LifeCare Chiropractic

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allergies

Childhood Atopy Predicts Asthma Severity in Adulthood – (01-15-01)

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Childhood Atopy Predicts Asthma Severity in Adulthood

Many problems in childhood that many people would consider “minor” or “normal” such as allergies and constipation, concern me a great deal with regards to long term health. This research supports this concern and strengthens the need to truly address allergies in children, not just medicate them, to maintain health in adulthood. This would mean addressing healthy intestinal flora, identifying and removing food allergies, avoidance of food preservatives and colors and adherence to healthy eating habits.

Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2000;162:2177-2181 Atopy in children with asthma appears to increase the risk of having more severe disease later in life, Australian researchers report in the December issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Rory Wolfe, of Monash Medical School, Prahran, Victoria, and colleagues sought to examine a number of relationships including whether “the presence of allergic features in childhood is a predictor of the subsequent course of asthma.” The researchers followed a cohort of 378 asthmatic children from the age of 7 to 35 years at intervals of 7 years. Among items recorded were the presence of eczema or hay fever and sensitivity to rye grass or house dust mite. Having an atopic condition in childhood was associated with a higher risk of severe asthma in later life. For eczema, the odds ratio increased to 1.66, for hay fever, it was 1.39. A positive skin test result increased the odds ratio of severe asthma to 2.25. Conversely, greater severity of asthma in childhood was related to increased odds of having eczema and hay fever later in life. These findings, the researchers conclude, may “improve the clinician’s ability to predict probable long-term outcomes in children with asthmatic symptoms.”

IL 13 blocks may protect cartilage – (01-18-01)

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IL 13 blocks may protect cartilage

This article is a little technical and deserves an overview of Th1/Th2 inflammatory cascades. Consider Th1 as the body’s attack system, to destroy things that get in. Consider Th2 as the body’s defense system, keeping things from getting in. We need a healthy balance between the two. Too much Th1 can tend towards autoimmune diseases such as MS. Too much Th2 can tend towards allergies. This article suggests that IL 13 may protect against cartilage damage in the face of inflammation. IL 13 is produced as a Th2 cytokine. This further supports a healthy balance of Th1/Th2 in overall health.

Ann Rheum Dis — Abstracts: Cleaver et al. 60 (2): 150 for more info on Th1/Th2 Entrez-PubMed

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Exposure to pets and atopy-related diseases in the first 4 years of life – (04-23-01)

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Exposure to pets and atopy-related diseases in the first 4 years of life

More and more studies are showing a protective effects of pets on allergies in children. The sterile environment that we are raising our kids, with no pets, antibacterial-everything, over vaccination and antibiotic use with every sniffle is altering the developing child’s immune balance in an unhealthy way.

Synergy : Allergy 56 (4), 307-312

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Antibiotics Losing Their Power Against Acne – (06-14-01)

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Antibiotics Losing Their Power Against Acne

Is this any big surprise? Forget acne–how about the long term damage to normal flora when a patient is put on long term broad spectrum antibiotics for a condition such as acne? In my office, if a patient presents to me with severe allergies, almost invariably there has been some long term antibiotic use during childhood–recurrent ear infections, recurrent pneumonia or acne. This repeated, long term use destroys the normal flora that performs such an essential function in the developing immune system. Acne can be addressed from a multifactorial approach quite successfully. This involves avoidance of common allergens (corn, wheat, dairy) and restoration of normal GI function.

Annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology Growing resistance of Propionibacterium acnes to antibiotics may mean that “the use of antibiotics to treat acne should be restricted and other regimens should be tested,” according to Dr. Carl Erik Nord of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Dr. Nord presented study findings here at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. His team analyzed resistance to commonly used antibiotics such as erythromycin and tetracycline in P. acnes cultures obtained from the skin of 99 patients with severe acne, all of whom had been treated with antibiotics for between 2 and 6 months. The researchers compared levels of resistance in those patients with levels in 30 patients with similar diagnoses who had never received antibiotic acne therapy. “What we found was significantly more resistant skin bacteria in the antibiotic-treated patients,” Dr. Nord told Reuters Health. Drug-resistant strains of P. acnes were recovered from 28% of patients who had undergone antibiotic therapy and 6% of those who had not.

