A couple for you

Serious childhood infection tied to metabolic disease later in life

 The researchers found that early-childhood Infection-related hospitalization  (IRH) correlated with adverse adult, but not childhood, metabolic variables: increased body mass index and metabolic syndrome.   The age at which differences in adult BMI became persistent was related to age of IRH in childhood. Cases with more than one childhood IRH had the greatest increase in adult BMI.

What's lurking in your lungs? Surprising findings emerge from microbiome research

In a paper last year in The Lancet, Dickson and Huffnagle reviewed what's known about exacerbations -- flare-ups of diseases such as asthma, CF, COPD and pulmonary fibrosis. In many cases, they conclude, these events can be linked to a disruption in the microbiome of the patient's lungs -- a state known as dysbiosis.
"The old explanation for a lot of these exacerbations was that the airways are acutely infected with bacteria," says Dickson. "But a large number of microbiome studies have shown that this just isn't so. Our old definition of 'infection' doesn't explain what's happening at all."
Instead, argue Dickson and Huffnagle, exacerbations happen when the bacterial communities in a patient's airways are disordered, which creates inflammation, which in turn further disorders the bacterial communities. This cycle of dysbiosis and inflammation is common across a number of chronic inflammatory lung diseases.

As I was Saying

Common gut bacteria prevent sensitization to allergens in mouse model for peanut allergy

To test how gut bacteria affect food allergies, Nagler and her team investigated the response to food allergens in mice. They exposed germ-free mice (born and raised in sterile conditions to have no resident microorganisms) and mice treated with antibiotics as newborns (which significantly reduces gut bacteria) to peanut allergens. Both groups of mice displayed a strong immunological response, producing significantly higher levels of antibodies against peanut allergens than mice with normal gut bacteria.
This sensitization to food allergens could be reversed, however, by reintroducing a mix of Clostridia bacteria back into the mice. Reintroduction of another major group of intestinal bacteria, Bacteroides, failed to alleviate sensitization, indicating that Clostridia have a unique, protective role against food allergens.

The part I want to understand is why it makes me want to eat nuts.  Because it does.   Real bad.