The Perfect Predator tells the story of two world-renowned, globetrotting HIV research scientists almost defeated by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This harrowing, first-hand narrative takes a reader bedside throughout Tom’s seemingly futile battle with a multi-drug resistant bacterial infection. It lays bare the couple’s struggles.
Dr. Martin Blaser’s book Missing Microbes details his observations and hypotheses on how overuse and misuse of antibiotics may be the source of modern non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes, asthma, and obesity. The maps of the U.S. colored with obesity and antibiotic prescriptions fit extremely well – and centered on my Southern homeland. Could it be that the obesity epidemic, diabetes, allergies, asthma, and other non-communicable diseases that are centered over the American South are not due to our preference for all things fried or sopped in butter and washed down with a swig of sweet tea? It’s not just due to sitting in front of screens too much. Certainly poor diet and little exercise don’t help. But could an over-use of antibiotics also be to blame? That was the hypothesis. Obesity Caused by Over Use of Antibiotics? Dr. Martin Blaser from NYU’s experimental research on mice demonstrated drastic changes in the different types of gut bacteria present before and after antibiotic use. More strikingly, when the antibiotic use was discontinued and the bacterial populations rebounded, the bacterial types that did come back were different metabolically. Antibiotics drastically effected the gut microbiome. Does antibiotic somehow set us on a path
Changes in poop quantity, quality, and color is a concern to gut microbiome scientists and parents alike. In Science of Mom’s recent post “How Often Should a Baby Poop?” she discusses the amazing variability in pooping patterns between babies and also as a kid ages. I was, of course, excited to see that she mentioned a little about the influence of the gut microbiome, but her post inspired me to think more about pooping patterns from a microbiome perspective. Individual variability First, it’s not too surprising that there’s a huge variability between infants and pooping frequency. Several studies demonstrate that each individual’s gut microbiome is unique. In the guts of healthy adults, a single, unique bacterial strain can be used to identify each individual [1]. With each bacterial strain comes some unique abilities. Various bacterial taxa digest different foods and/or produce and transport different vitamins, amino acids, and other basic nutrients. So microbiome community A may process the nutrients faster, more efficiently, or completely than microbiome community B. That difference in the microbiome community function plus the differences in human gut anatomy due to human genetics could lead to a wide range in pooping frequency. Feeding differences Second, as Science