Water Pollution: Compound slows growth of nitrate-reducing bacteria

More reasons to use high quality probiOtics and the best water filter

Antibiotic Pollution May Increase Groundwater Nitrate

Charlie Schmidt

SIDE EFFECTS Antibiotics, such as sulfamethoxazole, could kill beneficial bacteria that clean up groundwater.

Decades after spawning a health care revolution, antibiotics are now common pollutants. Scientists' biggest concern about these emerging contaminants is that they promote the spread of resistance. But new research suggests they also harm the microbes that cleanse groundwater of dangerous compounds, particularly nitrates (Environ. Sci. Technol., DOI: 10.1021/es103605e).

High nitrate levels in drinking water can cause methemoglobinemia, a disease that decreases the blood's oxygen carrying capacity. Naturally-occurring bacteria in groundwater, such as Pseudomonas putida, can remove nitrates by reducing them to nitrogen gas.In Cape Cod, Mass., very high nitrate levels co-occur in groundwater with one of the most common antibiotics in the clinical arsenal: sulfamethoxazole (SMX). For nearly a decade, microbiologist Ronald Harvey and colleagues from the U.S. Geological Survey have tracked SMX and other groundwater pollutants at an aquifer that originates at the Otis Air National Guard Base, a heavily polluted site on Cape Cod. Other researchers had shown that high doses of SMX can interfere with bacterial nitrate reduction. But no one knew if a similar response might occur at environmentally-relevant concentrations.

To answer that question, Harvey's team first cultured bacteria from a non-contaminated portion of the aquifer. Next, they added nitrate to the cultures at levels measured in the environment, along with SMX at doses ranging from 0.005 to 2,000 µM. Bacterial growth rates dropped at all doses. At the environmentally relevant concentration of 0.005 µM SMX, the amount of total nitrate that the bacteria removed from the culture fell by nearly half. "We're demonstrating a clear biological effect," Harvey says. "And we're showing that in the same bacteria that live in this particular aquifer."

Harvey says that the next step would be to study the bacteria's response to SMX exposure in the aquifer itself.

USGS research hydrologist Dana Kolpin, who didn't participate in this study, thinks the results suggest that SMX contamination might account at least in part for high nitrate levels in the aquifer. "We can't jump to that conclusion yet," he says. "But the data suggest that's a hypothesis worth pursuing."

Chemical & Engineering News
ISSN 0009-2347
Copyright © 2011 American Chemical Society
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/89/i12/8912scene4.html

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Posted in: antibiotics,aquasana,first natural health news,first natural news,probiotics,water pollution

Going Gluten Free? Watch Out for Bugs!

Victoria Yeh writes in her article about "Life After Wheat" that "Gluten-free has almost become the new “fad” diet of today, with various celebrities and fitness gurus touting its benefits. But for those of us who have a true dietary sensitivity, a gluten-free diet is more than a fad – it’s a necessity. According to the Canadian Celiac Association, approximately 1% of the population suffers from celiac disease, characterized by inflammation and damage to the intestinal wall. This can lead to a range of issues from poor nutrient absorption to unexplained neurological symptoms and even infertility. While the incidence of celiac disease is relatively low, it is estimated that yet another 10-15% of the population has some form of non-celiac gluten sensitivity. Since the symptoms of food sensitivities can be so varied and easily ignored, many people go years without a proper diagnosis and simply normalize or adapt to a life of sub-optimal health."

Having had to discover that I too have the issue of gluten and gliaden sensitivity a couple of years ago I seem to wander around the internet looking for related information because so many others also live with this concern.

Just in the last week or so I learned something new.  It was timely to me because my organization just distributed a very large donation of probiotics to several groups in need of this product for those they serve.

I am fairly sure that few know that if you do move to a gluten free diet you risk losing some of the beneficial protective mechanisms found in the gut because of the higher risk of bacterial overgrowth.

So if you too are gluten free by choice or by need, then make sure you are taking your daily supplement of high quality probiotics** to keep the health flora growing.

You health will love you for it.

(**I do not consider the highly advertised and costly grocery store products to be high quality: Look for a well respected supplement brand.)

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Posted in: gliaden,gluten,gluten free,gut flora,probiotics

Health Tip

Consider a better way to boost immune system health in your gut and improve regularity with this health tip from Natural Health News -

Depending where you live and whether or not you pay tax on food, Activia will cost you about $30 each month.

One bottle of high potency, high quality acidophilus/bifidus capsules will cost you about one third to one half this amount. Find it here. And a lactose free product is available too.

Plus you won't have so much packaging to recycle.

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Posted in: GI system,IBS,immune health,irregularity,natural health news,probiotics,regularity

Stopping Pneumonia

High quality probiotics do help many health issues, preventing secondary infection related to antibiotic use and ploy-antibiotic use of fluroquinolones, by maintaining health gut bacteria necessary for immune function. Other methods must be relied on when overuse of acid blockers reduces gastric HCl (hydrochloric acid). The acid acts to fight bacteria and help in protein digestion to give you the necessary nutrition to support your body while you're fighting off infection.

Another excellent way to fight pneumonia is the use of vitamin A. This can be by oral administration or in IVs for critically ill persons. The dose is very high for a short duration, either three days or seven days, with dose adjustment based on time used.

Vitamin A acts to protect the mucous membrane lining of the respiratory tract.

Probiotics 'may stop pneumonia'
Probiotics could be used to protect critically ill patients from developing pneumonia, according to scientists.

The friendly bacteria can block the colonisation by dangerous bugs of the airways of ventilated patients, the Swedish study concluded.

The probiotic solution performed just as well as normal antiseptics used to keep pneumonia-causing bacteria at bay, the journal Critical Care reported.

Being more natural it could pose fewer side effects, the authors said.

