The Role of Gut Microbiota in the Exaggeration of Kwashiorkor

In its State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012 report, the United Nations found that nearly 870 million people around the globe are chronically malnourished (Ruttan 6).  Chronic malnourishment weakens the immune system, and it significantly increases people's risk of contracting infectious diseases. As a result of the problem and severity of malnourishment, one of the United Nations top eight goals is to drastically reduce the number of people who suffer from this condition (Johnson 4). During the course of working towards their goal, the U.N. has identified agricultural growth as one of the most effective ways to reduce the prevalence of malnourishment. However, the United Nation has also determined that in order for agricultural growth

In the ethnography, “Dancing Skeletons, the author Katherine Dettwyler describes many reasons for her research in Mali. The main focus of her research was too attack the problem of malnourished children and to figure out what diseases they were struggling with. This ethnography detailed Dettwyler’s second trip to Mali, and she wanted to relocate many of the children she had previously measured, as well as add more children to her study. Throughout the ethnography, Dettwyler makes it very clear that the malnutrition of these children is a major problem in Mali. She describes many of the children she measures and the picture she paints in one’s mind is horrifying. One of the many diseases she comes across is Kwashiorkor,

References Shashidhar, H. (2016, March 10). Malnutrition. Retrieved September 27, 2016, from

A major challenge and cause of serious medical issues in Sub-Saharan Africa is the lack of access to a clean water supply. There are 345 million people that lack access to water in Africa. Unfortunately, when water is available it is high in contamination. When wells are built and water sanitation facilities are developed, they cannot be maintained properly to due to limited financial resources. Water quality testing is not performed as often as necessary and the people are unaware that the water may not be safe to drink. Oftentimes, when a source of water has been provided, the quantity of water is often given more attention over the quality of. Lack of clean drinking is the leading cause of diarrheal diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa and causes 7.7% of deaths in Africa. Diarrhea is caused by numerous bacterial, viral and parasitic organisms most of which can be spread by contaminated water. The importance of diarrheal diseases has mostly been overlooked. Through UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) there have been some accomplishments during the

The human body contains trillions of resident bacteria that make up the gut microbiome. These bacteria establish a symbiotic relationship with the host cells and the immune system. Imbalance of the gut microbiota, or dysbiosis, is associated with a number of diseases including Clostridium difficile infection (C. diff), autoimmune diseases, diabetes, obesity, and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is an emerging therapy used to treat gut microbiome disorders, most notably the diarrheal infection due to C. diff.Seektaz Recently, there have been efforts to use FMT as a therapy for other diseases such as Ulcerative colitis (UC). This condition is an inflammatory bowel disease that is also characterized by an imbalance in the gut microbiome.

The effect of different diets on the gut microbiome has been studied greatly in mice and to a lesser extent in humans to assess the effect that dietary composition has on the gut micro-biome. It has been suggested that increased efficiency of energy harvest due to changes in the gut microbiota with an increase in Firmicutes and decrease Bacteroidetes bacteria, occurs in obesity in mice and humans.4 A study performed by Murphy et al looked at the effect of a high-fat (HF) diet and genetic obesity (ob/ob) for changes in gut microbiota and the amount of energy harvested from food over time.4 Ob/ob mice were fed a low-fat diet and wild-type mice were fed either a low-fat or HF-diet for 8 weeks. Results indicated an increase in Firmicutes bacteria in both mice fed a HF diet as well as ob/ob mice, but Firmicutes bacteria did not change over time in the lean control mice. A reduction in Bacteroidetes bacteria was also found in ob/ob mice.4

“What does malnutrition look like? Most of us think of bloated bellies or skin and bones, but the appearance of a hungry child might surprise you. Internationally hunger often stunts growth. Imagine a 9-year-old who appears to be only 5” (“Feed the Children.” Feed). Almost 1 billion kids worldwide live in poverty and 1 in 4 children around the world suffer from malnutrition that stunts growth (“Feed the Children.” Give). This is a very big problem not only in America but everywhere else, malnutrition is the cause of almost half of child deaths each year around the world (“Feed the Children.” Give). It is close to impossible for a malnourished child to recover from diarrhea or to fight off a small illness because their immune system is just simply too weak (“Feed the Children.”

