Sinusitis involves inflammation of the sinuses. About 30 million cases of sinusitis occur in the United States annually, yet its cause can be difficult to detect. For a long time, it was thought that the sinuses were sterile, but scientists now know that microbes do exist in the sinuses. A recent study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine  has found that, not only do microbes exist in the sinuses, but that a loss of microbial diversity occurs in those people with sinusitis when compared to healthy people.

Specifically, people with sinusitis had higher amounts of Cornebacterium tuburculostearicum, while healthy people were colonized with Lactobacillus sakei, a bacteria that helps prevent the development of sinusitis, based on previous studies. The lead researcher, Susan Lynch, suggests that the sinuses are home to a diverse microbiome, which includes beneficial bacteria that help protect against sinus infection.

Often, sinusitis is treated with antibiotics, yet the original cause of infection may not be bacterial at all. Sinusitis is one condition for which antibiotic overuse is cautioned against. Another author of the study, Andrew Goldberg, stated, “The premise for our understanding of chronic sinusitis and therapeutic treatment appears to be wrong, and a different therapeutic strategy seems appropriate.”

Although too early to draw conclusions about specific alternative treatments, this study alludes to the eventual use of probiotics in the treatment of sinusitis. More studies will be needed to determine what bacteria are helpful, and what treatment might work.

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There’s a new superbug in town, a superbug of a different kind. And Monsanto, the biotechnology giant, is the company behind it. It seems that one of Monsanto’s biggest money-makers—Bt corn, is creating superbugs. The majority of non-organic corn planted in the U.S. is genetically modified to produce a toxic compound against western corn rootworms—a major corn pest. This corn is well-known as Bt corn, because it contains a gene from the soil microorganisms Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which produces an insecticide against the corn rootworm.

Genetically modified Bt corn worked so well against the corn rootworm that some farmers began planting it every year, instead of the usual rotation of growing corn one year and soybeans the next—a method that helps reduce pest populations. If there is one thing that farmers should know, it’s that planting the same thing every year is a recipe for disaster (even if it doesn’t seem that way at first).

It turns out the corn rootworms, much like the superbug bacteria infecting humans, are developing a resistance to the Bt toxin that usually destroys the pest. A few farms in Iowa are reporting that the Bt corn no longer kills the corn rootworm, meaning the bugs—now superbugs—have developed resistance to the Bt toxin. First superbugs in our guts, now superbugs on corn, soon superbugs everywhere.

It’s estimated that about one-third of all the corn grown in the U.S. is Monsanto’s Bt corn. Try to buy products using organic corn, or at least non-GM corn, to avoid being part of the human experiment that is the consumption of GM foods in this country. We just don’t know if they’re safe yet, and many studies suggest they’re not.

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