Category Archives: Blog

The Breast Has Its Own Microbiome

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The Breast Has Its Own Microbiome–and the Mix of Bacteria Could Prevent or Encourage Cancer

If certain bacteria do instigate cancer, the finding could lead to new screening methods or treatments

The gut microbiome has stolen the show when it comes to the recent explosion of research on the bacteria that thrive within us. But bacteria also live in a woman’s breast tissue—and the mix of those microbes may have an equally important effect on health, according to a new study in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. The results “suggest that microbes in the breast, even in low amounts, may be playing a role in breast cancer—increasing the risk in some cases and decreasing the risk in other cases,” says Gregor Reid, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Western University in Ontario and the study’s senior author.

One in eight women in the U.S. are diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetimes, but its origins remain unknown in most cases. Age, genetic predisposition and environmental changes are often implicated—and according to a growing body of research, bacteria may be one of those environmental factors. For instance, as early as the 1960s a number of studies have found that breast-feeding is associated with a lower risk of breast cancer, and more recent work suggests that this may be because breast milk supports the growth of beneficial microorganisms.

Link to full article –

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-breast-has-its-own-microbiome-and-the-mix-of-bacteria-could-prevent-or-encourage-cancer/#

Can Bacteria Make Your Skin Healthier?

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Cosmetics companies claim that tweaking the bacteria on the skin can make it healthier. But does the science stack up?

ALEXANDRA OSSOLA

08.18.16 1:00 AM ET

Antibacterial cosmetics are so last year; the latest craze is for face creams, serums, and washes that actually add bacteria to the skin in order to make it look younger and healthier. But experts think that these products aren’t backed up by enough science to work as their manufacturers claim.

Because they can cause disease and infection, we often think of bacteria as the enemy. But in fact, they are essential to the body’s regular function—colonies of bacteria called the microbiome live in places like the intestines, mouth, vagina, and nose, outnumbering the body’s own cells. Every person’s microbiome is unique, influenced by factors like diet, age, gender, hometown, and family.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/08/18/can-bacteria-make-your-skin-healthier.html

Among Trillions of Microbes in the Gut, a Few Are Special

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Amid the trillions of microbes that live in the intestines, scientists have found a few species that seem to play a key role in keeping us healthy.

In the mid-2000s Harry Sokol, a gastroenterologist at Saint Antoine Hospital in Paris, was surprised by what he found when he ran some laboratory tests on tissue samples from his patients with Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory disorder of the gut. The exact cause of inflammatory bowel disease remains a mystery. Some have argued that it results from a hidden infection; others suspect a proliferation of certain bacteria among the trillions of microbes that inhabit the human gut. But when Sokol did a comparative DNA analysis of diseased sections of intestine surgically removed from the patients, he observed a relative depletion of just one common bacterium, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii. Rather than “bad” microbes prompting disease, he wondered, could a single “good” microbe prevent disease?

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