In 2007, the Human Microbiome Project (HMP) was begun by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to obtain a better comprehension of the sophisticated biological reactions between the microbiome and individuals. By utilizing of revolutionary culture-independent technology, the specialists in the HMP plan to accomplish two key points: to test the microbial communities found at many various locations in the human body and to examine the function of these microbes in mankind 's health and diseases (Scher and Abramson, 2011). It has become obvious that bacteria groups vary not only among people but also within the human being, upon on the body site sampled and the sampling time (Pineda et al. 2011; Huttenhower C, 2012). In this review, I will review the role of the microbiome in the development and progression of

The article itself fairly discusses the effects of the revised WIC guidelines on malnutrition among children. As a whole, the content and subheadings are organized in a way that the reader expects the experiment to be. Its abstract is in an outlined description form where each of the parts is explained with the corresponding content as expected by the reader. The list of references is also credible where the authors combined books, journals, and online resources as well. Government agencies are also listed in the references pages to confirm the credibility of this study. In general, the article is well-researched and its utilization of statistics to measure the results of its data is done efficiently.

The lack of growth and development begin to occur when the body does not take in enough calcium. Calcium is very important part for the body to function because it has the function to keep bones strong and without calcium the bones will become weak and break easily. Also, it will lead to stunted growth in the body and the person will not be able to grow properly. In addition, malnutrition can occur when children or the poor community does not get enough to eat and is requiring the need of nutritions and other minerals. Suffering from malnutrition will cause extensive amount of disease to manifest in the human body. Also, it will be harder for the body to fight off disease and people will become more vulnerable to catching different type of diseases. Pedro A Sanchez stated, “The death rate from diseases such as lower respiratory infection, malaria, and measles…Undernourished people infected with HIV/AIDS develop the full symptoms” (1). The poor population is longing for the access to healthy food in order to prevent terrible disease like this from occurring. It is very hard to treat and prevent these different variety of disease from happening without having the money to get the proper care and medical attention.

Introduction: Madagascar, an island country in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Southeast Africa, has been battling with stunting in children under the age of 5 due to their lack of resources. The scholarly article Chronic Malnutrition in Madagascar states “stunting is a result of chronic malnutrition during gestation and early childhood (the first 1000 days) has lifelong implications well beyond physical size” (Hadar, 2016). Malnutrition not only leads to growing problems for the children, but also is prone to making the children’s immune systems low so they are more likely to get sick. Nutritional stunting is from not getting the right nutrients that the body needs to grow. Symptoms like diarrhea, and other recurrent infections can occur in early childhood, and before birth too.

how to present the material in a way so as to offend the least amount

The death penalty is a very controversial topic in the United States. It is implemented for the purpose of providing safety to the community and bringing justice to victims and their families. The death penalty is legal in thirty-one states (“31 States”), and there are over forty different types of federal capital crimes that are eligible for the death penalty. These include crimes such as treason and kidnapping that results in murder (“41 Federal”). However, many argue whether the death penalty is moral, just, legal, or beneficial. The death penalty consumes an enormous amount of this country’s resources that could be used for bettering communities and enhancing other government programs. I believe that the death penalty should be abolished because the United States cannot afford to maintain it.

One of the leading causes of malnutrition and ill health in South Asia is ‘food poverty’. Over 350 million in China and India alone do not have access to basic nutrition requirements.13 Malnutrition increases the risk of infection and infectious diseases, and is one of the biggest contributors to child mortaility, according to WHO.

In sub-Saharan Africa, just under one in every four people, or 23.2 percent of the population, is estimated to be undernourished in 2014–16 (FAO et al., 2015). This is the highest prevalence of undernourishment for any region in the World and, with about 220 million hungry people in 2014–16, the second highest burden in absolute terms. The number of undernourished people increased by 44 million between 1990 to 92 and 2014 to16. In the Central African sub region, the number of undernourished people more than doubled between 1990–92 and 2014–16 (FAO et al., 2015). The lack of progress in the rate of undernourishment in absolute terms reflects prevailing problems in the sub region, notably poor food consumption patterns caused amongst others by limited understanding on the dimensions of food security, political instability and forest degradation. It is therefore absolute to carry out investigations to properly understand the dimensions of food security especially with changing environmental conditions. Promoting the consumption of fruits in poor communities and amongst vulnerable groups could help in addressing problems of nutrient deficiency and malnutrition (Kehlenbeck et al., 2013; Place et al., 2013; Tchoundjeu et al., 2012).