDi, higher fish intake was associated with larger TGMV, and lower meat intake was associated with both larger TBV and TGMV . Higher fish intake was also associated with higher CT .

Participants who adhered more to a MeDI had larger brain volumes both in gray matter and white matter, said Dr Gu. She also noted that each additional higher MeDi adherence and total brain volume is equivalent to more than 1 year of aging. Dr Gu noted that most of the association was driven by higher intake of fish and lower intake of meat. Potential mechanisms, she said, include anti-inflammatory and/or antioxidative effects, as well as potential slowing of the accumulation of β-amyloid or tau.

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This research was done in a laboratory using cells, but the results support some other research finding that eating cruciferous vegetables frequently may help prevent cancer. They found that compound levels that were anti-cancer (killed off cancer cells) in this study could be achieved through diet alone. Cruciferous vegetables are vegetables of the family Brassicaceae (also called Cruciferae) such as cauliflower, cabbage, garden cress, bok choy, broccoli, brussels sprouts, kale, and similar green leaf vegetables. From Science Daily:

Plant-derived compound targets cancer stem cells

A compound and an enzyme that occur naturally in cruciferous vegetables--cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli and Brussels sprouts--may help prevent recurrence and spread of some cancers, according to researchers. When they treated human cervical cancer stem cells with phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC) in a Petri dish, about 75 percent died within 24 hours using a 20-micromolar concentration of the compound.

The precursor compound and enzyme in cruciferous vegetables combine during the chewing process to produce PEITC within the body, Dey explained. Though PEITC is a good candidate to develop as a dietary supplement, studies have also shown that sufficient cancer-preventing levels of PEITC can be achieved through diet alone.

When cancer is treated with chemotherapy or radiation, the tumor disappears but the cancer stem cells live on. "These cells are frequently resistant to conventional therapies," Dey said. Though cancer stem cells make up less than 5 percent of a tumor, they can regenerate the original tumor and migrate through the blood vessels spreading cancer to secondary locations."These tiny cells are very difficult to detect in a tumor," Dey pointed, adding that for a long time scientists did not even know they existed. 

Based on information from scientific literature, the concentrations of PEITC that Dey and her team typically use in their research -- 5 to 15 micromolars -- may be achieved through diets rich in certain types of cruciferous vegetables, particularly land cress and watercress.

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Published on 1 Comment on Obesity Markers Found In Urine

You can deceive yourself by calling yourself "big-boned" or "hefty", but your urine doesn't lie! Researchers found 29 biological markers in urine that are associated with body mass. These biological markers in urine are a "metabolic signature" of obesity. Note: Body mass index (BMI) is a measure of body fat based on height and weight that applies to adult men and women. From Medical Xpress:

Urine profiles provide clues to how obesity causes disease

Scientists have identified chemical markers in urine associated with body mass, providing insights into how obesity causes disease. Being overweight or obese is associated with higher risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer, but the mechanisms connecting body fat and disease are not well understood.

The new study, led by Imperial College London, shows that obesity has a 'metabolic signature' detectable in urine samples, pointing to processes that could be targeted to mitigate its effects on health. 

Urine contains a variety of chemicals known as metabolites, from a vast range of biochemical processes in the body. Technologies that analyse the metabolic makeup of a sample can therefore offer huge amounts of information that reflects both a person's genetic makeup and lifestyle factors.

The Imperial researchers analysed urine samples from over 2,000 volunteers in the US and the UK. They found 29 different metabolic products whose levels correlated with the person's body mass index, and how they fit together in a complex network that links many different parts of the body.

Some of these metabolites are produced by bacteria that live in the gut, highlighting the potentially important role these organisms play in obesity. Altered patterns of energy-related metabolites produced in the muscles were also identified as being linked to obesity.

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Since so many people are taking Vitamin D supplements because of its supposed health benefits, the question becomes - how much is too much? For those desiring to take vitamin D supplements, what is a good maintenance dosage to take daily? That question has not been answered from the studies I've seen other than 1000 units per day is safe. However, sunlight is the best and safest source of vitamin D (even though that makes dermatologists nuts because of their concern with sunlight leading to skin cancer).From Science Daily:

Vitamin D toxicity rare in people who take supplements, researchers report

Over the last decade, numerous studies have shown that many Americans have low vitamin D levels and as a result, vitamin D supplement use has climbed in recent years. Vitamin D has been shown to boost bone health and it may play a role in preventing diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease and other illnesses. In light of the increased use of vitamin D supplements, Mayo Clinic researchers set out to learn more about the health of those with high vitamin D levels. They found that toxic levels are actually rare.

A vitamin D level greater than 50 nanograms per milliliter is considered high. Vitamin D levels are determined by a blood test called a serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D blood test. A normal level is 20-50 ng/mL, and deficiency is considered anything less than 20 ng/mL, according the Institute of Medicine (IOM).

The researchers analyzed data collected between 2002 and 2011 from patients in the Rochester Epidemiology Project...Of 20,308 measurements, 8 percent of the people who had their vitamin D measured had levels greater than 50 ng/mL, and less than 1 percent had levels over 100 ng/mL.

