Hello 😊
Thank you for stopping by today. So I mentioned on Instagram that my research proposal had been accepted and I will be contributing to science in my own little way (If you don’t follow me on Instagram already, you’re missing out).
As a graduate research assistant, I never anticipated inciting a study, I am really grateful for this and excited about what I’ll be working on so I will share a brief summary in this post. Let me know what you think of this work and make suggestions in the comment section.
I will be putting up good and bad bacteria against each other.
Just as there are superheroes (good) and villains (bad) it’s similar with some microorganisms.
There are some microorganisms naturally found in some parts of our body (referred to as normal flora) that assist us in fighting some bad bacteria. Sometimes, the good outweighs the bad and you don’t fall sick. Other times, the bad wins and then you get sick.
These good bacteria are called PROBIOTICS.
Probiotics are non-pathogenic viable bacteria that offer beneficial effects to their hosts. A number of health benefits have been confirmed for specific probiotic strains and they are safe too.
Some probiotics are found in your gut and stomach to help your food digest properly, increase your body’s resistance to infection, fight harmful bacteria and improve your intestinal flora balance. There are also bad bacteria found in the gut and intestines.
I’m particularly interested in a strain of Escherichia coli (E. coli); although some strains are harmless, some others are pathogenic (they cause diseases). Infections from this strain of E. coli may cause food-borne diseases, and also lead to lethal diseases in humans. Some common symptoms are nausea, diarrhoea, and vomiting.
So since we have these good and bad bacteria in the gut, my study aims to:
- Confirm if some food sources can increase the probiotics in our system (so we have more of the good fighters)
- Although we know that probiotics fight the bad guys, I want to find out if it fights this particular bad guy.
- Understand the mechanism by which they fight.
This study is particularly interesting to me because I have a quite sensitive stomach and I believe there’s an imbalance somewhere (I will do some tests soon. lol). But I have realized that taking probiotics -either the capsules or from yoghurts- have helped me.
I hope this study provides interesting findings and I am able to discover solutions to a problem. I also hope you have learnt something new.
My boss has made a number of corrections and this is just a summary of the proposed work. I will keep you updated on my progress. Subscribe to my blog to get email notifications to alert you when I post. Also, follow me on Instagram 😉
