Rates of obesity are rising across the globe; a third of the world’s population is now overweight and nearly a fifth is obese. Public health policy has mainly focused on diet to reverse these rising rates, but the impact of these policies has been limited. The latest science suggests why this strategy is failing: one diet does not fit all. Dietary advice needs to be personalised.
read moreNearly half of all deaths worldwide in children under the age of 5 is from malnutrition. And those who manage to survive suffer long-term consequences, such as stunted growth and delays in neurodevelopment.
read moreThink about this: from the moment you are conceived until you are 1000 days old, your growth is exponential, faster than in any other period of life. For the first 9 months, you go from two cells to a newborn measuring 50cm in length and 3 kg weight. Then, between birth and 3 years of age, your body size doubles and your weight increasing your five-fold.
read moreScientists have now discovered that one type of bacteria that lives in the infant gastrointestinal tract can prevent the development of food allergies. The research, which showed that when the human gut is exposed to a group of five or six bacterial species it can reverse established allergies, has been reported in Nature Medicine.
read moreA small study found that a particular bacterium positively changed metabolic markers in "obese and overweight human volunteers".
read moreResearch in mice has shown how antibiotic use can leave the lungs susceptible to flu virus infections. The studies, headed by scientists at the Francis Crick Institute, found that gut bacteria play an important role in driving interferon (IFN) signaling in non-immune cells in the lung lining, which help to maintain a first line of defense against flu infection. So, while about 80% of mice with healthy gut microbiota survived when infected with flu virus, only about a third of animals survived the flu if they had been pretreated with antibiotics.
read moreThe study of elite athlete's gut bacteria showed that the bacterium Veillonella atypica could be associated with an increase in human/ exercise performance. An interesting find, illustrating that these marathon runners had the bacterium in common.
read more"Different temperament traits are connected with individual microbe genera, microbial diversity and different microbe clusters"? According to the FinnBrain research project, the answer is yes! There is a connection between personality and gut bacteria in the infants they studied.
read moreThere are alterations in the bacteria in the gastrointestinal tracts of people with fibromyalgia, report researchers.
read moreRecent studies have shown that assessing the genetic changes in fecal samples can accurately reflect the status of the gut microbiome, and may be useful for the early diagnosis of diseases.
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