Food Research: Diversifying your diet may make your gut healthier ♦ Insects may be the answer to consumer demand for more protein ♦ We like seafood, but we don't eat enough,

Scientist works on taste, texture and color of lab-produced hamburger A researcher is confident his recipe for his $300,000 cultured hamburger will not only come down in price but someday make it to market.

Eating wild, foraged mushrooms can result in liver failure or death as misidentification is common Foraging and eating wild mushrooms can result in liver failure and even death because mistaking toxic mushrooms for edible varieties is common.

Diversifying your diet may make your gut healthier

A loss of dietary diversity during the past 50 years could be a contributing factor to the rise in obesity, Type 2 diabetes, gastrointestinal problems and other diseases.

Insects may be the answer to consumer demand for more protein The growing consumer demand for protein -- and the lack of new farmland to raise more livestock -- could make insects an attractive alternative to traditional protein sources.

We like seafood, but we don't eat enough, report suggests Nearly half of Floridians eat more seafood than they did five to 10 years ago, but 40 percent still do not eat the federally recommended dietary intake of seafood. Floridians also know seafood is good for them, and they like their seafood caught or harvested in the Sunshine State. But many are not sure they’d know Florida seafood if they saw it, and they’re hesitant to pay the higher cost of local seafood.

Senior Health: Omega-3 fatty acids enhance cognitive flexibility ♦ Proteins may slow memory loss ♦ How our gut changes through our lifetimes,

Omega-3 fatty acids enhance cognitive flexibility in at-risk older adults A study of older adults at risk of late-onset Alzheimer's disease found that those who consumed more omega-3 fatty acids did better than their peers on tests of cognitive flexibility -- the ability to efficiently switch between tasks -- and had a bigger anterior cingulate cortex, a brain region known to contribute to cognitive flexibility

Hospital admissions strongly linked to disability for older adults in last year of life A close association between acute hospitalizations and the development and progression of disability among older adults at the end of life has been found by researchers. Their findings may have profound implications for medical decision-making for older people and those who care for them.

Proteins may slow memory loss in people with Alzheimer's Certain proteins may slow the devastating memory loss caused by Alzheimer’s disease, according to a groundbreaking new study. The researchers found evidence that an elevated presence of a protein called neuronal pentraxin-2 may slow cognitive decline and reduce brain atrophy in people with Alzheimer's disease.

How our gut changes through our lifetimes, and how this determines our overall health Scientists and clinicians have carried out the first detailed study of how our intestinal tract changes as we age, and how this determines our overall health.

Health Research: Scientists set out to build a better gut ♦ Smoking increases likelihood of twins ♦ Text messages support mothers with postpartum depression

New genetic mutation could signal start of malaria drug resistance in Africa Early indicators of the malaria parasite in Africa developing resistance to the most effective drug available have been confirmed. Investigators found Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasites with a mutation to the gene Ap2mu were less sensitive to the drug artemisinin.

Text messages a good way to support mothers with postpartum depression New research explores the feasibility of helping low-income mothers through postpartum depression using text messages. The objective of the study was to evaluate the feasibility of sending supportive text messages to low-income mothers of racial and ethnic minority backgrounds with postpartum depression

Diabetes perceptions vary according to risk factors,  Differing perceptions among adult populations at-risk for diabetes have been uncovered by researchers, which may offer new approaches to diabetes education and prevention. The way that people mentally represent their conditions has a concrete effect on the way that they manage these conditions on their prognoses.