"We found that even in those with high levels of vitamin D over 50 ng/mL, there was not an increased risk of hypercalcemia, or elevated serum calcium, with increasing levels of vitamin D," says study co-author Thomas D. Thacher, M.D., a family medicine expert at Mayo Clinic. Hypercalcemia, or high blood calcium, can occur when there are very high levels of vitamin D in the blood. Too much calcium in the blood can cause weakness, lead to kidney stones, and interfere with the heart and brain, and even be life threatening.

The Mayo researchers also found that women over age 65 were at the highest risk of having vitamin D levels above 50 ng/mL. The result was not surprising because that's a group that often takes vitamin D supplements, Dr. Thacher says. Another notable outcome: The occurrence of high vitamin D levels over 50 ng/mL increased during the 10-year period of the study, from nine per 100,000 people at the start of the study up to 233 per 100,000 by the end.

Only one case over the 10-year study period was identified as true acute vitamin D toxicity; the person's vitamin D level was 364 ng/mL. The individual had been taking 50,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D supplements every day for more than three months, as well as calcium supplements. The IOM-recommended upper limit of vitamin D supplementation for people with low or deficient levels is 4,000 IU a day. 

Some natural sources of vitamin D include oily fish such as mackerel and salmon, fortified milk, and sunlight.

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A recent study confirms all my recent posts on the importance of fiber, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, seeds, nuts, and legumes for beneficial gut bacteria health (have to feed the them!). This study found dramatic changes in the colon (specifically in the colonic mucosa) from dietary changes in as little as 2 weeks.

In the study, for 2 weeks the Americans ate the typical low-fat, high fiber diet of South Africa which included foods such as hi-maize corn fritters, beans, salmon croquettes, spinach, red pepper and onions, homemade tater tots, mango slices,okra, tomatoes, corn muffins, black-eyed peas, catfish nuggets, navy bean soup, banana, lentils, rice, fish taco (tilapia), and pineapple. Meanwhile, people in South Africa ate an “American” high-fat, low-fiber diet. Foods included beef sausage links and pancakes for breakfast; hamburger and French fries for lunch; and meatloaf and rice for dinner. Plus all sorts of American favorites such as macaroni and cheese, steak, beef hot dog and beans.

The African style low fat and high fiber diet contained about 55 grams of fiber per day, and the American diet (low fiber and high fat ) had about 14 grams of fiber per day (which is typical of a Western diet). Bottom line: fiber feeds beneficial microbes in the gut, which results in beneficial changes in the gut (in the mucosa of the colon). From Science Daily:

Diet swap has dramatic effects on colon cancer risk for Americans and Africans

Scientists have found dramatic effects on risk factors for colon cancer when American and African volunteers swapped diets for just two weeks. Western diets, high in protein and fat but low in fibre, are thought to raise colon cancer risk compared with African diets high in fibre and low in fat and protein.The new study, published in Nature Communications today, confirms that a high fibre diet can substantially reduce risk, and shows that bacteria living in the gut play an important role in this effect.

Colon cancer is the fourth commonest cause of death from cancer worldwide, accounting for over 600,000 deaths per year. Colon cancer rates are much higher in the western world than in Africa or the Far East, yet in the United States, African Americans shoulder the greatest burden of the disease.

To investigate the possible roles of diet and gut bacteria, an international team including scientists from the University of Pittsburgh and Imperial College London carried out a study with a group of 20 African American volunteers and another group of 20 participants from rural South Africa. The two groups swapped diets under tightly controlled conditions for two weeks.... At the start, when the groups had been eating their normal diets, almost half of the American subjects had polyps -- abnormal growths in the bowel lining that may be harmless but can progress to cancer. None of the Africans had these abnormalities.

After two weeks on the African diet, the American group had significantly less inflammation in the colon and reduced biomarkers of cancer risk. In the African group, measurements indicating cancer risk dramatically increased after two weeks on the western diet.

"The findings suggest that people can substantially lower their risk of colon cancer by eating more fibre. This is not new in itself but what is really surprising is how quickly and dramatically the risk markers can switch in both groups following diet change. These findings also raise serious concerns that the progressive westernization of African communities may lead to the emergence of colon cancer as a major health issue."

Professor Stephen O'Keefe at the University of Pittsburgh, who directed the study, said: "Studies on Japanese migrants to Hawaii have shown that it takes one generation of westernization to change their low incidence of colon cancer to the high rates observed in native Hawaiians. Our study suggests that westernization of the diet induces changes in biomarkers of colon cancer risk in the colonic mucosa within two weeks. Perhaps even more importantly, a change in diet from a westernized composition to a 'traditional African' high fiber low fat diet reduced these biomarkers of cancer risk within two weeks, indicating that it is likely never too late to change your diet to change your risk of colon cancer."

The study found that a major reason for the changes in cancer risk was the way in which the bacteria in the gut -- known as the microbiome -- altered their metabolism to adapt to the new diet. In the American group, the researchers found that the African diet led to an increase in the production of butyrate, a byproduct of fibre metabolism that has important anti-cancer effects.