C-Section babies at risk

I was under the impression that this guy's wife - name not mentioned here - was the lead on this information. I learned about her, Martin Blaser and Rob Knight when I took a course on the Human Microbiome through Coursera.

Seems we also discussed how the microbiome can effect your mood here.

Though births by caesarean section are often medically necessary, they can be harmful to a child’s long-term health, the Los Angeles Times reports. Babies who do not pass through the birth canal miss out on beneficial bacteria that help their immune systems develop and shape their microbiomes—the collection of microorganisms dwelling in and on the body. Consequently, those children are more vulnerable to metabolic and immune disorders, such as asthma, type 1 diabetes, and celiac disease. A research team at New York University may have found a remedy, however. Swabbing C-section newborns with vaginal fluids from their mothers immediately after birth provided them with some of those key missing microbes, including Lactobacillus and Bacteroides, which train the immune system to recognize and preserve other helpful bacteria. As a result, the infants’ overall microbiomes more closely resembled those of babies born vaginally. “This study shows we can restore, at least partially, the microbiome of the mother to the baby,” says researcher Rob Knight. “What we don’t know yet is how it reflects long-term health.”

Taken from the February 19, 2016 edition of The Week Magazine.

Cheese as medicine

I took this image from here.

OMG, in "Cooked" one of the scientists studying the rinds of cheeses suggested that a day may come, when we understand the microbiome better, that medicine may come in the form of cheese! How brilliant is that? Killed off all your gut bacteria? Just eat Camembert for two weeks and then top it off with a little L'Explorateur. Like the belly button beer, maybe they will harvest some of your gut microbes before you take that course of antibiotics or chemo, harvest some additional microbes from your healthy child and then blend with some rennet and raw milk and voilà, you are better than before.

If, as suggested in a podcast I listened to years ago, the combination of microbes (or lack thereof) in our bellies gives us Parkinsons or MS, we might eat some cheese from a healthy donor to clear it right up. I suppose some of the cheeses resulting from this engineered cheese medicine might task more revolting than some of the cheeses considered delicacies around the world.

Looking to find some links to share I came across this criticism of Michael Pollan.  I still remain a fan and I do believe that what we eat is the basis of all our health problems, so I really think we should do what we can to get back to eating the way he suggests, regardless of the time/money because it is cheaper in the long run. I suppose if you push off the cost of health care to the government then the scales are stacked against investing in the food you eat for your own health.