Smoking and mother's genetics combine to increase likelihood of twins African American mothers who smoke and have a genetic profile that includes a single nucleotide polymorphism, SNP, of the TP53 gene have an increased likelihood of having twins,

To fight nasty digestive bugs, scientists set out to build a better gut – using stem cells If you’ve ever been hit with an ‘intestinal bug’, you’ve felt the effects of infectious microbes on your digestive system. But scientists don’t fully understand what’s going on in gut infections like that – or in far more serious ones. Now, a team of scientists will tackle that issue in a new way

6/3/14 Gut Bacteria Help Make Us Fat and Thin ♦ Skin Cancer Trial Results 'Exciting' ♦ Restaurants Gambled with Diners’ Health ♦ Foodborne illness places heaviest burden on youngest kids

Skin Cancer Trial Results 'Exciting'

The results of two international trials against advanced skin cancer have been hailed as "exciting and striking". Both treatments, for advanced melanoma, are designed to enable the immune system to recognise and target tumours. Continue Reading

Foodborne illness places heaviest burden on youngest kids

With the incidence of 9 major foodborne diseases not changing significantly since 2006-2008, according to a new preliminary report for 2013, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says more needs to be done for prevention.

For 7 of the diseases the incidence was highest among children aged younger than 5 years. Those pathogens were: Campylobacter; Cryptosporidium; Salmonella; Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O157 and non-O157; Shigella; and Yersinia. Continue Reading

Food safety storm — restaurants gambled with diners’ health

ALMOST 40 eastern suburbs restaurants and cafes tried to sell food which might have gone off after a severe storm cut power for up to two days. In a report to the Eastern Health Authority’s May meeting, acting senior environmental health officer Nadia Conci says inspectors visited 55 premises in the wake of the February 4 storm. Ms Conci said many of the businesses failed to throw out food that could have been contaminated after being unrefrigerated for up to 48 hours.Continue Reading

How Gut Bacteria Help Make Us Fat and Thin

For the 35 percent of American adults who do daily battle with obesity, the main causes of their condition are all too familiar: an unhealthy diet, a sedentary lifestyle and perhaps some unlucky genes. In recent years, however, researchers have become increasingly convinced that important hidden players literally lurk in human bowels: billions on billions of gut microbes. Fortunately, researchers are beginning to understand the differences between the wrong mix and a healthy one Continue Reading

Possible New Cause for Rheumatoid Arthritis

Gut Microbes Linked to Rheumatoid Arthritis The presence of a specific type of gut bacteria correlates with rheumatoid arthritis in newly diagnosed, untreated people. The finding suggests a potential role for the bacteria in this autoimmune disease.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disorder that can cause pain, swelling, stiffness, and loss of function in the finger, wrist, and other joints throughout the body. It occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s own tissue, such as the membranes that line the joints.

The causes of rheumatoid arthritis aren’t completely known. Genes tied to the immune system may contribute. Environmental factors, such as cigarette smoking, diet and stress, may also play a role in triggering the disease. Treatments include medications to relieve pain and reduce inflammation.

The immune system is influenced by the microbiome, a network of microorganisms that live in and on the human body. These microbes outnumber the body’s cells by 10 to 1. Trillions of microbes—both helpful and harmful—reside in the digestive tract. The gut microbiome has been linked to arthritis in animal studies.

To see if these microbes might also be associated with rheumatoid arthritis in humans, Dr. Dan Littman of NYU School of Medicine led a team of researchers that examined DNA in 114 stool samples from both healthy people and those who had rheumatoid or psoriatic arthritis. The team identified gut bacteria by extracting DNA from the samples and then analyzing a bacteria-specific gene called the 16S ribosomal RNA gene. The research was funded in part by NIH’s National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). Results appeared online on November 5, 2013, in eLife.

The researchers found that 75% of people with new-onset, untreated rheumatoid arthritis had the bacterium Prevotella copri in their intestinal microbiome. In comparison, it was present in 12% of people with chronic, treated rheumatoid arthritis, 38% of people with psoriatic arthritis, and 21% of those in the control group. Increased levels of P. copri correlated with reductions in several groups of beneficial microbes, such as Bacteroides. The researchers performed more complete DNA sequencing on a subset of samples and identified unique Prevotella genes that correlated with rheumatoid arthritis.

To test whether P. copri could influence inflammation, the team administered the bacteria to healthy mice so that the bacteria became part of their gut microbiome. Mice were then given a chemical that induced colitis, a model of gut inflammation. Animals with P. copri developed more severe symptoms than the mice that hadn't received the bacteria. The finding provides further evidence for a potential role for P. copri in inflammation.

