Food Elimination Diet May Ease Migraine and IBS

Reuters Health Information, By Megan Brooks. Dec 13, 2012

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Dec 13 - For patients with migraine and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), an immunoglobulin G (IgG)-based food elimination diet may effectively reduce symptoms of both disorders, a small Turkish study suggests.

IgG antibodies against various food antigens have been linked to migraine; avoiding IgG-reactive foods has been shown to curb headache attacks. Dietary intolerance is also thought to be a significant contributor to IBS symptoms and there is some evidence that eliminating IgG-reactive foods may help calm IBS symptoms.

Because migraine and IBS often occur together, the Turkish team, led by Dr. Elif Ilgaz Aydinlar, from Acibaden University School of Medicine in Istanbul, evaluated the benefit of an IgG-based elimination diet in 21 patients with both migraine and uncomplicated IBS.

The double-blind, randomized, controlled, crossover study had three phases: baseline phase (usual diet, run-in); first diet phase (elimination or provocation diets, customized based on sensitivity results), and second diet phase (interchange of elimination or provocation diets).

In IgG antibody tests against 270 food allergens, the mean reaction count (abnormally high titer) was 23.1 mg/L. All values above 7.5 mg/L were considered as positive reaction to the corresponding food. Seeds and nuts and grains with gluten were the foods with the most frequent IgG positivity.

New Culprits Found in Red Meat's Effect on Heart
By Chris Kaiser, Cardiology Editor, MedPage Today, Published: April 08, 2013

The carnitine in red meat -- and the action of gut bacteria on it -- may be more of a threat to heart health than the saturated fat and cholesterol, a combination human and preclinical study suggests.

In a cohort of 2,595 patients undergoing elective cardiac evaluation, there were significant "dose-dependent associations between carnitine concentration and risks of prevalent coronary artery disease, peripheral artery disease, and overall cardiovascular disease" (P<0.05 for all), according to Stanley Hazen, MD, PhD, chief of cellular and molecular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, and colleagues.

The significance remained even after researchers adjusted for traditional cardiovascular disease risks (P<0.05), they reported online in Nature Medicine.

Hazen and colleagues noted that individuals with the highest plasma concentration of carnitine also had angiographic evidence of coronary disease, "regardless of the extent (for example, single- versus multivessel) of coronary artery disease, as revealed by diagnostic cardiac catheterization."

However, it is not necessarily the carnitine that is harmful but rather the enzyme TMAO, which is produced by gut bacteria from carnitine, they noted: In the multivariate adjusted analysis, the association of carnitine with cardiovascular risk was only evident among individuals with high plasma TMAO concentrations (P<0.001).

"Thus, although plasma concentrations of carnitine seem to be associated with both prevalent and incident cardiovascular risks, these results suggest that TMAO, rather than carnitine, is the primary driver of the association of carnitine with cardiovascular risks," researchers stated.

It appeared that the volume of red meat consumed was linked with the gut's ability to break down carnitine and produce TMAO.

Contact killing of Salmonella by human fecal bacteria

Contact: Andrew Chapple, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , Norwich BioScience Institutes, Public release date: 23-Apr-2013.  

View release: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/nbi-cko042313.php

IMAGE: Scanning electron microscopy reveals cell contact in a mixed culture of fecal bacteria andSalmonella. In the paper the IFR scientists demonstrated thatSalmonella is inactivated by fecal bacteria but...Click here for more information.

Our gut is home to trillions of bacteria, numbering more than the cells in the rest of our body, and these bacteria help us to digest our food, absorb nutrients and strengthen our immune system. This complex bacterial ecosystem, called the gut microbiota, also helps to prevent bad bacteria from colonising our bodies and making us ill. IMAGE:

As part of the symbiotic relationship between the gut microbiota and our bodies, the bacteria derive nutrition from our food and convert it into compounds that we can't make ourselves. Some of these compounds are part of the arsenal that combats harmful bacteria. To date, these extracellular products are the only identified defense mechanisms associated with gut.

IMAGE: This is part of IFR's model colon. Click here for more information.

Researchers at the Institute of Food Research, which is strategically funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, have recently found a novel mode of interaction between Salmonella, a foodborne pathogen, and the gut bacteria that leads to the inactivation of Salmonella.

This interaction requires very close proximity or cell contact. This new way of interaction between the "good" and the" bad" bacteria may contribute to prevent intestinal colonization and infection by foodborne pathogens.

The researchers collected faecal samples from several healthy human donors and used the experimental colon model facility of the Institute of Food Research to culture faecal bacteria together with Salmonella under conditions that mimicked those in the human colon. Gut bacteria effectively inactivated Salmonella in mixed cultures but only when cell contact between both populations was possible. Salmonella inactivation was not observed when a membrane was included into the system to prevent cell contact between populations.

To understand the way Salmonella is inactivated by contact with faecal bacteria, a mathematical model was developed. This 'predator-prey' type model will now be useful for finding ways of applying this new finding to ongoing efforts to reduce Salmonellainfection.

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