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Study links microbes to colic

No one knows what causes colic, the intense pain and stomach cramping that commonly begins in otherwise healthy infants at about a month and disappears a few months later. But now researchers have found a possible explanation: the kinds of microbes that inhabit babies? intestines.

Researchers at Radboud University and Wageningen University in the Netherlands collected nine stool samples from each of 12 colicky babies and 12 age-matched babies without colic over their first 100 days of life.

All the babies and mothers were healthy. But as early as the first weeks, the scientists found significant differences in the intestinal microbes of colicky and noncolicky babies.

Those with colic had more proteobacteria ? including species that produce gas and inflammation ? and fewer bifidobacteria, especially the lactobacilli known to combat inflammation.

The researchers, writing last week in Paediatrics, suggest that probiotic supplements, which contain beneficial bacteria and sometimes decrease symptoms, may work by displacing harmful bacteria.

But the lead author, Carolina de Weerth, cautioned against routinely giving probiotics to infants.

?We actually haven?t determined causality,? she said. ?We need randomised controlled studies to see if there?s a causal effect and to see if it?s safe.?

?Berries lower heart risk?

Young women who eat plenty of blueberries and strawberries may have a reduced risk of heart attack, a new study has found.

The reason, researchers believe, is that those fruits, like other red and blue fruits and vegetables, have high concentrations of anthocyanin, a flavonoid that may help lower blood pressure and improve blood vessel function.

Beginning in 1991, researchers at Harvard tracked more than 100,000 women ages 25 to 42 with food-frequency questionnaires every four years through 2009.? They recorded 405 fatal and nonfatal heart attacks in them over the period. The study was published last week in the journal Circulation.

After adjusting for many dietary, behavioral and physiological risk factors, the scientists found that compared with those below the 20th percentile in anthocyanin intake, those above the 80th percentile were 32 per cent less likely to have a heart attack.

Other flavonoids were not significantly associated with reduced risk.

Women who ate more than three servings of blueberries or strawberries a week ? the most common anthocyanin-rich foods consumed ? had a 34 per cent lower risk than those who ate less.

?This is not a magic bullet,? said the lead author, Eric B. Rimm, an associate professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard.

?Blueberries and strawberries stand out among health foods, but there?s a lot we know about healthy diet, and this is just one component of that.?

New York Times Service

More Stories in Science World

Source: http://www.punchng.com/health/science-world/health-and-fitness-news-54/

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