Researchers at Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan have some interesting results from studying man’s best friend’s ability to help sniff out colon cancer. Researchers wanted to verify how accurate at detecting cancer was “Marine”, an 8 year old Black Lab who has been training since 2005 to become a cancer sniffing dog. The researchers compared breath and watery stool samples from people with known cancer against a control group that did not have cancer. The tests ran as such, Marine(the dog) would take a sniff of a known cancer sample and then have to find the corresponding sample at various stations the researchers had setup. When she found the station she felt matched the scent of the cancer she would lie down in front of it & an assistant would note down which sample the dog chose. Continue reading “Dogs May Be More Accurate At Detecting Colon Cancer Than Some Tests” »
Review: DigestActiv Digestive Enzymes From Source Naturals
Digestive enzymes are an essential part of the digestive process. They are one of the three main things(enzymes,acid & muscle contractions) your stomach uses to breakdown foods into things like sugars and peptides which your small intestine can then absorb. Some are born with digestive enzymes up the wazoo while others may be deficient or as they age become deficient. Signs of enzyme deficiency are rather generic and may mimic many others issues. Usually the symptoms are bloating, belching, heartburn, nausea or indigestion. Digestive enzymes are used mainly in the stomach & don’t normally affect the intestinal tract, however upper digestive issues can manifest new or worsen existing problems in the intestinal tract. Continue reading “Review: DigestActiv Digestive Enzymes From Source Naturals” »
Inflammatory Bowel Disease is an autoimmune disease that causes chronic inflammation of the bowel. Usually Inflammatory Bowel Disease shows up as either Ulcerative Colitis or the potentially more serious Crohn’s Disease(neither is a cakewalk though). A new study by Northwestern University took a common probiotic(L. Acidophilus) & genetically modified it so that it lacked the gene “phosphoglycerol esterase” which normally causes inflammation in the gut. The probiotic was given to mice who had two different types of colitis. After a 13-day treatment the mice were almost completely free of inflammation and their disease was halted by up to 95%. The modified probiotic apparently works by acting as a calming agent on the autoimmune system so that it stops attacking the gut. Continue reading “Genetically Altered Probiotic May Help Inflammatory Bowel Disease” »
Kirsten Tillisch a doctor of medicine at the University of California in Los Angeles, along with her colleagues recently published the results of their meta-analysis on brain activity studies for patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. While reviewing these past studies they found that the brains of patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome were more likely to experience activity in emotional arousal sectors(pregenual anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala) and endogenous pain modulation sector(midbrain cluster). The overall results of the analysis “support[s] a role for central nervous system dysregulation in IBS.” Continue reading “Irritable Bowel Syndrome Causes Emotion & Pain Sensitivity To Increase” »
Well it appears what many patrons of Taco Bell have suspected for awhile might be landing Taco Bell in some hot water, or at least into a courtroom. The law firms “Blood Hurst & O’Reardon” & “Beasley Allen” have filed a class action lawsuit against Taco Bell’s parent company Yum Brands(the evil geniuses behind such fast food staples as Pizza Hut & KFC) claiming that Taco Bell’s ground “beef” may barely be beef at all.
The lawsuit claims that the ground beef filling may actually only consist of 35% actual beef. This flies in the face of the USDA policy book guidelines which state that for something to be called ground beef it must contain less than 30% beef fat & not be adulterated with any kind of extenders. The USDA does allow for a product to be labeled as “taco meat filling” if it has at least 40% beef, which Taco Bell supposedly fails to meet as well. Continue reading “Taco Bell Meat May Not Be Making The Grade” »
The FDA recently granted fast-track status for the drug MuDelta which was created by Furiex Pharmaceuticals. MuDelta is a combo delta opioid receptor agonist(stimulates) and a mu receptor antagonist(blocks stimulation). The drug has similarities to another opioid receptor drug Naltrexone, however Naltrexone is purely a opioid receptor antagonist for the mu, kappa & to a small extent delta receptors. It does not have agonist properties and thus doesn’t stimulate any of the receptors.
Continue reading “Furiex’s New Irritable Bowel Syndrome Drug “MuDelta”” »
From the land of pizza comes some good news for those dealing with Celiac disease. A recent study, headed by University of Naples(Italy) doctor Luigi Greco found that wheat treated with lactobacillus & a fungal enzyme could be eaten by those dealing with Celiac disease. The fermentation of the wheat causes it to hydrolyze and reduces the residual gluten content of the final product. Gluten is a naturally occurring protein inside wheat that damages the small intestine of those dealing with Celiac disease due to an autoimmune reaction. Continue reading “Those With Celiac Disease May Be Able To Eat Future Sourdough Wheat Products” »
I posted a few days ago about Chelsey Macey who was suing Mission Organics, Natural Selection Foods & Dole Foods over E. Coli contaminated spinach which caused her to become deathly ill and later develop life altering Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Well the lawsuit is now settled out of court with the amount awarded to her sealed, so we don’t know exactly how much she was given, but the jury was already about to award $5 million in damages & had yet to decide on the award for pain & suffering. One would probably reason then that the the settlement was for over $5 million. Continue reading “Woman Settles Out of Court in Irritable Bowel Syndrome E. Coli Spinach Lawsuit” »
There seems to be some continual confusion about the differences between Irritable Bowel Syndrome & Inflammatory Bowel Diseases.
The main difference between the two is that Irritable Bowels Syndrome is a functional disorder, meaning there is little to no physical evidence of the disorder besides it’s symptoms. Inflammatory Bowel Diseases are not functional disorders and are diagnosable based off of physical evidence. Irritable Bowel Syndrome is usually much less severe than Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. Additionally “Inflammatory Bowel Disease” is not the actual name of a disease, but a classification for bowel diseases of an inflammatory nature. The two main Inflammatory Bowel Diseases are Ulcerative Colitis & Crohn’s Disease. They are not the same thing, though they have similar symptoms & treatments.
I made this handy chart below so people can get a better idea of the differences.
A recent study by the Boston School of Medicine has found that those who are dealing with Crohn’s Disease are more likely to be deficient in Vitamin D2 partially due to problems with absorbing it. The study found that those with Crohn’s had a absorption rate that was 30% lower than normal & approximately 70% of the patients had Vitamin D deficiencies. Vitamin D is often labeled as ‘the sunshine vitamin’ as it can be produced by the skin when exposed to sunlight or obtained from foods and/or in supplements.
If you’d like to try supplementing Vitamin D2 check out Now Foods’ 2000 IU Vitamin D2. Keep in mind that a lot of the Vitamin D on store or pharmacy shelves is Vitamin D3, not D2, so keep that in mind when buying a supplement.
You can review all the findings by reading the full study.
