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bacteria

Public Citizen Says FDA Fraudulently Approved Food Irradiation – (11-02-00)

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Public Citizen Says FDA Fraudulently Approved Food Irradiation

The FDA is under heavy attack these days with accusations of fraud and abuse. Top among these is the revelation that some 52% of FDA panel members had financial ties to the drug companies they were supposed to regulate. Governmental agencies are fraught with abuse and can no longer be considered as reliable information relating to your health.

(article) The Food and Drug Administration should withdraw its approval of food irradiation to kill bacteria, said the advocacy group Public Citizen on Tuesday, claiming that the agency based its acceptance of the technology on faulty studies. Joined by the Cancer Prevention Coalition and several environmental protection organizations, Public Citizen and the other groups said there were numerous public health threats posed by applying ionizing radiation to food. The groups documented their charges in a lengthy report issued at a press briefing. The report, called “A Broken Record—How the FDA Legalized, and Continues to Legalize, Food Irradiation Without Testing it For Safety,” shows that “FDA has failed in its mandate to protect consumers,” said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. Samuel Epstein, an expert on carcinogenicity and chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition, said there is overwhelming evidence that radiation cuts the nutritional value of food by a third, and that once cooked, the food has no nutritional value left. Epstein also said that there is a large body of evidence that irradiation poses a threat to human fertility and reproductive viability, and that it appears that many of the chemicals created as byproducts are carcinogenic to humans. For instance, benzene, a known carcinogen, is a byproduct that appears in large quantities in irradiated beef, according to the Public Citizen report.

GI response to non-harmful bacteria very primitive – (08-03-00)

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GI response to non-harmful bacteria very primitive

The body does not respond to harmful and non-harmful bacteria in the same way. This researcher suggests that the method the GI tract uses to deal with these bacteria is very primitive; suggesting that this relationship between us and our bacteria has been around for a long, long time.

Science 2000;288:2222-2226 The immunoglobulin IgA produced in gut mucosa to keep intestinal flora in check is produced by a “primitive” T cell-independent mechanism. “The immune system in the intestine sees and responds to the enormous load of nonpathogenic bacteria (greater than 500 thousand billion) in an apparently primitive way,” Dr. Macpherson told Reuters Health. “The bacteria do not seem to penetrate the body much, and the IgA response by the intestine that we have discovered is important in keeping them out.” According to Dr. Macpherson, the findings may have implications for research into disorders like Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, which involve an inflammatory response to commensal intestinal bacteria. “It is pretty reasonable to suppose that failure to dampen down the inflammatory reactions to them is the key, but we don’t know the relative importance of the pathway that we have described in this,” he said.

Long-term consumption of infant formulas containing live probiotic bacteria – (01-29-04)

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Long-term consumption of infant formulas containing live probiotic bacteria: tolerance and safety

Geez, need I say more?? Everyone who has read more than two issues of Updates knows I am a big fan of probiotics. Note in the conclusions that less antibiotic use was noted.

AJCN — Abstracts: Saavedra et al. 79 (2): 261 –

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DEVELOPMENT OF ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANT BACTERIA – (05-15-06)

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European group targets overuse of antibiotics

Well, at least somebody out there gets it, even if it has to be in Europe. But seriously, while most public health concerns focus on the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria, the true concern is the destruction of normal flora and the impact this has on our physiology. From the equol producing bacteria mentioned above to the bacteria needed from proper immune development in an infant, I feel that THIS is the real concern.

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WHAT ROLE DOES BACTERIA PLAY ON OUR GUT? – (08-13-07)

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Mechanisms underlying the resistance to diet-induced obesity in germ-free mice

Many researchers consider the bacteria in our gut as another organ system given the magnitude of effects these bacteria have on our systems as a whole. Detoxification, protection, conversion of compounds to active forms, formation of Vit B12, the list is endless.

This article brings to light the concept that the bacteria in our gut may also play a role in weight balance, both for good and for bad. Maybe some day in the future the focus on antibiotic overuse will not be on antibiotic resistance, but rather how destroying the bacteria that are supposed to be there wreaks havoc on our balance.

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DO YOU KNOW THAT USE OF PROBIOTICS PREVENTS DIARRHEA? – (01-26-08)

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Use of probiotic Lactobacillus preparation to prevent diarrhea associated with antibiotics

Geez, sometimes I feel like all I do is rant and rave about how disconnected mainstream medicine is from the research, but it’s hard to see it otherwise. We still view antibiotic overuse as an issue because it can lead to antibiotic resistance. But this concern is greatly overshadowed by what happens to use when we destroy the bacteria that is supposed to be there (our normal flora). Along these same lines, using probiotics therapeutically for certain conditions is well supported in the literature.

In this particular study, even using relatively low levels of probiotics (in the 100 million range, where most good quality supplements have 16 BILLION or more..) had a striking effect on the side effects associated with antibiotic use in the hospital and an even greater effect on eliminating C. diff infections with antibiotic use. And compare these outcomes to the safety and cost of using probiotics. It’s a no brainer.

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ANTIBIOTIC USE IN MOTHER’S AFFECTS THE RISK OF ALLERGIES IN INFANTS – (05-26-08)

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Maternal breast-milk and intestinal bifidobacteria

I cannot begin to describe my awe with the fact that bacteria shows up in breast milk. The physiological steps that would be needed to occur for active bacteria to be secreted into breast milk are numerous. The bottom line is that Mother Nature ABSOLUTELY meant for these bacteria to be in our systems.

To further complicate matters on destroying the infants’ healthy bacteria, this article would suggest that antibiotic use in the mother affects the risk of allergies in the infant by altering the bacteria she has available. This can put the onus for the infants’ health in the hands of the obstetrician, a group notoriously behind the research already.

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