Reseñas

Mabel GRIMBERG, ed., Experiencias y narrativas de padecimientos cotidianos. Miradas antropológicas sobre la salud, la enfermedad y el dolor crónic

Reseñas

Obra ressenyada: Francesco Paolo de CEGLIA, Storia della definizione di morte. Milano: Franco Angeli, 2014

Gut microbiome–micronutrient interaction: The key to controlling the bioavailability of minerals and vitamins?

Micronutrients, namely, vitamins and minerals, are necessary for the proper functioning of the human body, and their deficiencies can have dramatic short- and long-term health consequences. Among the underlying causes, certainly a reduced dietary intake and/or poor absorption in the gastrointestinal tract play a key role in decreasing their bioavailability. Recent evidence from clinical and in vivo studies suggests an increasingly important contribution from the gut microbiome. Commensal microorganisms can in fact regulate the levels of micronutrients, both by intervening in the biosynthetic processes and by modulating their absorption. This short narrative review addresses the pivotal role of the gut microbiome in influencing the bioavailability of vitamins (such as A, B, C, D, E, and K) and minerals (calcium, iron, zinc, magnesium, and phosphorous), as well as the impact of these micronutrients on microbiome composition and functionality. Personalized microbiome-based intervention strategies could therefore constitute an innovative tool to counteract micronutrient deficiencies by modulating the gut microbiome toward an eubiotic configuration capable of satisfying the needs of our organism, while promoting general health

Experiencias encarnadas. Representaciones audiovisuales de madre(s) y maternidad(es)

[ES] El artículo presenta una reflexión encarnada sobre la experiencia de ser madre y las representaciones de la maternidad en la cultura occidental, en anuncios y series televisivas, documentales y películas. Habitualmente, la maternidad es imaginada como el producto (tener un hijo, convertirse en madre) y no como el arduo proceso que representa a lo largo de la vida de una persona. Se opta por presentarla con un carácter universal y se usa como una estrategia cinematográfica cuando se quiere emocionar: una madre casi a-histórica da a luz, mira a su hijo, le coge en sus brazos y, por un instinto casi divino, le ama, se sacrifica y está próxima a él para siempre. En otras palabras, todo merece la pena si, al final, el premio es convertirse en madre. En el imaginario colectivo, estas ideas han contribuido a crear el ideal type de madre: cómo ella debería actuar y qué valor tendría la maternidad en nuestra sociedad. Con esta premisa, analizo las omisiones tras las imágenes: un único ejemplo de madre que, o destruimos o idealizamos, aunque, modelos de mujeres, madres y parejas, por no decir de familias, hay muchos más hoy en día. [EN] The paper presents a reflection on the embodied experience of mother and representations of motherhood in Western culture, within advertising and television series, documentaries and movies. Typically, motherhood is imagined as the product (having a baby, becoming a parent) and not as the arduous process over the life of a person. It is presents with a universal character and it is used in movies as a strategy when they want to feel emotions: an a-historical mother gives birth, looks at his son, she takes him in her arms, and she loves him, sacrifices and she is next him forever. In other words, it’s all worth it if the prize is to become mother. In the collective imagination, these ideas have helped to create the ideal type of mother: how she should act and what value would motherhood in our society. With this premise, I analyze the omissions after the images: we are taking just a simple model of mother who destroy or idealize. Though models of women, mothers, couples and families are many more today

Haec ornamenta sunt mea. Reflection on the (im)materiality of contemporary motherhood

Se realiza una reflexión en torno a la (in)materialidad de la maternidad contemporánea como consecuencia de la visión del libro fotográfico MaternidadeS de Rovira Bru. Por una parte, la finalidad del articulo consiste en un análisis entorno a los roles maternos esperados y percibidos dentro del imaginario colectivo. Por la otra, se indaga sobre cuáles formas significantes existen tras el modelo significativo de la maternidad. La investigación se ha realizado a partir de un método vivencial que contempla tanto la experiencias de campo como una revisión de la literatura multi(visual)vocal. Se llega a la conclusión que la maternidad es un proceso excesivamente representado en el contexto contemporáneo. En el cual la visión hegemónica sigue reproduciéndola a partir del discurso biomédico, con características inmaterial y silenciante. Se propone cambiar el paradigma con el que investigamos la maternidad: la relación existente entre significante y significado para alcanzar a una visión más crítica de las maternidades contemporáneas.There has been a theoretical reflection on the (im)materiality of contemporary motherhood as a result of photographs and stories’ vision generated by MaternidadeS, Bru Rovira’s book. The text is not a review. The purpose of the article is to interrogate about the expected and perceived role in the collective imagination. Also, various existing significant ways after the motherhood’s model of significance. The analysis is carried out on a experiential method that provides for multi(visual)voice literature and field experiences. It concludes that Motherhood is a complex process that is overrepresented. The hegemonic vision is reproducing as a biomediical, inmaterial and silencing speech. It is proposed to change the paradigm with which we investigate motherhood. We need to examine the relationship between signifier and signified