“Our own results in mouse studies encouraged us to take a closer look at patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and we found this remarkable and surprising association,” Littman says. “At this stage, however, we cannot conclude that there is a causal link between the abundance of P. copri and the onset of rheumatoid arthritis. We are developing new tools that will hopefully allow us to ask if this is indeed the case.”

Originally Published by NIH

Antibiotics May Increase The Likelihood of Getting Cancer

An intact population of microorganisms that derive food and benefit from other organisms living in the intestine is required for optimal response to cancer therapy, according to a mouse study by scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and their collaborators.

NCI scientists found that tumors of germ-free mice (mice completely lacking these microorganisms), or mice treated with antibiotics to deplete the gut of bacteria, were largely impaired in their ability to respond to immunotherapy that slows cancer growth and prolongs survival. The mice were also impaired in their ability to respond to mainstay chemotherapy drugs such as oxaliplatin and cisplatin. These findings in mice may underscore the importance of microorganisms in optimal cancer treatment outcomes in humans. The study,, appeared Nov. 22, 2013, in Science.

1. DEFINITION COMMENSAL of a form of symbiosis in which one organism derives a benefit while the other is unaffected

Gut commensal microbiota are microorganisms that live in the gut and thrive but do not affect their host, in this case laboratory mice. Humans also harbor gut commensal microbiota that can influence local and body-wide inflammation as well as modify the tumor microenvironment, which consists of cells, signaling molecules and mechanisms that may support tumor growth and also cause drug resistance.

To study the importance of commensal bacteria, the scientists used mice raised in sterile conditions from birth so they did not harbor any bacteria, or alternatively, conventionally raised mice that received a potent antibiotic cocktail that is known to decrease bacteria by more than 10,000–fold.  The mice received these antibiotics in their drinking water, starting three weeks prior to tumor inoculation. They continued to receive doses of the antibiotic cocktail throughout the experiment.

To analyze tumors at comparable stages of progression, lymphoma, colon, and melanoma cancers that could be transplanted were selected, based on their susceptibility to therapeutic drugs. Cancer cells from these tumors were then injected under the skin of the mice, where they formed tumors that grew to reach a diameter of one-fifth of an inch or more. The tumors were then treated with an immunotherapy that included CpG-oligonucleotides, which stimulated the immune system, or with the chemotherapy drugs oxaliplatin and cisplatin, which attacked the tumors.

Germ-free mice, or mice that received the antibiotic cocktail, responded poorly to drug therapy for their tumors. This resulted in a lower production of cytokines (proteins secreted by lymph cells that affects cellular activity and controls inflammation) as well as lower tumor death therefore demonstrating that optimal responses to cancer therapy required an intact commensal microbiota.

In an independent co-submitted study that will appear in the same issue of Science, Laurence Zitvogel, M.D., Ph.D., Gustave Roussy Institute, Paris, and colleagues showed that a different type of chemotherapy drug, cyclophosphamide, altered the composition of the intestinal microbiota and damaged the intestinal wall, thereby affecting optimal anti-tumor immune response and the therapeutic effectiveness of cyclophosphamide.

“The use of antibiotics should be considered as an important element affecting microbiota composition. It has been demonstrated, and our present study has confirmed, that after antibiotic treatment the bacterial composition in the gut never returns to its initial composition,” said Trinchieri. “Thus, our findings raise the possibility that the frequent use of antibiotics during a patient’s lifetime or to treat infections related to cancer and its side-effects may affect the success of anti-cancer therapy.”

In next steps, Goldszmid and Trinchieri will work in mice to fully characterize the molecular signaling by which the bacteria in the gut can actually send messages to distant organs or tumors and change the type and level of inflammation present in those organs. They also plan to characterize, in humans, the role of gut bacteria on the bodies’ inflammatory response and tumor response to therapy. Additionally, the researchers plan to design clinical studies by giving antibiotics to healthy volunteers to study their effect on the molecular mechanisms regulating inflammation.

Source NIH