My sister ruptured her bowel and almost died while taking antibiotics for Lime Disease. C Difficile was the culprit. It appears that our “intestinal flora” is a lot more complicated than we know. Manipulating it may harmful, but also may be surprisingly beneficial according to on-going research in alternating the flora with favorable “bugs.”
The Economist has a very interesting article about a whole new field of study in medicine: “When, at the turn of the century, the first human genomes were sequenced, many biologists felt they had had delivered into their hands the keys to unlocking numerous puzzles about disease. Since then there has indeed been a fruitful effort to understand how the thousands of human genes which control hormones, enzymes and other molecules of the body serve to regulate health. But, in an unexpected turn of events, it is also now apparent that the human genome is not the only one to which attention should be paid. Human guts contain microbes, lots of them. Added together, the genes in these bugs’ genomes amount to perhaps 150 times the number in the human genome alone. If the bacteria in question were doing little more than swimming around digesting lettuce, this would be of small consequence. But they are doing much more than that.” Click here for the full article!
Thank you, Jim, for posting this article from the Economist! As a type II diabetic and recipient of surgery to remove my sigmoid colon some years ago, I am quite interested in the flora of the gut and related research. I am also wondering if probiotics are recommended at this stage to change the gut flora for the best. Or are there negative side effects that we should consider. At any rate, the article gives some more hope to those of us who deal with diabetes, MS, obesity, bowel inflammatory disease, etc. Another new frontier opens and it is exciting to have a front row seat to watching what comes next !!!!
I think there are conflicting opinions about probiotics. They may well be useful at times – but there are questions: which formulation, when, how much, etc. I’d recommend that you discuss with your doc and keep researching the internet for peer reviewed articles on the subject.
Thank you, Jim. I will continue to read the data on probiotics. My primary, who is very, very good, seems not to have a position on the subject.