Clinical Evidence of Vestibular Dysregulation in Colicky Babies Before and After Chiropractic Treatment vs. Non-colicky Babies

Background: To date, after 65 years of research that was primarily directed at differentiating between normal and colicky crying, the cause of infantile colic remains elusive and no definitive cure has been found. Given the general absence of pathology, colicky crying is widely considered the extreme end of a spectrum of normal crying behavior. However, evidence gleaned from scattered sources throughout the literature suggests that infantile colic may be the behavioral expression of physiological brainstem dysregulation, particularly of the vestibular and autonomic systems. The purpose of this study is to present a five-point clinical index of vestibular (hyper) activity and its application to investigate vestibular dysregulation in colicky and non-colicky babies.Methods: One hundred and twenty consecutive colicky babies were evaluated using this index, before and after a very gentle vibratory treatment, and compared to 117 non-colicky babies.Results: Before treatment, of 120 colicky babies only 2 (1.7%) scored 0, whereas 118 (98.3%) scored 1–5. Of 117 non-colicky babies 89 (76.1%) scored 0 and 28 (23.9%) scored 1–3, none scored 4–5. The odds ratio is OR (CI 95%) 187.54 (43.52–808.09). After treatment 111 (92.5%) scored 0 and 9 (7.5%) scored 1–3, none scored 4–5. A McNemar test showed the difference before and after to be significant (χ2 = 109.00, p < 0.001). For colicky babies the mean vestibular score is 2.88 (SD 1.22), compared to 0.37 (SD 0.73) for non-colicky babies, a difference of 87.2%. After treatment the score decreased from 2.88 (SD 1.12) to 0.10 (SD 0.40), or 96.5%.Conclusion: Colicky babies are not just infants who cry a lot. They also show clinical evidence of vestibular dysregulation. Treatment aimed at relaxing tight sub-occipital musculature by means of gentle vibrational stimulation may be effective in decreasing vestibular hyperactivity, signifying an improvement in brainstem regulation. The vestibular index opens the prospect for development into a tool toward an objective and practical clinical diagnosis of infantile colic.

Investigation on the effect of sonic stimulation onXanthomonas campestrisat the whole transcriptome level

A gram-negative bacteriumXanthomonas campestriswas subjected to sonic stimulation with sound pertaining to 1000 Hz at three different sound intensities. TheX. campestrisculture subjected to sonic stimulation at 66 dB produced 1.69 fold higher exopolysaccharide. Whole transcriptome analysis of this sonic-stimulated culture revealed a total of 115 genes expressed differentially in the sonic-stimulated culture, majority of which were coding for different proteins including enzyme. This study demonstrates the property of the test bacterium of being responsive to sonic/vibrational stimulation.