Posted on 07/13/2013 5:53:23 PM PDT by neverdem
Common compounds produced by gut microbes quench colitis in mice
Common molecules made by bacteria in the gut may act as chill pills for the immune system. Molecules secreted by intestinal bacteria work to prevent misplaced immune attacks in inflammatory bowel diseases like colitis, a new study finds.
“It is a huge advance,” says Sarkis Mazmanian of Caltech. “This opens up the notion that a very easy and potentially very safe therapy for inflammatory bowel disease could exist.”
Decades of research have hinted that microbes play a role in immune-related diseases such as obesity, allergy, inflammatory bowel disease and colon cancer. But scientists have had difficulty pinpointing direct links between the bacteria in the gut and the army of immune cells that live there.
Some researchers have focused on individual microbial species among the gut’s teeming hordes to see how they affect the immune system. But Wendy Garrett’s team at Harvard University decided to look instead for possible immune tamers among the various molecules that many different bacteria make. The team chose to investigate short-chain fatty acids because bacterial species that make large amounts are in short supply in some people with inflammatory bowel disease.
To see whether the microbial molecules play a role in quieting the immune system, the researchers added them to mice’s drinking water. The animals developed elevated levels of inflammation-dousing regulatory T cells in their colons, the team reports July 4 in Science. The cells work like wet blankets, dampening autoimmune flare-ups before they burn out of control.
The team also found that those short-chain fatty acids protected the mice from an experimental form of colitis, an immune disease that destroys the colon.
Garrett hopes that the acids play the same role in tamping down inflammation in people. Many bacterial species that inhabit the guts of...
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
Yes, sauerkraut! We also drink home brewed kefir from raw goats milk and home brewed kombucha. We think we have our gut bases covered.
capsules of food?
excerpt:
“each mouthful of fermented food can provide trillions of beneficial bacteria—far more than you can get from a probiotics supplement, which will typically provide you with colony-forming units in the billions.”
I think you do! ;o)
oops “capsules OR food”
(broke my reading glasses today - having a hard time!
Our kraut is homemade too and I also do kosher pickles. The kraut is tops in my book. I call it natures brillo pad.
I like s'kraut - but in small doses.
However, I really like Kosher dills - and pepperoni (also fermented)
oh - and ‘real’ cheese
Yes I make real cheese from our goats milk, cream cheese, fresh mozzarella and a couple other kinds. I like the cream cheese (soft chevre) because it’s made at 72 degrees and all the good enzymes and vitamins are not roached.
An extreme infatuation with feces?
Actually the proper term is coprophilia.
I was at a farmers market today where they had samples of their goat cheese. I passed.
“You guys can laugh...”
No, seriously, a handful of dirt. We evolved with dirt all over the place. It is what is missing in our diets. Eating less and eating dirt, will make you healthy. No joke.
wow that sounds good lol! I love cheese.
short-chain fatty acids bump
Great!
I think a lot more people would make cheese if they realized that it's quite easy - especialy the solf cheeses
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