Biological Intelligence Every moment of your life is a teaching moment for your body. Except most of that teaching is unconscious. Which is why you hear more about artificial intelligence than biological intelligence. But biological intelligence, how your body makes and uses information, is far more powerful and personal. Biological information flows in ways we never […]
Want to Lose Weight? Ask Your Gut
Want to lose weight, particularly body fat? Choose the right gut bacteria. They’ve already chosen you. But can you select them? A recent study in Copenhagen checked gut bacteria before starting some overweight people on a half year diet. Using a crude measure of different bacteria populations (high Prevotella to Bacteroides ratio,) the high ratio group who ate […]
Do Gut Bugs Change Cancer Therapy?
It appears your gut bug population changes cancer therapy effectiveness. A trial of immunotherapy on metastatic melanoma found those with greater variety of GI bacteria did far better than those with more limited populations. If you had a lot of ruminococcus around, you were more likely to stay alive. What Happened? People with immunotherapy trials […]
What your gut tells your brain (9/20/11)
Is It Romance, Or Do the Right Bacteria Make the Mood? Brain, your gut is calling. It’s got a lot to say – about, stress, anxiety, and your mood. That’s the potential upshot of a recent study published in PNAS (http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/08/26/1102999108.abstract?sid=1091d71a-9201-45df-90ec-6134dfd8231d) by Javier Bravo and company from the University College, Cork, and nicely described in […]