Enterobacteria, Weight, Stress and CFS

I came across an article in New Scientist (22/29 December 2012, p.13) today dealing with the relationship of weight gain and Enterobacteria.  A 175 kilo patient dropped 51 kg by going on a special diet. Before the diet, Enterobacteria was 35% of the gut bacteria, after the diet, undetectable (Enterobacteriaceae went from 13% to 0.3%). The full article is here [PubMed].  When this bacteria (Enterobacter cloacae B29) was added to germ-free mice, “the expression of the tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-1β, interleukin-6, I kappa B kinase epsilon and Toll-like receptor 4 pro-inflammatory genes increased significantly” – in other words, CFS-like inflammation. The interesting aspect is that with CFS, patients either go rail thin, or beach-ball round over time regardless of calorie intake.

This bacteria is resistant to many antibiotics[PubMed] with ciprofloxacin appearing to be the most effective.

I found one study of unripe papaya being effective against Enterobacter cloacae. Other studies (items are not easily obtained)

I was unable to find any easy to obtain herbs that are documented to be effective (I have written the authors of the above article for details on the traditional Chinese medicinal foods that were used).

No Bananas Please!

I found an interesting study where both the peel and the pulp of bananas increased the growth of ” Escherichia coli O157:H7, Shigella flexneri, Enterobacter cloacae and Salmonella typhimurium, as well as two non-pathogenic E. coli strains”.

The exception is if you are a skinny as a rail CFS patient, then you want to encourage E.Coli…

This study found norepinephrine(a usual stress produced chemical) also appears to encourage Enterobacter cloacae. Hence weight gain as a result of stress may be bacterial in origin.

More reading..