Microbes that live in the gut don’t just digest food. They also have far-reaching effects on the immune system. A new study shows that a particular gut microbe can prevent severe flu infections in mice, likely by breaking down naturally occurring compounds called flavonoids. These compounds are commonly found in foods such as black tea, red wine and blueberries.

For thousands of years, bloodletting was a widely accepted and commonly used treatment for a variety of illnesses. The practice stemmed from the belief that disease was caused by an imbalance of the four bodily fluids, or “humors”: phlegm, black bile, yellow bile and blood. Doctors and their patients believed that restoring health required a rebalancing of those humors through the draining of “excess” blood from the body.

Pain is a constant in most any hospital emergency department, or e.d., and its treatment and management is a continual challenge. Health care teams working in these high-pressure environments see a high volume of patients with everything from life-threatening trauma to relatively minor health care needs. And they are on the front line of pain control for tens of thousands of people each year. Our nation’s concern about opioid use and the related search for non-addictive pain interventions is one force behind a new program at barnes-jewish hospital: P.T. (Physical Therapy) in the E.D.

Stroke recovery depends on quick thinking and fast action for everyone involved, from bystander to surgeon. One team of specialists, working to shave minutes off treatment time, has risen to the challenge.

People who suffer itching with no clear cause may have previously unrecognized immune system defects. “As doctors, we throw things like antihistamines, ointments and lotions at patients who suffer chronic itching, but if there is something profoundly abnormal about the immune system — as it appears there is — then we can’t solve the itching until we address those underlying causes,” says washington university dermatologist and researcher Brian Kim, MD.

(LEFT) MEDICAL STUDENT AMY XU AND PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR BRIAN KIM, MD, FOUND THAT IMMUNE SYSTEM DEFECTS MAY HELP EXPLAIN CHRONIC ITCHING.
Photo by Robert Boston