Researchers report link with gut health in babies

Researchers report link with gut health in babies
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Researchers say gut health may be linked to eczema in babies. Maskot/Getty Images
  • About 6% of children globally have eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis.
  • While some children may outgrow eczema, many do not and experience worsened conditions.
  • Researchers say they found evidence suggesting a link between the gut microbiome and eczema during infancy, which could provide prevention and treatment options.

About 6% of children worldwide have eczema — a chronic inflammatory skin disorder that can cause itchy, cracked, and dry skin.

Clinically known as atopic dermatitis, this skin condition currently has no cure.

Although some infants and children outgrow their eczema, many do not, and the condition may worsen as they age.

Now, researchers from The Chinese University of Hong Kong say they have found evidence suggesting a link between the gut microbiome and eczema during infancy, a discovery that could provide potential prevention and treatment options.

The study was recently published in mSystems, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

For this study, researchers recruited pregnant females who were close to delivery to participate in the study. Information was taken on their health and lifestyle during and after pregnancy.

Researchers collected diet, medication, and health information on 112 infants after they were born.

Scientists also kept abreast of any eczema issues and followed the development of each baby’s gut microbiome by collecting nine stool samples over the child’s first three years of life.

“The problem of eczema is increasing, and our study shows it could be a result of unwanted changes in the gut bacterial content,” Dr. Paul Chan, a professor of microbiology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and principal investigator of the study, explained to Medical News Today.

“The first year of life could be a critical period to restore the gut bacteria to a more desirable composition.”

Previous research shows the health of an infant’s gut microbiome plays an important role in infant development and sets the tone for a person’s overall health as they age.

Upon analysis, researchers reported differences in the composition and diversity of gut microbiota across the first three years of the infants’ lives.

They said they discovered that how a baby is delivered, what antibiotics they are given during labor, and how they are fed influence how the gut microbiome is established over the first 12 months of life.

Additionally, scientists also found certain changes in an infant’s gut microbiome occurred right before they were diagnosed with eczema.

This included a lack of a species of bacteria called Bacteroides and too much of another type of bacteria called Clostridium sensu stricto 1.

Researchers also reported these same patterns were observed in babies delivered via C-section, suggesting the gut microbiome may play a role in previously reported associations between C-section delivery and increased risk of eczema.

After reviewing the research, Dr. Peter Lio, a clinical assistant professor of dermatology and pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago,

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COVID vaccines can lead to minor menstrual cycle variations, researchers obtain : Photographs

COVID vaccines can lead to minor menstrual cycle variations, researchers obtain : Photographs

Certified sensible nurse Yokasta Castro, of Warwick, R.I., attracts a Moderna COVID-19 vaccine into a syringe. The vaccines have now been joined to minimal modifications in menstruation, but are continue to thought of secure.

Steven Senne/AP


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Steven Senne/AP


Certified sensible nurse Yokasta Castro, of Warwick, R.I., draws a Moderna COVID-19 vaccine into a syringe. The vaccines have now been joined to minor modifications in menstruation, but are nevertheless regarded safe and sound.

Steven Senne/AP

A new scientific analyze reveals that vaccination can cause changes to the timing of menstruation. But it also reveals the results are momentary, far more akin to a sore arm than a really serious adverse event.

“I assume it’s reassuring and also validating,” says Dr. Alison Edelman, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Oregon Wellbeing and Science University in Portland, Ore. who led the study.

The work appeared Thursday in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology. Edelman and other industry experts tension that people need to get vaccinated, mainly because the hazards from COVID-19 keep on being higher.

Scientific trials for the COVID vaccines appeared for side-consequences like problems or fever, but when it arrived to reproductive health, the key target was on pregnancy, not menstruation.

“The menstrual cycle is like the stepsister that will get overlooked,” Edelman says. “It is viewed as unimportant in the grand plan of points, but it basically seriously is critical to folks working day-to-working day.”

And many people did detect modifications to their menstrual cycles. A study carried out by anthropologists located numerous stories of unusually major flows and even breakthrough bleeding among some folks who hadn’t menstruated in decades.

Anti-vaccine activists capitalized on other anecdotal experiences from social media–using them to make unfounded statements that the vaccines have been remaining employed to spread infertility and eventually depopulate the earth.

Scientists consider a nearer search at menstruation

Medical trials and other scientific studies have now proven the vaccines are protected and efficient for pregnant ladies, but the rumors that surrounded menstruation manufactured the Countrywide Institutes of Wellbeing make your mind up to take a nearer appear.

“There was a have to have to be equipped to counsel women of all ages on what to hope,” suggests Dr. Diana Bianchi, director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Kid Wellness and Human Progress, which funded the operate.

Edelman’s crew took details from a well-liked app known as “Natural Cycles,” which people can use to track their menstrual cycles. Searching at info from 3,959 individuals, they have been ready to see a tiny change in the time in between bleeding.

“We see a fewer-than-a single-day change in their menstrual cycle length with vaccination,” Edelman says.

In other text, folks who have been vaccinated professional — on typical — a marginally for a longer time menstrual cycle close to the time of their very first and next doses.

“It is really actually nothing at all to get alarmed about,” Bianchi says. Nonetheless, she provides, it

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