Friendly bugs

The probiotic bacterium Lactobacillus plantarum 299 is normally present in saliva and is also commonly found in fermented products like pickles and sauerkraut.

Although rare, some patients are allergic to the antiseptics normally used to prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia, namely chlorhexidine.

There is also a very small risk of the pneumonia-causing bacteria developing chlorhexidine resistance.

Pneumonia is a common complication in patients on breathing machines and occurs when harmful bacteria from the mouth, throat or breathing tube are inhaled into the lungs.

This is a plausible idea. But we need much larger trials that focus on clinical outcomes to prove it is an effective and affordable treatment
Bob Marsterton of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy

Swabbing the mouth with chlorhexidine is widely recommended to reduce the risk ventilator-associated pneumonia in critically ill patients requiring mechanical ventilation.

Bengt Klarin and colleagues at the University Hospital in Lund, Sweden, compared the probiotic treatment with chlorhexidine in 50 critically ill patients.

Microbiological testing revealed both treatments appeared to be equally effective at preventing potentially harmful bacteria from flourishing in the mouth and throat.

In addition, a probiotic that adheres to mouth lining will be able to work around the clock, unlike antiseptics which wear off after a few hours, say the authors.

The scientists said bigger studies were now needed to investigate the feasibility of using probiotics in this setting.

Bob Marsterton, chair of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy's working party on hospital acquired pneumonia, said: "This is a plausible idea. But we need much larger trials that focus on clinical outcomes to prove it is an effective and affordable treatment."

He said chlorhexidine highly effective, affordable and readily available.

Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/7708895.stm

Published: 2008/11/06 © BBC MMVIII

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Posted in: Elders,health news,natural care,natural news,pneumonia,probiotics

Food Allergy on the Rise

The increase in food allergy is good to make note of because of several factors.

One of course is the ever increasing level of environmental toxicity in air, water and food.

Food coloring, additives and flavorings also are known to contribute to this health concern. Over processed foods (including cereals and dairy) and the increased use of highly allergenic or GMO soy in formula, pesticide use and other GMO foods must be considered.

One issue that for the most part that is overlooked is the effect of the myriad of vaccines forced on children from birth to the teen years, on GI problems and allergy.

Over and over again I am amazed at just how the gut issues in infants and small children become more prevalent, how troubling acid antagonist drugs are thrown at them (leading to many more serious problems over time), and how the use of simple remedies like real food, enzymes and probiotics are ignored.

Even children's prescription drugs include many colorings, flavorings and artificial sweeteners - all known to impact developing gastrointestinal and immune systems.

I wonder when common sense will return to health care and mainstream medicine.

Food allergies increasing in US kids, study says By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer

ATLANTA – Food allergies in American children seem to be on the rise, now affecting about 3 million kids, according to the first federal study of the problem.

But experts said that might be because parents are more aware and quicker to have their kids checked out by a doctor.

About 1 in 26 children had food allergies last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday. That's up from 1 in 29 kids in 1997.

The 18 percent increase is significant enough to be considered more than a statistical blip, said Amy Branum of the CDC, the study's lead author.

Nobody knows for sure what's driving the increase. A doubling in peanut allergies — noted in earlier studies — is one factor, some experts said. Also, children seems to be taking longer to outgrow milk and egg allergies than they did in decades past.

But also figuring into the equation are parents and doctors who are more likely to consider food as the trigger for symptoms like vomiting, skin rashes and breathing problems.

"A couple of decades ago, it was not uncommon to have kids sick all the time and we just said 'They have a weak stomach' or 'They're sickly,'" said Anne Munoz-Furlong, chief executive of the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network, a Virginia-based advocacy organization.

Parents today are quicker to take their kids to specialists to check out the possibility of food allergies, said Munoz-Furlong, who founded the nonprofit in 1991.

The CDC results came from an in-person, door-to-door survey in 2007 of the households of 9,500 U.S. children under age 18.

When asked if a child in the house had any kind of food allergy in the previous 12 months, about 4 percent said yes. The parents were not asked if a doctor had made the diagnosis, and no medical records were checked. Some parents may not know the difference between immune system-based food allergies and digestive disorders like lactose intolerance, so it's possible the study's findings are a bit off, Branum said.

However, the study's results mirror older national estimates that were extrapolated from smaller, more intensive studies, said Dr. Hugh Sampson, a food allergy researcher at the Mount Sinai School of medicine.

"This tells us those earlier extrapolations were fairly close," Sampson said.

The CDC study did not give a breakdown of which foods were to blame for the allergies. Other research suggests that about 1 in 40 Americans will have a milk allergy at some point in their lives, and 1 in 50 percent will be allergic to eggs. Most people outgrow these allergies in childhood.

About 1 in 50 are allergic to shellfish and nearly 1 in 100 react to peanuts, allergies that generally persist for a lifetime, according to Sampson.

Some people have more than one food allergy, he said, explaining why the overall food allergy prevalence is about 4 percent.

Children with food allergies also were more likely to have asthma, eczema and respiratory problems than kids without food allergies, the CDC study found, confirming previous research.

The study also found that the number of children hospitalized for food allergies was up. The number of hospital discharges jumped from about 2,600 a year in the late 1990s to more than 9,500 annually in recent years, the CDC results showed.

Also, Hispanic children had lower rates of food allergies than white or black children — the first such racial/ethnic breakdown in a national study.

The reason for that last finding may not be genetics, said Munoz-Furlong. She is Hispanic and said people in her own family have been unwilling to consider food allergies as the reason for children's illnesses. "It's a question of awareness," she said.

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Posted in: allergy,children,enzymes,food,food allergy,health,health news,natural,natural health news,natural news,News,probiotics,real food,vaccines