November 2017. By Prof. Michael Cabana MPH MD, Professor of Pediatrics, Epidemiology & Biostatistics and Chief, Division of General Pediatrics, University of California San Francisco. Over the last few decades there has been a rapid acceleration in the number of published studies and clinical trials focused on probiotic and prebiotic interventions. One common result that […]
November 2017. Discussed at International Union of Nutritional Sciences (IUNS) Congress session. By Prof. Seppo Salminen, Director of the Functional Foods Forum, University of Turku. Recently, the Yogurt in Nutrition Initiative (YINI) convened a scientific session as part of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences (IUNS) Congress, held in Buenos Aires from October 22-27, 2017. The […]
By Karen Scott, PhD, Rowett Institute, University of Aberdeen, Scotland Since we have realized that we carry around more microbial than human cells, and that these microbial inhabitants are important to maintain our health, searching for the bacterial species that are implicated in causing disease has become the holy grail of microbiology. However, to understand […]
October 10, 2017. Probiotics are a hot topic—an online search for information yields millions of hits. But how much of this easily-accessible information is scientifically accurate? The clinicians and scientists serving on the ISAPP Board of Directors constantly receive questions about what’s true when it comes to probiotics and prebiotics. That’s why ISAPP decided to […]
The International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) is pleased to announce the opening of registration for its June 2018 international symposium in Singapore— and welcomes all interested participants around the world. “Typically, ISAPP meetings are open only to invited experts and scientists from member companies,” says ISAPP Executive Science Officer Mary Ellen Sanders. […]
September 2017. By Eamonn M. M. Quigley, Chief Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Houston Methodist Hospital and Professor of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, Houston, Texas, USA. We can all remember those instances of diarrhea (or at least frequent bowel movements) and “butterflies” that we suffered before a critical test, interview or presentation. These are […]
September 2017. By Prof. Bob Hutkins, Khem Shahani Professor of Food Science, University of Nebraska, Department of Food Science and Technology, Lincoln. This blog post is adapted from a piece published by the Lincoln Journal Star. The article, first published May 4, 2016 and written by Prof. Bob Hutkins, appeared as a response to a […]
September 9, 2017. The 2017 Annual Meeting Report is now available. Read about the meeting including summaries from six discussion groups: · How do we fully leverage the well-established and documented benefits of probiotics and prebiotics for the benefit of patients and the public · Synbiotics –what are the advantages? · Probiotic molecular mechanisms of […]
September 2017. By Christopher Cifelli, PhD, VP of Nutrition Research, National Dairy Council. Whenever I tell someone that I have a degree in nutrition science, I usually get asked, “Are carbs bad?” or “Should I avoid added sugars?” Rarely do I get asked “What should I be eating more of?” While vegetables, fruits, dairy and […]
September 2017 – By Drs. Bruno Pot and Frédéric Leroy, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Brussels, Belgium. The impact of lifestyle on the composition and diversity of the human gut microbiota over the last five decades has been tremendous. This is thought to be mainly the result of a cumulative effect ascribed to the increased use of antibiotics […]
June 16, 2017. Prebiotic definition updated by ISAPP. ISAPP published a consensus statement updating the prebiotic concept – Expert consensus document: The International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) consensus statement on the definition and scope of prebiotics. Available open access from Nature Reviews in Gastroenterology and Hepatology, this paper offers a new definition […]
June 2017. By Prof. Glenn Gibson, The University of Reading, UK. Having never wrote a blog in my life (nor sent a twit nor Instamatic-gram nor facial networking book message), I had to consult my social media savvy children on what this blogging business was all about and who cares anyway. Both looked at me […]
May 22, 2017. 2017 updates to the Clinical Guide for Probiotic Products are available. These helpful guides grade levels of evidence for commercial probiotic products in the United States and Canada.
May 2017. By Prof. Seppo Salminen, Director of the Functional Foods Forum, University of Turku. Bacteria have been part of our life and part of human nutrition since ancient times. Microbes have a variety of essential roles in fermentations and other production processes, as reviewed by Marco et al (2017). Generally, the bacteria used in fermented foods […]
May 10, 2017. ISAPP publishes two new infographics: “Effects Of Probiotics And Prebiotics On Our Microbiota” and “The Gut Microbiota: Our Microbial Partners”. Check them out for consumer-friendly information on basic facts about our gut microbiota and the interplay with probiotics, prebiotics and colonizing microbiota. See all ISAPP infographics here.
April 18, 2017. – The World Gastroenterology Organisation published a 2017 update of Practice Guideline on Probiotics and Prebiotics. Currently, the updated version is only available in English, but the 2011 version is still available in French, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Note especially updated Tables 8 and 9, which list strains associated with graded evidence for […]
April 19, 2017. Announcing an innovative conference, Women & their Microbes. Latest research on the female oral microbiome, the role of the skin microbiome in women’s health, the impact of pregnancy stress on the microbiome, and the vaginal microbiota will be presented. Friday, June 2, Amsterdam. Register.
April 2017. By Chris Cifelli, PhD, VP of Nutrition Research, National Dairy Council, Rosemont, IL. Bacteria and food. For most people, those two words never belong in the same sentence and, when they do appear together, immediately conjure thoughts of contamination, spoilage, food poisoning, and worse. It is true that unwanted microbes can ruin good food […]
March 20, 2017. Probiotic Product Labels in the European Union Understanding the information that is – and isn’t – on a probiotic product label can be difficult. ISAPP created an infographic to help understand the information on the label of a dietary supplement probiotic product. Different regions around the world have different regulatory labeling requirements […]
March 20, 2017. ISAPP’s Executive Science Officer, Mary Ellen Sanders, PhD, was appointed chair of the United States Pharmacopeia’s Probiotics Expert Panel. The goal of this panel is to assist in developing quality standards for probiotics used for dietary supplements. The efforts of this panel are intended to pave the way for probiotic manufacturers to […]
March 2017. By Colin Hill, PhD, APC Microbiome Institute, School of Microbiology, University College Cork, Ireland Your microbiota has been selected stochastically from all of the microbes you have encountered during your life, from or perhaps even before your birth. It has also been modified by a number of variables, including your genome, your birth […]
February 2017. By Karen Scott, PhD, Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Aberdeen, Scotland. Since the discovery of penicillin by Sir Alexander Fleming in 1928, antibiotics have saved millions of lives, and have rightly been described as wonder drugs. Yet since the late 1990s we have become increasingly aware that bacterial resistance to […]
December 9, 2016. ISAPP posts comments with the FDA on Dietary Supplements: New Dietary Ingredient Notifications and Related Issues: Guidance for Industry. Comments discussed: Exclusion of novel substances as dietary ingredients Identity of a live microbial ingredient Chemical alteration Assessment of antibiotic resistance gene transfer History of safe use Strain- vs. species-specific information Requirements for […]
December 19, 2016. Health Benefits of Fermented Foods: Microbiota and Beyond was published today as an outcome from a discussion group led by Bob Hutkins PhD and Maria Marco PhD at the 2016 ISAPP meeting. This paper explores the health benefits attributed to both the microbes and the transformations they bring about in the making […]
December 2016. By Gregor Reid PhD FRSC, Lawson Health Research Institute and Western University, London, Canada – November was a dramatic month with the shock Trump US Presidential victory, Earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan, and the “Prophet of Doom” in South Africa finally brought to justice for spraying pesticides in the faces of the […]
