Every year in the UK, around 2.4 million people get sick with food poisoning, causing them to suffer from vomiting, diarrhea and lame stomach cramps.
Although the majority fully recover within a few days, there may be health consequences in the long term.
Recent evidence even suggests that exposure to a common cause of disease-worn by food. Coli can be linked to diseases, including colon cancer, dementia, parkinson’s, heart disease and even depression.
In particular one type E. coli – E. coli 0157 – that comes in the body due to polluted food, swimming in polluted water or just shaking hands with someone she did not wash well after they have gone to the toilet (it is usually found in animal and human waste), can release a deadly toxin named Shiga.
Scientists have known for years that this toxin, which attacks in the intestinal wall, can lead to a rare but potentially fatal, complications called hemolytic uremic syndrome – where blood vessels in the intestines are so damaged that it leads to kidney failure. The UK Health Security Agency says that there were 2,063 confirmed cases of Shiga-related E. Coli infections in England in 2022 (the figures for the past year were available).
In May last year, one person and more than 100 died in the hospital after an outbreak by E. Coli 0157 in England linked to polluted salad leaves in supermarket rolls.
Most species E. coli are, if swallowed, destroyed by corrosive acid in our stomach. But a pair-under which 0157 are resistant to its effects and can sneak through the stomach wall in the bloodstream, where effects can be catastrophic and increasingly linked to severe long-term disorders.
In April, research in the magazine Nature concluded that the infection of E. coli could explain in childhood why so many young people seem to develop under 50 colon cancer, a disease that is normally associated with old age.
The UK Health Security Agency says that there were 2,063 confirmed cases of Shiga-related E. Coli infections in England in 2022
In May last year, one person and more than 100 died in the hospital after an outbreak of E. Coli 0157 in England linked to polluted salad leaves in supermarket rolls
Cancer Research UK data suggests that colon cancer rates at 25 to 49 years since the early 1990s have risen by 52 percent.
When scientists from the University of California looked at DNA monsters of young colon cancer patients, they discovered that they all had a certain type of genetic deviation in their digestive channels that seemed to increase the risk of being on the form of tumors – and still concluded that the body was probably developing while the body while the body.
Moreover, they also had traces of toxins produced by E. coli that is known to cause cancer cells. What is not yet clear is why or the more children are exposed to the toxic effects of E. coli than in the past.
E. Coli is very difficult to avoid – we are always exposed to it, “says Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, and an expert in microbiology. ‘Most SLA has small amounts of bacteria on it. Every time you shake hands with someone, there is a good chance that E. coli will be transferred between you.
“Even if you go swimming on the beach, you will probably get in touch with it.”
It is not only colon cancer scientists who now think that the result of the bug can be. Recent studies suggest that it can also play a role in the development of dementia. Scientists from the University of Florida, interested in the relationship between the intestine and the brain, found that adults who even had a single E. coli 0157 infection were five times more likely to be diagnosed by Alzheimer’s, the most common type of dementia.
She thrown through the medical data of thousands of patients and found strong connections between food poisoning and the later life of Alzheimer’s, reported the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease in 2021.
Another study of the University of California found brain tissue samples of people who died with Alzheimer’s higher levels of E. coli than people who died of various causes, the magazine neurology reported in 2016.
But how can a bug that cause normal food poisoning lead to incurable brain reduction?
E. Coli is very difficult to avoid – we are always exposed to it, “says Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia and an expert in microbiology
Studies show that some species E. coli, once in the body, can produce small fibers called curli, which can start the structure of harmful deposits (amyloid plaques) in the brain, a feature of Alzheimer’s. It is thought that the fibers cause an abnormal signaling between cells in the intestine and the brain, creating the ideal conditions for these deposits to gather.
Research into the link from E. Coli into colon cancer has yielded a different intriguing connection.
When scientists from the University of Clermont Auvergne in France looked at the medical data of six colon cancer patients who had an E. coli infection, they found them all diagnosed with depression years before their cancer appeared.
They then infected mice with E. Coli and followed changes in their behavior – and saw a significant increase in fear – such as behavior, such as constant digging and sniffing, last year the World Journal of Gastroenterology.
Whether this means that depression is a precursor of cancer in some circumstances, is far from clear, but it is thought that gastrointestinal infection is damaged the ‘intestinal brain ash’ the two-way communication network between the brains and the stomach. And the long -term health risks also extend to the heart. That is because it is known that E. coli infection increases blood pressure by causing inflammation in the lining of the blood vessels.
A 2010 study in the BMJ, who followed 2,000 people who fell ill during an outbreak of E. Coli 0157 in Canada, discovered that they had twice as much chance of a heart attack in the contract of the intestinal bug in the contract of the intestinal bug. Researchers advised annual blood pressure checks for people who were seriously affected by the tension.
Other research teams investigate the potential ties of E. Coli with Parkinson’s disease (lab examination suggests that it can lead to an increase in harmful proteins that disrupt normal brain cell function) and even the development of endometriosis, the painful state that affects and leads to a heavy and painful period in ten women.
A theory is that long -term inflammation through infection can make it easier for endometriosis to develop.
In the meantime, E. coli infections in the UK increase, an increase of 20 percent between 2013 and 2023, according to NHS data.
“And it’s not just in the UK – this is an international trend,” says Professor Mark Wilcox, a consultant – microbiologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals
NHS Trust. “Rates rise by around 6 percent per year and we don’t really know why.”
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