Our skin is home to 100 billion bacteria. This mind-boggling fact and many others are summarized in a nice LA Times writeup today. The journal article was published in Science this week and reflects the work of the human microbiome project. The concept is profound: the NIH spent $115 million cataloging the bacteria that grow on our skin collecting samples from the nether regions of volunteers and sequencing the DNA. Such a simple idea but this had never been done before.

Forget antibiotics to treat the common H. Pylori infection of the stomach: in the future we might be prescribing yogurt. A product found on supermarket shelves may be effective in fighting H. Pylori a bacteria found in the guts of millions of people all over the world. This bacteria has been known to associate with autoimmune problems like low platelets and even a rare lymphoma known as MALT-oma. The probiotic concept is that we need to reregulate the balance of bacteria in our guts to prevent illnesses and there has been some scattered successes in the past.

Extensive review of probiotics in WSJ.com today. The author keeps the review evidence-based and clearly put a lot of time and research into the article. Good health journalism is clearly alive and well at WSJ.com. Probiotics are being touted as aiding everything from digestion to irritable bowel syndrome and we need a recent review article in the medical literature.

Friendly bacteria fight ICU infections

Eczema is a noncontiguous inflammation of the skin often caused by an allergy and characterized by dry red itching patches scaling and blistering. Many studies have been conducted on the effect of probiotics in eczema. Some of the most compelling ones reveal the positive effects of Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacter lactis in the treatment of eczema. According to the American Academy of Dermatology eczema may be an abnormal response of the body's immune system to allergens like animal dander and dust mites.

A report undertaken at the Cochrane Library has found that no evidence exists for the alleviation of Eczema by probiotics but that some data points towards a correlation with infections and gut problems. The results of this research coincide with the current and increasing trend of probiotic bacteria being used to treat Eczema. Affecting 5% of people at some juncture in their lives Eczema is a condition characterised by itchy skin and is particularly common in children.

Probiotics not helpful for eczema study finds

Maggot-derived Seraticin found to kill MRSA other highly resistant bacteria Human testing pending; breakthrough preclinical for now

Probiotic agent prevents antibiotic-induced diarrhea ACP Journal Club: Consider widespread use