Taking antibiotics for an extended period of time in early and middle adulthood may increase your risk of developing precancerous growths called polyps in your colon, a large study suggests. [1]
The research, published in the journal Gut, adds to a growing collection of evidence that the type and diversity of gut microbes may play a significant role in the development of cancer.
On September 2, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned most antibacterial soaps and body washes currently on store shelves, saying the products pose health risks, and don’t work any better than regular soap. [1]
Many people remember their parents pulling their thumbs out of their mouths when they were children for fear they’d be made fun of, have a speech impediment, or wind up with buck teeth. There’s even stuff you can buy to put on kids’ fingers to make them taste bitter.
Now, maybe your aversion to thumb-sucking and nail-biting stems from a fear of germs. I get it; I’m a germaphobe, too.
Source: Boston.com
The subway is famous for many things, many of them unpleasant. The New York City subway, for example, is notorious for its disgusting rat population.
If you’ve ever ridden the NYC subway, you know you can’t stand on a subway platform without seeing at least one rat run by. Some of those suckers are as big as a purse or a carry-on bag. Maybe you remember Pizza Rat, the infamous rodent seen dragging a huge slice of pizza down the NYC subway stairs.
The world’s oceans are filled with plastic. More than 5 million pieces of it are floating around, being eaten by fish and passed up the food chain. Every year, more than 100,000 marine animals and seabirds are killed by plastic waste.
Illustration: P. Huey. Sourced from U.T. Bornscheuer, Science 351:1154 (2016).
Of the 342 million tons of plastic produced each year, a tiny fraction of it – about 14% – is recyclable.
A single course of antibiotics can cause Clostridium difficile, or C. diff – a bacterium that can lead to a condition known as Clostridium difficile colitis – to flourish in the gut, according to researchers at North Carolina State University.
The discovery was made during experiments with mice. The scientists say the antibiotics were found to kill off bacteria responsible for altering bile acid.
If additives in the food and fluoride in the water make you sick to your stomach, get ready to clutch your gut even harder. A recent OPB article outlines how Western diets and modern-day hygiene have wiped out important bacteria in our digestive tracts. Many may not know it, but this is seen by many to be a serious issue.
For many years now it has been widely known that smoking, certain dietary factors, obesity, and many other factors are major contributors to cancer incidence. However, a growing body of research has shown that specific changes in the intestinal flora, or dysbiosis, can be found in the stools or on the colonic walls of patients with diseases such as colon cancer.
