Tag Archives: fivethirtyeight

Balanced Summary of Probiotics & Microbiome Effects on the Brain

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A good updated summary on probiotics from 538 GutScienceWeek:

Do probiotics work? Are they good for me?

This link reviews a good deal of science and has a nice table explaining costs.

Take home message: Probiotics which vary greatly by strain and often lack rigorous production standards may be beneficial for specific conditions like preventing antibiotic-induced diarrhea but probably are not beneficial on an ongoing basis.

The final post in the series looks at How the Gut Affects Your Mood.

While the author explains that there is likely a microbiome effect on the central nervous system as well as some intriguing animal studies, it is too early to know that manipulation of the microbiome will have beneficial effects on neurological/developmental concerns.

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538: Gut Science Week

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While FiveThirtyEight garners a lot of attention for its political and sports forecasts, there are often health-related posts.  This week is devoted to Gut Science Week.

Here’s the link: Gut Science Week Introduction

Here’s an excerpt:

One of the major leaps forward in gut science began with an accidental shooting at a trading post on June 6, 1822. A fur trader named Alexis St. Martin took a bullet in the abdomen, leaving him with a hole ripped through his muscle, bone and internal organs…

His doctor, William Beaumont, could literally tie a bit of food on a string, shove it into St. Martin’s stomach through the hole, and pull it back out again. Using this one weird trick, Beaumont extracted samples of the man’s gastric juices. Over eight years and more than 200 awkwardly invasive experiments, St. Martin and Beaumont gave humanity its first real understanding of how digestion works.

Another post: Everybody is Constipated, Nobody is Constipated

Here’s an excerpt:

Doctors use diagnostic criteria for constipation, where patients have to experience two or more of six symptoms:

  1. Straining during at least 25 percent of defecations
  2. Lumpy or hard stools in at least 25 percent of defecations
  3. Sensation of incomplete evacuation in at least 25 percent of defecations
  4. Sense of obstruction in at least 25 percent of defecations
  5. Manual maneuvers needed to facilitate at least 25 percent of defecations
  6. Fewer than three defecations per week

And a video: What Your Poop Says About You — FiveThirtyEight

Gut Science Week --FiveThirtyEight

Gut Science Week –FiveThirtyEight