Month: February 2020

The process of peer review starts with an author submitting and article or a journal. A journal editor then screens and decides whether to reject or accept it. If it is accepted it then gets reviewed by a reviewer. A reviewer is someone based on merit that usually has field or lab work related to the topic. Generally 3-4 reviewers per manuscript. There the editor can asses the reviews and the author can make the decisions to reject or accept the revisions.

The cons of this is that people sometimes take a long time to give back information and there can be a long back and forth before the article is published. This is also a pro though because if there is a lot of back and forth then there is a greater probability that the article is accurate. One con that could impact the credibility of the article is the fact that a lot of scientific articles are about new research or discovery. It would be hard to find someone with the credentials to review if the work is new or not a lot of people have studied it.

There are a lot of things people do that contribute to decreased exposure to microbes. One of the biggest things we do is sanitize and clean. 100 years ago people lived dirtier, which is a bad thing but it did help their exposure to microbes. Children played outside and there were more manual labor jobs that exposed people to germs, dust and dirt. This diversified the microbial community.

Another way is to have a c-section. This may seem small but children born via c-section are exposed to way less microbes and usually fall behind in their diversity and health.

People also eat a lot of packaged and processed foods. If your diet doesn’t include probiotics, fermentation foods, yogurts, or is high in red meat and fats then you will not be getting the microbes that you need.

Finally, children that are not breast fed usually have a less diverse and less healthy microbial community. There is not much study that I have observed on this topic but there is a strong correlation between healthy microbes and breast fed children.

I would like to learn more about the possible influence of microbes on brain degenerative diseases such a Alzheimer’s. I don’t know of any concrete evidence that it even effects the brain in that way but as I have learned in this class, microbes can have a surprising affect on lots of systems in the body. I would also want to learn more about how to get a diverse and healthy microbial community, and how to maintain that community. I think that is a very important take away because I could use the information in this class to get healthy.

I am mostly interested in how diet and fluid intake can effect the mirobial community in my body. I love trying new and deliecious foods and if i could research and possibly make certain new foods, I think i could be happier and healthier. I know of some foods have a positive impact on gut health, but there has to be hundreds of other foods, recipes or ideas that could be delicious and help out my gut. Learning about this could convince myself to get more out of my comfort zone.

I’ll have to think about it more and maybe research some more possible ideas but I think it would be a very strong and interesting topic for me to pursue. I know there is possibly new research coming up about this topic every day and I think that is a very interesting and useful thing to look at and learn.

Many factors such as genetics or behavior that can affect the microbial community of the baby. Taking prenatal vitamins could help to improve the guy health of the baby. An infant’s microbiome changes most significantly within the first 2 years and looks like an adult in 3 years. Infants that are born vaginally will have gut community similar to the vagina and children born via C-section will have microbial diversity similar to that of the mother’s skin.

Diet of breast milk and foods will obviously greatly impact the microbial diversity of the child. Children also put a lot of things in their mouth which can get them sick, but also help increase their microbes. Vaccinations and antibiotics will affect how, and which microbes survive.

A multitude of other factors such as air quality, physical location, water quality and physical activity will also play a role for better or for worse. Since these microbes are generally developed within 2-3 years, it is important to understand the affects it has on children and how to use that to improve your child’s health.

I have taken antibiotics only a couple of times in my life. One time I got strep throat in 6th grade. I took a daily dose of penicillin for a week. 24 hours after the first dose my symptoms started to recline and 48 hours after that I was no longer contagious. The other times I took antibiotics was for ear infections when I was younger. From what I could remember the symptoms only lasted around 48 hours after the dosage. From these multiple experiences, I really depended on antibiotics. They cured me faster than I have seen any other type of drug cure. Penicillin alone saved millions of lives when it was first introduced, and it helped me a lot. I think antibiotics are a very necessary drug with a wide range of use.

Antibiotics however do not come without side effects. When I was on antibiotics my stomach was very upset. My doctor strongly recommended I have a yogurt every morning to improve my digestive health. Since I took the right dosage I knew I was safe, but taking too many antibiotics can have a harmful impact on your community of microbes. So my personal philosophy is that antibiotics are great in small doses.

I consciously make choose certain foods try to maintain a certain diet that will improve the microbial health in my digestive tract. I was introduced to a lot of different types of foods when I was young because my parents really liked to try new and foreign foods. I took that same mindset into my late teens and early 20’s. Sadly, my financial status as a college student and limited time seem to restrict my diet. However, I still make an effort to keep my microbial community strong. I recently have been drinking a lot of Kombucha to improve my overall health. I try and stay away from fried and fast foods by making my own food. Usually, I stick to lean meats like ground turkey because I know that high concentrations of fats can have a negative impact on microbial health. I also try to incorporate a healthy amount of vegetables and fruits into my diet. Finally, I drink plenty of water.

I don’t take a lot of supplements or consume a may products that would affect my microbial health. I usually try and take multivitamins but I am not very consistent with it. After watching the lecture about probiotics and prebiotics, I concluded that it might be a good idea to take them both, especially if I am not eating a lot of fiber rich foods.

Because I usually eat well, I don’t feel very guilty when I do have some fast food. As long as I keep a diverse diet and limit some of the bad foods, I can remain confident that my microbial community will be diverse and strong.

(1)Espen Enerly a Ph.D researcher at the Cancer Registry of Norway in his research article titled “An observational study comparing HPV prevalence and type distribution between HPV-vaccinated and -unvaccinated girls after introduction of school-based HPV vaccination in Norway”(2019) says that there is a lower prevalence of vaccine-targeted HPV types in vaccinated girls from the first birth cohort eligible for school-based HPV vaccination in Norway. (2) Enerly provides evidence that vaccines eradicate HPV by testing 312 young women in Norway who both have and have not recently received the vaccine. (3) The purpose of this article is to determine the efficiency of HPV vaccines in order to prove that they are safe and should be given on a large scale. (4) Enerly establishes an audience with normal people wondering how effective vaccines are, and with scholars within the field of biology.