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Showing posts from April, 2018

Antibiotics and the Gut-Microbiome

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The human microbiome can be affected by a superfluity of external and internal stimuli – from a change in diet, to contracting a disease. A common cause of microbiome depletion is the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics, such as penicillins. Chemotherapy also have antibacterial abilities which can lead to a reduction in microbiome diversity. When a person undergoes a course of antibiotics or chemotherapy, not only are the pathogenic organisms destroyed/disabled, so are a lot of the normal, healthy microflora. This can affect a variety of bodily systems, such as the digestive system and the immune system. The effects that antibiotics have on the microbiome depend on: ·         chemical nature of the antibiotic ·         duration of the course of antibiotics ·         number of antibiotics being used ·         dosage (more potent antibiotics affect the microbiome more strongly) For patients who undergo repeated rounds of chemotherapy or courses of antibiotics,

The gut-brain connection

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Gut-wrenching experience, feeling queasy, "butterflies" within the stomach - all these expressions are all for a reason. The gastrointestinal tract is unpretentious to emotion like outrage, uneasiness, sadness, joy. All of these sentiments (and others) can evoke symptoms within the intestine. The brain has a coordinate impact on the stomach. For case, the very thought of eating can discharge the stomach's juices some time recently food gets there. This association goes the either ways. A bothered intestine can send signals to the brain, just as a disturbed brain can send signals to the intestine. In this manner, a person's stomach or intestinal trouble can be the cause or the item of anxiety, stretch, or sadness. That's since the brain and the gastrointestinal (GI) system are intimately connected. Psychosocial variables impact the actual physiology of the intestine, as well as side effects. In other words, stress (or sadness or other psychological vari

Iron supplements: Influence the development of colon cancer

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According to a new study, two common iron compounds increase the formation of a known biomarker for cancer. The two compounds, ferric citrate and ferric EDTA, are often used in dietary supplements and as a food additive respectively, in worldwide markets. Ferric citrate and ferric EDTA have both previously been shown to worsen tumour formation with colon cancer as per research. The effect of normal supplemental doses of these compounds on two types of cultured human colon cancer cells have done. As a comparison, they measured the effects of ferrous sulphate, another very ordinarily available iron compound. While ferrous sulphate had no effect, both ferric citrate and ferric EDTA caused an increase in cellular levels of amphiregulin , a biomarker for cancer. This was the case even at low doses.                                                                                   It can be concluded that ferric citrate and ferric EDTA might be carcinogenic, as they both inc

Wearable system to monitor electrical activity in the stomach:

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A wearable, non-invasive system has been made to screen electrical development in the stomach over 24 hours which essentially is like an electrocardiogram for the digestive tract . Applications consolidate checking GI activity for understanding outside of a clinical setting, which decreases costs. Watching for longer period of time increments the likelihood of capturing irregular occasions. It has been found that the stomach's electrical development changes not as it were around suppers, but in addition in the midst of rest, taking after its possess circadian beat. The biggest challenge was designing algorithms that recognize and boost the stomach's electrical signals amid noise and artifacts. This is especially difficult to do because the stomach's electrical signals are 10 times weaker than the heart's, making them harder to capture and analyze. Afterwards, a modern algorithmic pipeline was created that can clean up the information and partitioned out sto