Can we use bugs as drugs? by Professor Emma Allen-Vercoe, Dept of Molecular and Cellular Biology Continues notes. Guelph Conference

continues......... How can lifestyle impact? During birth along the vaginal canal - breast milk carries a lot of microbes. Also sugar, proteins are very important for the baby - certain sugar is also food for the microbes. After the age of three, micro is set. What we do that interferes. Caesarean delivery - microbes different. We chemically preserve our food. Not all these things are bad. C section can save a life. Germs terrify people. We quickly get to work on exterminating our microbes. Hygiene hypothesis - we are preventing colonization by being too clean. Missing microbiota hypothesis - We are disturbing proper colonization across generations through eg. antibiotic use. Antibiotic use (especially in early childhood may be problematic. Many studies have shown: gut microbiota changes significantly with antibiotic use. Which is unfortunate because it saves lives and are one of the miracles of modern medicine. but we have failed to understand the full consequences of their use. The additional impact of the Western diet which is rick in refined food (take out all the fibre) low in fermented food, complex carbohydrate; fibre. Refined foods are easily broken down - starving them. Worry about - artificial sweeteners and colour have the potential to do much harm to the micro to actually contribute to obesity instead of what is was thought. Why do some drugs work miracles in some patients and do nothing for others? Answer - We have been focusing on the wrong genome. It is hard to predict how the microbiota will respond to perturbations. eg. of diseases associated with altered microbiota diversity. Inflammatory bowel disease, infant colic, eczema, autism, colorectal cancer, allergic asthma, celiac disease, obesity etc… What have we done? How do we fix it? Can we add beneficial microbes back? to be continued next week..........