Despite the fact that artificial sweeteners represent a useful resource for weight loss or to prevent diabetes, and that nutritionists often recommend, a new study carried out by scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Sciences (Israel) has revealed that this substance , used to reduce sugar consumption, could contribute to the development of glucose intolerance (a form of prediabetes) and metabolic disease.
According to the latest WHO report, the planet is heading into a post-antibiotic era in which common infections will once again become life-threatening.
Not asteroids, not dark matter, not any other explanation. The greatest mass extinction of our planet of about 252 million years ago and that wiped out 90% of all species, could be caused by a tiny but controversial culprit: a microbe. This is the conclusion of a team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) whose study has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
That's how it is. Mark Lyte, from Texas Technological University (USA), has shown that after ingesting small doses of Campylobacter jejuni, one of the bacteria that causes the most food poisoning in the world, anxiety levels increase in the brain. To this is added that certain gastrointestinal bacteria that colonize the small intestine just after birth, and then accompany us throughout life, increase anxiety and fear, as well as sensitivity to stress, as Jane Foster has proven, from McMaster University (Canada).
In the last decade, scientists have discovered that behavior, mood and even memory can be altered both by the action of external microbes and by components of our own immune system. A clear example is the effects caused by being in contact with Mycobacterium vaccae, a bacterium that lives in the soil and that we inhale when we take a walk in the field, play for a while in the park or we can plant the garden.
It is the unpleasant habit of compassionately and furiously picking one's nose. Although according to a study carried out in Wisconsin in 1991, this form of obsessive compulsive disorder only affects 1% of the population, which usually ends up damaging the nasal mucosa, the rest of human beings also do it occasionally.
Human beings are bipedal ecosystems that carry a number of microbes that exceed that of their own cells. Identifying and counting these microorganisms "is like exploring a new unknown planet," say scientists from the Human Microbiome Project consortium, which after five years of work has released the genome sequences of microbes that live in the human body in fourteen articles.
People in developed countries spend 90% of their time indoors. It has been calculated that there are 1,000,000 bacteria per cubic meter in the air we breathe in an office building. Q But what about chairs, desk tables, telephones, mice, and computer keyboards? How many different microbes are we exposed to on a daily basis through these surfaces?
Danni Büchner is invited to Sam Dylan's Halloween party. But the "Goodbye Germany" emigrant has no desire for many other party guests. And find clear words.