Could TH1 and TH2 diseases coexist? – (01-03-02)

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Could TH1 and TH2 diseases coexist?

This is a concept that can shake many of our foundations. TH1 immune response is the “killer attack dog” system, while the TH2 is the “killer guard dog” system. TH2 keeps things (bacteria, viruses…) out while TH1 destroys them if they manage to get through. Too much TH1 leads to autoimmune prevalence; too much TH2 leads to allergies and asthma as the immune system overreacts to things trying to get in. Much current thinking does not allow imbalances in the TH1/2 response to coexist–it’s an either or response. However, this concept is beginning to be shattered. We already know that as we age our immune system is less responsive, and yet incidence of autoimmune antibodies increases as we get older. This seems paradoxical, and yet it indicates a dis-regulation in the immune response. The presence of both TH1 and TH2 over-response coexisting is still a new concept and keep yourself open for future theory and research.

Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Online

 

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Prevalence of atopic disorders in children with chronic OME – (05-31-01)

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Prevalence of atopic disorders in children with chronic OME

Here’s a hypothesis for these findings–children with chronic otitis media w/ effusion (sterile fluid in the middle ear) have very likely gone through many courses of antibiotics. We have discussed very frequently how important normal, healthy flora in the GI tract is protective. Destroy this w/ antibiotics and chronic diseases such as allergies and asthma begin to pop up…

Synergy : Pediatric Allergy and Immunology 12 (2), 102-106

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Can We Stop Allergies Before They Start In the Womb?

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Allergies can be characterized by an imbalance in the way that our immune system reacts to things.  We need balance in our immune system, but this balance is trained; it is not hard wired.

On one side, we have the cell-mediated immune cells, referred to as the Th1 cytokine profile.  Too much of this arm of the immune system leads to autoimmune disorders where the body tries to attack itself.  On the other side we have the Th2 cytokine profile, also referred to as humoral immune system.  This is responsible for keeping things out of the body.  Too much of this system leads to allergies and asthma.

These systems are present in your body early as early as the womb and remain with you throughout your life.  The balance between the Th1 and Th2 systems is constantly in flux.  Get an infection?  Your Th1 system kicks in to fight off the invader, be it a virus, bacteria or fungus.  Dust storm kicked up in Phoenix?  Your Th2 system will kick in to deal with the dust coming in through the respiratory system.

This is how it is designed to work.  At least in a perfect world that isn’t subject to the manipulations by mainstream medicine and our Westernized lifestyle.  Antibiotics, sterile lifestyles, vaccinations and unhealthy diets all contribute.

But just how early do the dietary factors kick in?

According to this particular study, they may begin as early as in the womb.

Healthy fats play a strong role in the function and balance of the immune system.  In a study that was originally designed to look at fish oil supplementation (DHA and EPA) on depressive symptoms in pregnant women, the researchers looked at the cytokine balance (Th1 / Th2) in the cord blood of these babies born to the mothers in this study.  Here’s what they found:

  • Omega-3 supplementation during pregnancy resulted in immune balance consistent with less allergies.
  • Even more surprising, C-section delivery was associated with an immune balance consistent with more allergies.

Pretty interesting information, especially considering that we already know that C-section births lead to a higher risk of allergies in the child.  Personally, I have always felt that this finding was due to the difference in bacterial exposure from not passing through the birth canal, but I’m always open to new ideas.

The bottom line is that the balance, or imbalance, of the immune system begins as early as the womb.  Mom’s dietary and supplementation choices, as well as the method of birth, can begin to influence the development of the immune system in the  as of yet unborn child.

Gut microbiota of allergic infants – (07-01-02)

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Gut microbiota of allergic infants

It nice to actually see some of the probiotic research being used in studies on infants. There is so much data relating to the importance of healthy bacterial flora that is still amazes me that it has not hit mainstream medicine yet. Sure, the occasional doc recommends yogurt to his/her patient on antibiotics in a pathetic attempt to restore the fragile balance of the patient’s ecosystem that will be destroyed with the willy-nilly use of antibiotics for the sniffles, but that doesn’t quite make the cut for functional medicine therapies…

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