Tag Archive for: newborn

The Skin Microbiome: Birth and Water

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I began last week’s focus on the skin microbiome based on reading an interview with a scientist who hasn’t taken a shower in over five years (Clean by James Hamblin). We’ve established the basics about skin and the microbes that are supposed to reside in the skin microbiome. This week we’ll cover how the skin microbiome is affected by our environment. What are we doing to our skin that may be impacting our health?

It actually can begin at birth. If we are delivered via the birth canal, we are immersed in vaginal microbes that seed our skin with microbes. In the 1970s, C-sections began to rise from 5% to the current rate of 30%. That means close to one-third of newborns don’t get the initial exposure to skin microbes. Does that result in an increase in skin conditions such as dermatitis? Maybe, but there’s no confirming research to date.

Depending on your water supply, the water may be treated with chlorine and fluoride. While they can kill bacteria to make the water safer, those chemicals may also damage the microbes that live on our skin, hence Hamblin’s avoidance of showers. That impacts the skin microbiome and consequently, our immune system.

What else can impact our skin? I’ll cover more on Thursday.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: Int Microbiol. 2019 Mar;22(1):1-6. doi: 10.1007/s10123-018-00049-x.

Research Update on Probiotics for Infants

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Let’s begin this week’s research review with a study on the potential long-term benefits of probiotic use in infants. Researchers in Slovenia collected data on 316 healthy-weight newborns whose parents had test-confirmed allergies.

The families were divided into two groups: 115 infants were placed into a probiotic group and received probiotics every day between the ages of four weeks to twelve weeks while breastfeeding. The remaining 201 infants were put in the control group and breastfed without any supplements.

All children were followed by the same pediatrician through nine years of age to assess the children over the years to see who developed allergic rhinitis or allergic rhino conjunctivitis at some point. The results showed during the follow-up that 19.6% of the children had developed either form of allergy. They confirmed the diagnosis by examining the children for levels of IgE and skin prick tests.

Children in the probiotic group were three times less likely to develop allergic rhinitis than those in the control group, 4.3% versus 13.9%. When examining allergic rhinoconjunctivitis, the difference between the probiotic group and the control group was much lower although still statistically significant at 8.7% versus 9.5%.

I like this study because the children were tracked for an extended period of time. It may be that if the infants were tracked only through one year of age or if the study were terminated when they were four or five, there might not have been the same significant differences. Sometimes seeing the benefits can take longer than we expect.

You have to wonder what the results would be if the children were given probiotics beyond twelve weeks (some may have been; probiotics weren’t prohibited beyond the study.) We make sure Riley, who’s five, gets his probiotics every day.

Is that reduction in allergies worth the effort? Paula says any lessening of allergies is worth doing. Next month will be the 57th anniversary of her first allergy shots, and she’s been getting shots nearly continuously ever since—three at a time these days. If probiotics will spare some children years of shots or medications, let’s go for it.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: EAACI Digital Congress 2020. Besednjak-Kocijančič, L. et al.