Research Articles

Researchers have discovered clays have the ability to kill bacteria, even antibiotic resistant bacteria such as MRSA. These are not just ordinary clays, rather blue or green clays.  Arizona State University. "How blue and green clays kill bacteria." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 11 January 2016. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/160111121446.htm

  Abstract Gastrointestinal tract microbiota plays a key role in the regulation of the pathogenesis of several gastrointestinal diseases. In particular, the viral fraction, composed essentially of bacteriophages, influences homeostasis by exerting a selective pressure on the bacterial communities living in the tract. Gastrointestinal inflammatory diseases are mainly induced by bacteria, and have risen due to the emergence of antibiotic resistant strains. In the lack of effective treatments, phage therapy has been proposed as a clinical alternative to restore intestinal eubiosis, thanks to its immunomodulatory and bactericidal effect against bacterial pathogens, such as  Clostridioides difficile  in ulcerative colitis and invasive adherent  Escherichia coli  in Crohn’s disease. In addition, genetically modified temperate phages could be used to suppress the transcription of bacterial virulence factors. In this review, we will highlight the latest advances in rese...

 https://classicalchinesemedicine.org/voice-from-the-mountaintop-heiner-fruehauf-on-traditional-chinese-medicine-and-lyme-disease/

 https://smpdb.ca/ SMPDB (The Small Molecule Pathway Database) is an interactive, visual database containing more than 30 000 small molecule pathways found in humans only. The majority of these pathways are not found in any other pathway database.  SMPDB is designed specifically to support pathway elucidation and pathway discovery in metabolomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and systems biology. It is able to do so, in part, by providing exquisitely detailed, fully searchable, hyperlinked diagrams of human metabolic pathways, metabolic disease pathways, metabolite signaling pathways and drug-action pathways. All SMPDB pathways include information on the relevant organs, subcellular compartments, protein_complex cofactors, protein_complex locations, metabolite locations, chemical structures and protein_complex quaternary structures. Each small molecule is hyperlinked to detailed descriptions contained in the  HMDB  or  DrugBank  and each protein_complex or e...

 Someone posted a question about their CFS and PTSD and wanted to know which came first. This is a murky and difficult analysis. The mind/body connection is well known but more recent articles indicate that the body/mind connection can be as pertinent as the mind/body connection.  Cytokines are immune cells that activate immune response but they also act on the neurological. This article explores the idea of psychiatric conditions and immunity.  Abstract OBJECTIVE:  This article reviews recent developments in cytokine biology that are relevant to clinical psychiatry. METHOD:  The authors reviewed English-language literature of the last 15 years that pertains to the biology of cytokines with emphasis on central nervous system effects in general and psychiatric disorders in particular. RESULTS:  Growing evidence suggests that, in addition to providing communication between immune cells, specific cytokines play a role in signaling the brain to produce neuroche...

  The Case of the Poor Student: Sick after Exams It’s happened to all of us. Tom was staying up late for the last two weeks cramming for his barrage of final exams, and finally his last exam was over. After one more late night—this time partying—he woke up with that all-too-familiar soreness in his throat, along with that annoying stuffy nose. “Great,” he thought. “I’m sick in time just for Christmas shopping. Must be that pesky cold bug going around again.” What is Psychoneuroimmunology? Just how exactly stress affects our immune system has long been debated, but the field of psychoneuroimmunology is still relatively new. Coming from the Latin roots psych- (meaning mind), neur- (meaning nerve or nervous system), and immuno- (meaning immune), psychoneuroimmunology is the study of how the mind can affect immune system functioning. Drawing upon many disciplines of science including immunology, psychology, and physiology, psychoneuroimmunology is a very integrative field with scientis...

 Confirming raw garlic as potent and workable antibiotic There are a ton of studies on garlic use of course, but I'd like to leave this bit of direct personal experience for anyone who might be searching for a natural antibiotic now or in the future. Backstory: March of 2019 I came down with a bacterial infection (genital area). I was put on a week of antibiotics (amoxicillin clavulanate, marketed as augmentin in Europe) and after a week it was gone. At 34yo, it was my first use of antibiotics since probably being a child and my first ever infection of this kind so I was glad to be quickly restored to health and otherwise paid little attention to it. It was out of sight out of mind within a week. Six months later the infection came back with a vengeance, a lot of swelling and inflammation in the area. Probably sand from a beach visit played a part. This time it required me to go on two different antibiotics for 15 days, plus meloxicam (an NSAID). It was scarier-looking this time so...