All the stuff that's in you makes you sick, and makes you well. The microbiome is a new frontier.

What you eat feeds not only what you think of as you, but also the millions upon millions of bacteria, yeasts and other microorganisms that are in you—effectively, part of you.

And increasingly researchers are finding that that mixture of gut bacteria and other stuff plays a massive role in what makes you you. This is a new frontier in nutritional and disease science.

Let’s talk a little about how big a deal is this association between us and our biological tenants.

“All organisms, including humans, exist within a sea of microorganisms. A select few microbes cause great harm, but most are benign, some essential,” wrote Caroline Ash and Kristen Mueller in an April 2016 article in the journal Science.

“The human microbiome is a source of genetic diversity, a modifier of disease, an essential component of immunity, and a functional entity that influences metabolism and modulates drug interactions,” wrote the authors Elizabeth Grice and Julia Segre in this paper. 

The University of Hawai`i at Manoa is active in the microbiome work.

Canadian researchers have found that babies with particular microscopic organisms in their systems in the first three months of life are more likely to have asthma later in life. They studied babies in Canada and babies in Ecuador and found the same pattern, although it was bacteria in Canadian kids and yeasts in Ecuadorian kids.  

A study in the journal Cell found that kids fed the same diets could be healthy or malnourished depending on what bacteria they had in their guts.

A study in the journal Research in Microbiology found that babies born by caesarian section end up with very different gut biota from those born vaginally—often with bacteria picked up in the hospital rather than those from their mothers.

There’s a whole industry, probiotics, that argues that by eating certain things, you can adjust your microbiome to favor microorganisms that keep you healthy and disfavor those that make you sick. But there are cautions.

“The probiotic industry currently faces huge challenges. These range from exaggerated health claims to the difficulties of developing rigorous testing protocols within existing regulatory frameworks. All the same, probiotic development shows great promise for rebuilding microbiotas and restoring health, certainly for some individuals,” wrote Ash and Mueller in Science.

Earlier this month, the University of Hawai`i hosted the author of the book, “Let Them Eat Dirt:

Saving Your Child from an Oversanitized World.” In it, Michael Finlay, with co-author Marie-Clair Arrieta, argue that early exposure to a range of microscopic life can be beneficial.

A lot of folks eat yogurt for its effect on gut bacteria. And University of Hawai`i researchers have studied the effects of poi as a non-dairy player in changing the mix of your internal biology. They didn’t find much impact from fresh poi, but they suggested that sour poi might have a different impact.

That paper includes a detailed review of probiotics, and it’s interesting reading. The authors are Amy C. Brown and Anne Shovic, of the Department of Human Nutrition, Food and Animal Sciences at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Salam Ibrahim, of the Food Microbiology and Biotechnology Laboratory, Department of Human Environment and Family Sciences, North Carolina A&T State University, Peter Holck, of the John A. Burns School of Medicine, and Alvin Huang, of the Department of Human Nutrition, Food and Animal Sciences, University of Hawaii at Manoa. Their paper is here. 

They wrote, in part, that “The probiotic theory is supported by the fact that a disruption in the intestine’s delicate balance may contribute to diarrhea, gastroenteritis, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis), food allergies, and certain cancers. On the contrary, a balanced or “normal” enteric flora may competitively exclude possible pathogenic organisms and stimulate the intestinal immune system.”

So what all is in there? “The human microbiome is composed of bacteria, archaea, viruses and eukaryotic microbes that reside in and on our bodies. These microbes have tremendous potential to impact our physiology, both in health and in disease,” wrote the authors of this paper. 

Clearly, we’re learning a lot, but there are vast amounts left to learn. Hawai`i will be part of the information gathering, in part through the university’s involvement in the National Microbiome Initiative.

© Jan TenBruggencate 2017

Children at risk from poisons at home

A new study has once again confirmed that children are at risk from pesticides used in the home.

Hawai`i's  statewide hue and cry about agricultural pest control products appears to miss the real danger, which is caused by home pest control products.

Not agricultural pesticides, but the pesticides used on pets are identified as a specific threat to infants and older kids.

The new probe is the first study into unintentional exposure to animal medications by children. It is entitled “Pediatric Exposures to Veterinary Pharmaceuticals,” and was performed by researchers from Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

The study was published online in the journal Pediatrics. 

Science Daily’s Feb. 6, 2017, review of the study notes that kids can be exposed in numerous ways, including eating the medication directly, eating medicated pet food, and coming into contact with fur of treated pets. 

“When you have kids and pets in the home, sometimes things get a little busy. Thinking about how your pet's medicines could be a risk for your family might not even cross your mind" said Kristi Roberts, of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital.

While the Hawai`i Legislature continues to express angst about risks from farmers’ use of agricultural chemicals, for which there is limited evidence, it’s arguable that it ignores the actual threats. 

Agricultural pesticide use is on a downturn, and actually peaked 30 years ago, as we wrote in 2015. 

That said, it's a mixed bag. The kinds of agricultural chemicals have changed—more herbicides and less insecticides—and has trended over time to less hazardous chemicals.

But actual health impacts from exposure to the chemicals used closest to home and in the home--those threats appear to be real.

When a Kaua`i mother subjected her child’s hair to testing for chemicals a few years go, it turned out most of the pesticides found at the highest levels were chemicals used in the home—including ones used to control insects on pets. We covered that here. 

The Nationwide Children’s Hospital study in Pedatrics looked at actual hospital admissions for children suffering from pesticide poisoning from 1999 to 2013, in data collected by the Central Ohio Poison Center. It found 1,431 cases, 88 percent of them involving kids aged 5 or less.

“Exploratory behavior was the most common exposure-related circumstance (61.4%) and ingestion accounted for the exposure route in 93% of cases,” the study says.

“Substances commonly associated with exposures included: veterinary drugs without human equivalent (17.3%), antimicrobial agents (14.8%), and antiparasitics (14.6%).”

The authors argue that parents and child care services may not recognize the risks of exposure to young children who are constantly exploring their environments.

“Prevention and education efforts should focus on appropriate product dispensing, home storage practices, and proper medication delivery to help reduce the risk of veterinary pharmaceutical exposure to young children,” they write.

This threat was earlier identified in a 2012 pesticide statement in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. While it said the data at that time was limited, it expressed serious concern.

“Children encounter pesticides daily in air, food, dust, and soil and on surfaces through home and public lawn or garden applications, household insecticide use, application to pets, and agricultural product residue,” the statement says. 

A 2015 study, “Residential Exposure to Pesticide During Childhood and Childhood Cancers: A Meta-Analysis,” also in Pediatrics, also found that indoor use of insecticides was a risk. 

“Children exposed to indoor insecticides would have a higher risk of childhood hematopoietic cancers. Additional research is needed to confirm the association between residential indoor pesticide exposures and childhood cancers. Meanwhile, preventive measures should be considered to reduce children’s exposure to pesticides at home,” the study said.

"We found that childhood exposure to indoor but not outdoor residential insecticides was associated with a significant increase in risk of childhood leukemia ... and childhood lymphomas," wrote the authors of the 2015 pesticide/cancer study.

There is lots of data out there, and making sense of it can be challenging. But a number of studies is now suggesting the need for serious attention to home pesticide use.

© Jan TenBruggencate 2017