Microbiome

Explore the latest research and news about the gut microbiome and its impact on health.

Antibiotic Resistance and the Human Microbiome

February 1, 2023

Introduction Imagine the following scenario: You wake up on a cold winter morning feeling lethargic and slightly feverish and notice a tingling in your throat. On your way to work, you decide to pop into an urgent care clinic where the doctor, after a 10-minute checkup, prescribes a course of antibiotics for a supposed throat infection. With no laboratory tests and trusting the doctor's advice, you took the 6-day course of antibiotics. Might this be ultimately leading to the growing problem of...

Hand Sanitizers, Antimicrobials, and the Human Microbiome

January 28, 2023

Before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, most people probably didn’t have dozens of bottles of hand sanitizer sitting in their family medicine cabinet. You might have occasionally used hand sanitizer when you visited the doctor´s office or maybe during a trip overseas. On a day-to-day basis, most people probably washed their hands after using the bathroom, and then never thought twice about other types of hand sanitization. With the onset of COVID, however, hand sanitizer...

Gut Health 101: Gut Bacteria, the Gut Microbiota, and your Health

January 28, 2023

A few decades ago, most health recommendations were characterized by a general “germ phobia.” We knew that specific pathogens caused severe disease, so the obvious response was to combat those germs by every means possible. What followed was the complete sterilization of our lives, a collective overdose of antibiotics that has led to severe antimicrobial resistance, and a focus on hygiene that tried to mimic the sterile conditions of a surgery ward. Fast forward a couple of decades, and we are...

Prebiotics And Why You Need Them in Your Diet

November 6, 2018

Prebiotics are specialized fibers that beneficially nourish the good bacteria already in the large bowel or colon. When prebiotics are used to increase commensal bacterial species such as Bifidobacteria or Lactobacilli toward being the numerically predominant genus in the colon, improved colonization resistance results. These probiotic species are beneficial microorganisms because species within these groups have been reported to exert therapeutic and prophylactic influences on human health...

Probiotic Supplements: What You Need To Know Before Buying

November 5, 2018

Casually drop the word “bacteria” in any conversation, and you’re guaranteed to notice even just the tiniest hint of disgust on the face of whoever you’re talking to. Fact is, the concept of bacteria tends to get quite a bad rap. We’ve come to associate it with dirt, diseases, and generally anything that can make us sick. It also doesn’t help that advertisements for cleaning agents and whatnot often treat bacteria under a microscope as their go-to representation for pathogens (the things that...

The Role of Gut Flora in Health

August 1, 2016

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]ll disease begins in the gut." - Hippocrates. Over 2,400 years after the father of modern medicine made this claim, we are now re-discovering the role of gut flora, and just how true that statement was. The digestive tract is home to 100 trillion microorganisms, known as the gut flora. The majority of these microorganisms are bacteria, with a small percentage consisting of fungi and protozoa. The functions of the gut flora are complex enough to resemble those of an organ,...

Resistant Starch: What is Resistant Starch?

February 23, 2016

[dropcap]R[/dropcap]esistant Starch (RS) is a starch that is characterized by its inability to be digested or absorbed within the upper digestive tract. Passing through the stomach unchanged by digestive enzymes, it is fermented by bacteria in the large intestines and colon. Because of this, it is considered a prebiotic, in that it feeds beneficial colonic bacteria. 70% of our immune cells reside in the gut and resistant starch promotes healthy gut flora populations. Weight Loss RS is known...