Longevity science

Drugmakers racing to develop medicines and vaccines to combat a germ that ravages the gut and kills thousands have a new challenger: the human stool.

For patients hit hardest by the bacterium Clostridium difficile, getting a "stool transplant" could become a standard treatment within just a few years. Just as blood banks and sperm banks are now commonplace, stool banks may soon dot the landscape.

About 3 million Americans are infected annually with the bacterium - also known as C. diff - which spreads mainly through hospitals, nursing homes and doctors' offices.

Vaccines and antibiotics may someday join caloric restriction or bariatric surgery as a way to regulate weight gain, according to a new study focused on the interactions between diet, the bacteria that live in the bowel, and the immune system.

Researchers examined the complicated relationship between the immune system, gut bacteria, digestion and obesity. They showed how weight gain requires not just caloric overload but also a delicate, adjustable -- and transmissible -- interplay between intestinal microbes and the immune response.

Credible natural remedies for colds and similar viral respiratory infections emerged in recent years.

The most promising of these – based on limited clinical evidence – are zinc and Echinacea.

Probiotics have now joined the list. And it looks like Vitamin D has dropped off.