Changing the theme of the blog is intellectually satisfying, but pols are much easier to write about..Of Mice and Men

I see that Gov. Rick Perry(R-Tekksus) had been indicted on felony charges. Oh how the one-time presidential candidate has fallen.

Enough about pols and their dandy ways.

As my gentle reader knows, I am all about surviving. I am not really keen on passing on my bit of the human genome into an unknown future, so I had better make this life a damned good one. I have written some about antibiotic stockpiling for an unforeseen event. I have also never taken any ABX that were not prescribed to me. Two AB exposures in my life to this point is all. Be prepared, but don't be stupid. If anyone thinks that ABX are like vitamins, the following should give them cause to eat them like "One-A-Days."

Early antibiotic exposure leads to lifelong metabolic disturbances in mice. Another good reason to only use antibiotics(ABX) when they are really needed. Of course mice and humans don't share ALL metabolic processes, but why take unnecessary risks?

This really needs a blockquote.

...The new study by NYU Langone Medical Center researchers reveals that mice given lifelong low doses of penicillin starting in the last week of pregnancy or during nursing were more susceptible to obesity and metabolic abnormalities than mice exposed to the antibiotic later in life.

Most intriguing, in a complementary group of experiments, mice given low doses of penicillin only during late pregnancy through nursing gained just as much weight as mice exposed to the antibiotic throughout their lives.

"We found that when you perturb gut microbes early in life among mice and then stop the antibiotics, the microbes normalize but the effects on host metabolism are permanent," says senior author Martin Blaser, MD, the Muriel G. and George W. Singer Professor of Translational Medicine, director of the NYU Human Microbiome Program, and professor of microbiology at NYU School of Medicine. "This supports the idea of a developmental window in which microbes participate. It's a novel concept, and we're providing direct evidence for it."

The researchers stress that more evidence is needed before it can be determined whether antibiotics lead to obesity in humans, and the present study should not deter doctors from prescribing antibiotics to children when they are necessary. "The antibiotic doses used in this study don't mirror what children get," says Laura M. Cox, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Blaser's laboratory and the lead author of the study. "But it has identified an early window in which microbes can influence metabolism, and so further studies are clearly warranted."...

Fascinating. The gut bacteria return to normal species and quantities post-AB withdrawal, but the metabolic changes seem permanently altered. The bacterial species seems to be the important bit.

The researchers are looking for the mechanistic clues. Here, I will not speculate as my knowledgebase on the topic is not full enough to venture anything like a thoughtful guess.

However, one might wonder if the trace amounts of ABX that are found in meats just might be a contributing factor to obesity in the general populace. Of course our generally sedentary lifestyles are the main component, but it seems to beg the question. Humankind certainly creates the future for humans. Our collective history screams that we do an awful job in this regard.

If I am the only one that makes this admittedly specious link, so be it. I have to speculate something in nearly every entry. It is science after all, and questions need be raised!