Gut microbiota in relation to frailty and clinical outcomes

Purpose of reviewThe gut microbiota is involved in several aspects of host health and disease, but its role is far from fully understood. This review aims to unveil the role of our microbial community in relation to frailty and clinical outcomes.Recent findingsAgeing, that is the continuous process of physiological changes that begin in early adulthood, is mainly driven by interactions between biotic and environmental factors, also involving the gut microbiota. Indeed, our gut microbial counterpart undergoes considerable compositional and functional changes across the lifespan, and ageing-related processes may be responsible for - and due to - its alterations during elderhood. In particular, a dysbiotic gut microbiota in the elderly population has been associated with the development and progression of several age-related disorders.SummaryHere, we first provide an overview of the lifespan trajectory of the gut microbiota in both health and disease. Then, we specifically focus on the relationship between gut microbiota and frailty syndrome, that is one of the major age-related burdens. Finally, examples of microbiome-based precision interventions, mainly dietary, prebiotic and probiotic ones, are discussed as tools to ameliorate the symptoms of frailty and its overlapping conditions (e.g. sarcopenia), with the ultimate goal of actually contributing to healthy ageing and hopefully promoting longevity

NPAS4 recruits CCK basket cell synapses and enhances cannabinoid-sensitive inhibition in the mouse hippocampus.

Experience-dependent expression of immediate-early gene transcription factors (IEG-TFs) can transiently change the transcriptome of active neurons and initiate persistent changes in cellular function. However, the impact of IEG-TFs on circuit connectivity and function is poorly understood. We investigate the specificity with which the IEG-TF NPAS4 governs experience-dependent changes in inhibitory synaptic input onto CA1 pyramidal neurons (PNs). We show that novel sensory experience selectively enhances somatic inhibition mediated by cholecystokinin-expressing basket cells (CCKBCs) in an NPAS4-dependent manner. NPAS4 specifically increases the number of synapses made onto PNs by individual CCKBCs without altering synaptic properties. Additionally, we find that sensory experience-driven NPAS4 expression enhances depolarization-induced suppression of inhibition (DSI), a short-term form of cannabinoid-mediated plasticity expressed at CCKBC synapses. Our results indicate that CCKBC inputs are a major target of the NPAS4-dependent transcriptional program in PNs and that NPAS4 is an important regulator of plasticity mediated by endogenous cannabinoids

Las Narraciones Diferentes del Parto: Las Geometrías Relacionales

Childbirth is no literary genre. As usual, in the story narrated childbirth is a process completed at the entrance or exit of some new characters. In most cases, also maternity is a purely descriptive element. Based on the analysis of selected fragments of literary and artistic works, it is proposed to rethink childbirth as a biographical-relational event. In it, in terms of aesthetic, ethical, social and political, entangle geometric gures that assume vulnerability as a human condition, as a category to build a relationship with the Alterity.No existe un género literario sobre el parto. De costumbre, este es un trámite finalizado a la entrada, o la salida, de unos nuevos personajes en la historia narrada y, la mayoría de las veces, también la maternidad es un elemento puramente descriptivo. A partir del análisis de fragmentos seleccionados de obras literarias y artísticas se propone re-pensar el parto como un evento biográfico-relacional. En él, en términos estéticos, éticos, sociales y políticos, se enredan figuras geométricas que asumen la vulnerabilidad como condición humana, como categoría para construir una relación con la Alteridad

Politicas públicas de salud mental y migración latina en barcelona y génova

Presento una etnográfica llevada a cabo en centros de atención en salud mental y también una Urgencias en Barcelona y Génova. Los sujetos son los pacientes migrantes procedente de América del Sur y los profesionales socio-sanitarios. Inicialmente mi objetivo consistía en elaborar un estudio de los dispositivos de salud, cuidando tanto los sujetos principales como las instituciones, su funcionamiento y la legislación que regula el acceso a los sistemas públicos de salud en España e Italia. A pesar de la relevancia de la relación médico-paciente, las illness-narratives, el idiom of distress (o su ausencia) en la elaboración del diagnóstico y el significado de la diversidad cultural me enfrenté a dificultades técnicas y éticas que se convirtieron en el otro objetivo de esta tesis. Cuestiones acerca de las estrategias de acercamiento al campo me llevaron a desarrollar una reflexión sobre mi profesión, sobre el campo: la antropóloga en el medio sanitario.I present an ethnography conducted in mental health centres and also in Emergency Department in Barcelona and Genoa. The research focuses on migrant patients from South America and socio-health professionals. Initially my objective was to develop en ethnography of health services where I conducted my field-work, to observe the main subjects of study such as institutions, their functioning and specific legislation regulating access to public systems health in Spain and Italy. Despite the relevance of issues such as doctor-patient relationship, the illness narratives collected, the idiom of distress (or absence) in making the diagnosis, the significance of cultural diversity, I funded with technical and ethical difficulties that became another object, initially not planned for this thesis. Questions about the approach to the field-work strategies took me to a reflection on my career on the field: the anthropologist in the health system