Monday, July 22, 2013

Intestinal Bacteria and Lymphoma

I'm a little hesitant to link to this article, but I'm going to anyway, because I think it's pretty fascinating.

Researchers from UCLA's cancer center have found a potential link between lymphoma and certain types of gut bacteria. The presence of these bacteria seems to play a role in encouraging lymphoma growth.

I can't access the full online article, but that link is to a press release from UCLA.

I'd like to see the full article because I have some hesitancy about this one. If it plays out, it could be pretty great -- treatments could be developed that kill off bad bacteria and encourage good bacteria in the gut.

But I can also see this going in a less-good direction -- claims that Greek yogurt will cure cancer.

My biggest reason to be hesitant, though, is that the study involved mice, not people. Lots of strange things happen when bacteria are moved from one organism to another.

I'm especially interested in this because of my own gut issues, and I'd like to see if there's some connection between them. But that's going to take some serious research.

We'll file this one under "keep and eye on it."

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