LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

Allergen

Bacterium Linked to Crohn’s Disease to Be Removed From Milk in UK – (11-02-00)

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Bacterium Linked to Crohn’s Disease to Be Removed From Milk in UK

My gosh…how much more evidence do we need???? Cow’s milk is NOT good for us. Loaded with hormones and antibiotics, a very common allergen, may actually contribute to fractures instead of protect, linked to Type I diabetes in children, and now this? When are we going to wake up??

(article) British health experts are to look at ways to eliminate a bacterium in milk that has been linked to Crohn’s disease from entering the human food chain, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) said o Monday. As reported by Reuters Health, some scientists have warned that Mycobacterium paratuberculosis is widespread in the environment, survives pasteurisation, and is likely to be implicated in causing the bowel disorder. In a news release last week, the FSA confirmed that the bacterium can survive normal and even prolonged pasteurisation. Preliminary survey results had found it to be present in 1.9% of raw milk samples and 2.1% of pasteurised milk samples in the UK. The agency said independent experts on the Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food had now examined the evidence that M. paratuberculosis might trigger Crohn’s disease. Although there was no proof, they were concerned that there might be a link.

Dairy products, calcium, and prostate cancer risk – (09-24-01)

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Dairy products, calcium, and prostate cancer risk

“Milk it does a body good??” Brilliant marketing work of the years, I must admit. Sort of like “Pork–the other white meat.” (Comes from a pig!! When was the last time you called bacon “white meat?”). Milk is a common allergen, loaded with chemicals and hormones, may contribute to osteoporosis according to some studies, and now we see it may increase cancer risk. Can anyone see any good reason to continue to consume dairy products?

AJCN — Abstracts: Chan et al. 74 (4): 549

Read entire article here

Hydrolyzed Whey Formula Reduces Duration of Crying in Colic – (01-02-01)

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Hydrolyzed Whey Formula Reduces Duration of Crying in Colic

Considering that milk is a common allergen, especially in infants, it is not surprising that digesting milk proteins further will reduce the effects of this allergy on the GI tract. Of course, my reaction would be to ask why we insist on trying to modify something that the infant is very likely allergic to–just take them off of dairy. An interesting side note–recent studies have pointed to the efficacy of manipulative therapy in reducing the crying time in infantile colic. If we begin to agree that colic is a GI disorder, than we also have to accept that spinal manipulation will also have beneficial effects on the visceral system as well..

Pediatrics 2000;106:1349-1354 An extensively hydrolyzed whey formula is effective in reducing the duration of crying in infants with colic. “The crying of infants on hypoallergenic formula decreased by 77 minutes per day more than the crying children on standard cow’s milk formula,” the researchers say. After adjustment for gender and the duration of crying during the qualification period, the difference was 47 minutes per day. Both figures were statistically significant, the researchers determined. A 63-minute difference in the reduction of crying time was observed in favor of the whey hydrolysate formula group when analysis was performed according to the intention-to-treat principle. The team reports that after the intervention week, 40% of the infants in the whey hydrolysate group no longer met the inclusion criteria regarding crying, compared with 28% of the infants in the standard formula group. Dr. Lucassen and colleagues conclude that “additi! onal research is needed to establish the effectiveness of hydrolysate formulas in infants with atopic features and in infants showing the complete picture of infantile colic, as opposed to infants with excessive crying as the single symptom.”

 

Dust Mite Allergy? Drops for Allergies Shines Again

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With food allergies, you can avoid offending foods. What about environmental allergies? Kind of hard to live in a bubble. Good thing there are drops for allergies.

This is not the first time I have addressed this option for allergy sufferers.  Basically, the use of drops under the tongue (sublingual) has been shown to be consistently effective at helping to manage allergies.  I have addressed this in detail in a previous post that can be read by clicking here.

However, there has been a major weakness in many of previous studies that I have reviewed.

They are designed as a one-allergen type of approach.  Basically, in setting up the studies, researchers picked a single allergen (such as peanuts) and provided the treatment using the sublingual drops for allergies focused on a single allergen.  In real life, people are rarely allergic to one single thing.  Once the immune system gets pissed off, it starts firing off at multiple allergens.  Rarely is it a single allergen.

Despite this, the results of these studies have been pretty solid.  So what happens when a research study is set up to treat for more than one allergen?  Turns out we have an answer in this particular study.

Researchers treated for not one, but TWO types of dust mites with sublingual drops for allergies in a group of seniors aged 60-75.  Here’s the specifics:

  • The trial lasted 3 years.
  • The total nasal symptom score decreased by 44% in the active group and 6% in the placebo group (Tweet this).
  • In the group that got the drops for allergies, the total medication score dropped 51%.
  • There were no systemic adverse reactions during the study.

These are pretty good results for an approach as simple as sublingual immunotherapy with no real incidence of adverse reactions.  While I highlighted the fact that this study used 2 different allergens, there are practitioners out there using sublingual immunotherapy that treat for many more allergens in the drops for allergies.  The more that are used, the greater the chance of toning down the entire immune response and really helping to make the patient feel better.

Have you tried sublingual immunotherapy before or currently?  If so, how does the response compared to other methods you have tried in the past?