Clostridium difficile, atopy and wheeze during the first year of life More and more evidence is supporting the idea that a healthy bacterial population is essential for normal development of an infant’s immune system. Here we see that C. difficile may increase risk of allergies. Well, it is well known that C. difficile can be […]
Over the decades one macronutrient or other has gotten beat up: fats, carbs, proteins. Sometimes it’s components within these food groups: eggs, red meat, potato chips, etc… But rarely do we pay attention to anything beyond the hype. Most of the controversy over foods that have been demonized has been taken out of context. Except potato […]
I remain firm on my mantra that destruction of healthy bacterial flora is the worst thing we can do for an infant’s health. But probiotics can fix the damage from antibiotics, right? I used to think so as well. Of course, mainstream medicine (pediatricians, in particular) worry about antibiotic resistance from the overuse of antibiotics. […]
Induction of Protective IgA by Intestinal Dendritic Cells Carrying Commensal Bacteria Sorry for the long title, but the basic idea is that normal flora interacts with the immune cells of the GI tract at a local level only. The presence of normal flora such as lactobacillus or acidopholus does not elicit a systemic immune response […]
Clostridium difficile. Nasty stuff. In someone not completely healthy, C diff colitis can kill from the near uncontrollable diarrhea that results. Otherwise known as C diff, this bacteria is in the Clostridium family. Siblings you may recognize in this family include Clostridium botulinum (botulism) and Clostridium tetani (tetanus). Understand that the botulism toxin is one […]
