NICE does faecal microbiota transplants

OK, so just for the record I'm not actually saying that NICE (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) actually provide faecal microbiota transplants (FMTs) as some sort of in-house service; that's not their job. But as the BBC reported (see here) they have published guidance on the use of FMT specifically with recurrent Clostridium difficile...

May 2015

A true rise in pediatric coeliac disease

Consider this something of a micro blog post as I offer up your scientific TV dinner today in the form of the paper by White and colleagues* (open-access) on the numbers game when it comes to coeliac disease (even celiac disease if you prefer) in children.On the understanding that not everyone knows about the currently known hows and whys of coeliac...

May 2015

Probiotic mix effective for IBS?

We are already starting to appreciate just how (a) complex and (b) important our gut microbiota are to health and wellbeing outside of the more traditional duties of food digestion and making the odd nutrient or two. Those trillions of beasties which call us home seem to be cropping up everywhere these days in research terms, based on investigations...

May 2015

Gut bacteria determines social development? Psychobacteriomics?

The paper by Desbonnet and colleagues* (open-access) asks some intriguing questions about how our gut bacteria - those trillions of passengers which we all carry in our deepest, darkest recesses - might have the propensity to affect the behavioural development of a mouse specifically focused on social development.Whilst to some people this might not...

May 2015

Akkermansia muci... muciniphila and diet induced obesity

It just rolls off the tongue: Akkermansia muciniphila*. As we speak A.muciniphila is making headlines across the world based on the study by Amandine Everard and colleagues** (open-access) on what happened to mice who had or were lacking in this stalwart of the gut microbiome.No need for me to go into great detail about the Everard trial because (a)...

May 2015

Gluten exclusion for cases of diarrhoea predominant IBS

If I had the intellect I would try and deliver this very concise entry in the form of a witty poem or ditty just to try and make things a little more entertaining for readers rather than enduring yet another dry excuse for not making a proper "chatty" post. Unfortunately, I am to poetry what chocolate is to teapot material, so won't even try.Instead...

May 2015

Gut bacteria - obesity and coeliac disease - stem cells

Another very quick post to bring to your attention two very interesting papers which caught my attention recently.The first is by Ciccocioppo and colleagues* and how, quote: "allogeneic HSCT may lead to induction of gluten tolerance in patients with CD [coeliac disease]." HSCT = hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, which is indeed as controversial...

May 2015

The science of microbiomics

A very short post to plug... well, to plug me really, and my very, very small contribution to an article featuring in the Pharmaceutical Journal titled: Microbiomics: its growing significance in the world of medicines testing. The article is only open-access for a short period of time, so if you happen to have stumbled across this post years and years...

May 2015

Gluten, guts and glory

Yep, I know. First post for several months - indeed first post for 2013 - and more apologies to readers about not keeping up with this blog. A short post on this occasion focused on an interesting opinion piece by Moises Velasquez-Manoff titled: Who has the guts for gluten?I'll admit to being pretty entertained by the work of Velasquez-Manoff given...

May 2015

Gut microbes and health

I'd like to apologise to my Gutness Gracious Me blog. I've neglected you and your subscribers for quite a few months now and I'm sorry. I have no excuse so please accept my humble apology.Friends again?OK. There's been quite a bit of new research come out in the intervening months which I need to catch up on. For this entry I'm going to list a couple...

May 2015