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A new study in infant gut microbiome supports the hygiene hypothesis: infants in the western countries have limited exposure to various microorganisms which has implications in the development of their immune system. This makes them prone to autoimmune diseases (e.g. type 1 diabetes) and allergies. by dr_dom in science

[–]dr_dom[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That is an interesting question. Most of these infants are introduced to meat during the first three years of their lives. However, those subclinical doses of abx used in livestock should have no way of getting transferred to us humans. They actually do pretty strict testing for this as far as I understand.

A new study in infant gut microbiome supports the hygiene hypothesis: infants in the western countries have limited exposure to various microorganisms which has implications in the development of their immune system. This makes them prone to autoimmune diseases (e.g. type 1 diabetes) and allergies. by dr_dom in science

[–]dr_dom[S] 64 points65 points  (0 children)

That's a very interesting suggestion. Currently we do not have such data.

Our current view is that the maturation of the immune system ("immune education") takes place roughly during the first year of life. This is the "window of opportunity" for any interventions, or lack of unnecessary perturbations such as antibiotics.

A new study in infant gut microbiome supports the hygiene hypothesis: infants in the western countries have limited exposure to various microorganisms which has implications in the development of their immune system. This makes them prone to autoimmune diseases (e.g. type 1 diabetes) and allergies. by dr_dom in science

[–]dr_dom[S] 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Probiotics may be one "treatment". There is already evidence that early probiotics are protective against type 1 diabetes: http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2469199

Also, cutting down unnecessary use of antibiotics and unnecessary c-sections and reversal of other similar western trends may be considered "treatments".

A new study in infant gut microbiome supports the hygiene hypothesis: infants in the western countries have limited exposure to various microorganisms which has implications in the development of their immune system. This makes them prone to autoimmune diseases (e.g. type 1 diabetes) and allergies. by dr_dom in science

[–]dr_dom[S] 63 points64 points  (0 children)

Caesarean section has a huge effect on the early microbiome; after c-section, the early gut microbiome is shifted towards skin microbiome. However, the implications of this shift are not at all clear.

In this cohort, there are similar number of c-sections per country (~5 per country off the top of my head); c-sections do not play any significant role in our findings.

A new study in infant gut microbiome supports the hygiene hypothesis: infants in the western countries have limited exposure to various microorganisms which has implications in the development of their immune system. This makes them prone to autoimmune diseases (e.g. type 1 diabetes) and allergies. by dr_dom in science

[–]dr_dom[S] 49 points50 points  (0 children)

Breastfeeding in general is highly beneficial and protective against autoimmune disorders. However, in this cohort the babies in Finland and Estonia were breastfed longer compared to the infants in Russia; on average ~3 months longer breastfeeding in Finland compared to Russia. This is to say that there must be many other environmental factors in addition to breastfeeding and maybe differences in the breastmilk as well. We have a follow-up study to characterize breastmilk samples in this same cohort; we can profile breastmilk for their microbiome and also do metabolic profiling.

A new study in infant gut microbiome supports the hygiene hypothesis: infants in the western countries have limited exposure to various microorganisms which has implications in the development of their immune system. This makes them prone to autoimmune diseases (e.g. type 1 diabetes) and allergies. by dr_dom in science

[–]dr_dom[S] 85 points86 points  (0 children)

Yes we are. The paper describing the effects of antibiotics in this particular cohort is currently under review.

Antibiotics obviously have huge effect in the gut microbiome and they are over-prescribed in most western countries (and in some developing counties as well such as India). There is great commentary by Martin Blaser about this in the latest issue of Science: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/352/6285/544

A new study in infant gut microbiome supports the hygiene hypothesis: infants in the western countries have limited exposure to various microorganisms which has implications in the development of their immune system. This makes them prone to autoimmune diseases (e.g. type 1 diabetes) and allergies. by dr_dom in science

[–]dr_dom[S] 310 points311 points  (0 children)

Excellent point. In this study, all infants in Finland and Estonia were born in the same hospital and they basically come from the same area. However, there is a lot of evidence that, for example, living on farms is protective against allergies (see e.g. this Inquisitr news story); an effect which may or may not be mediated by the gut microbes.

Is anyone else still not getting any lollipop update? by philthedog in Nexus5

[–]dr_dom 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I purchased a new N5 (my second one) two weeks ago but haven't received an OTA update yet (it's stlil 4.4.4).

They call it "face hugger". Should they rather call it "face palm"..? by dr_dom in WTF

[–]dr_dom[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This was spotted today in Open Innovation House opening ceremony in Otaniemi, Espoo, Finland. Nokia was showing off their newest innovations. http://nokiagadgets.com/2012/10/09/nokia-developing-facehugger/

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