Immunity Health News

Take a look at this blog entry on detox diets.

Specifically, it outlines how these extreme diets result in vitamin deficiency, a depressed immune system and muscle tissue breakdown, among other things.

This is in addition to the fact that the more you diet, the more your metabolism slows down and makes it easier to put on weight, harder to take it off. This can become a destructive spiral of dieting and putting the weight back on. Diets are rarely a long term fix.

Researchers at the University of Nottingham have not only developed a new antibody against malaria, but also a way to test it.

Gambian adults immune to malaria produce antibodies that bind strongly to a region of a parasite antigen called merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP1). The two together then bind to the Fc-receptor (FcR) found on immune system cells in the human and the parasite is destroyed.

In the past, drug developers have had no way to test potential vaccines in the absence of humans and higher primates, which has slowed the progress of investigative compounds.

Instead, the researchers have used mice. Although mice do not get sick when infected with P. falciparum (malaria virus), the scientists haveovercome this by genetically engineering a mouse parasite to produce an antigen that the human immune system recognises.

Then, the researchers altered the mouse’s immune system further so that it displayed human FcRs. Now that the animal model had been developed, the team took the antibodies produced naturally by Gambian’s immune to malaria and used them to develop their own antibody. In subsequent tests of these antibodies, the mice were cured of “an otherwise lethal malaria infection”.

The passive immune response caused by such an antibody, could provide the basis of a new vaccine. Even if this new therapy doesn’t ever make it to market, the development of a in vivo test that Pleass described as “has significant advantages over the use of new world primates”, could enable others to develop malaria vaccines much quicker.

Most of us cringe at the very utterance of the word “herpes”, because of its sordid associations. But herpes is part of a group of viruses called herpesviruses, eight of which infect humans and which most of us get at one time or another. They include glandular fever, chicken pox, shingles, some rare types of cancer, and herpes itself.

After the initial infection is fought off, the virus enters a latent phase with no symptoms but with the potential for later reactivation. In extreme cases this can lead to chronic inflammation, causing autoimmune diseases or some types of cancer.

But a study (published in Nature 447: 326-330) by Erik Barton et al., at the Washington University Medical School, has shown that herpesvirus-infected mice, once they entered the latent stage, were surprisingly resistant to certain types of bacteria–in particular, the bubonic plague.

The latent stage of the virus works by releasing high levels of cytokines, which help to coordinate the immune system’s defense against infection. Barton believes that all herpesviruses provide bacterial resistance, and that by depriving children of some of these infections as children we are not priming their immune systems against future threats.

At the same time, many government health agencies are promoting the chicken pox vaccine. Perhaps we should think twice.

An article in the journal American Psychologist suggests that massage has a host of health benefits.

Research on massage by psychologists at the Touch Research Institute and from other fields, such as nursing, shows it lessens stress, depression and anxiety. Massage also decreases pain associated with migraines, lower-back stress and fibromyalgia. Self-massage can even reduce cravings for cigarettes. And it’s been proven to help hypertension by reducing diastolic blood pressure. (See Further Reading.)

The benefits of massage come from stimulating pressure receptors in the brain, says Field. “Most people don’t know that. They might do light stroking, but that doesn’t help and really is aversive to most people.”

These receptors are long and well-insulated nerve fibers–much more insulated than pain receptors, she adds. “Say, for example, you hit your funny bone and you rub it. The pain message is transmitted more slowly than the pressure message, so it gets turned off and you stop experiencing pain.”

According to Field, many types of exercise provide the same stimulation as massage. Yoga, for example, is really a type of self-massage because it involves pushing against a surface or another limb, so it stimulates the pressure receptors. Even using a loofah or natural brush in the shower can stimulate these receptors.

The receptors stimulate the vagus nerve–one of 12 cranial nerves–which connects to the heart and digestive tract, among other body parts. When stimulated, the branch to the heart can slow the heart rate, for example. “So, it’s a very big nerve system and it seems to be actively involved in releasing serotonin and decreasing the stress hormone cortisol,” says Field.

When cortisol decreases, stress is reduced and immune cells receive a boost. In pain syndromes such as migraine, arthritis and lower-back pain, Field says massage can improve deep sleep, which can help relieve pain. “One of the major culprits in terms of pain syndromes is lack of sleep,” she points out.

With diseases like cancer and HIV/AIDS, Field notes, the benefits of massage are not only reduced stress and depressive symptoms, but also an increase in immune functioning. “We’ve found that whether we’re studying pain or psychiatric problems or attention problems, autoimmune problems such as diabetes, and immune-system problems like cancer, they all benefit from massage.”

Researchers have identified the mechanism of action of lipoic acid, and presented their findings recently at the “Diet and Optimum Health” conference sponsored by the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University.

“The evidence suggests that lipoic acid is actually a low-level stressor that turns on the basic cellular defenses of the body, including some of those that naturally decline with age,” said Tory Hagen, an LPI researcher and associate professor of biochemistry and biophysics at OSU. “In particular, it tends to restore levels of glutathione, a protective antioxidant and detoxification compound, to those of a young animal. It also acts as a strong anti-inflammatory agent, which is relevant to many degenerative diseases.”

Lipoic acid is normally found at low levels in green leafy vegetables, but can also be taken as a supplement.

Scientists supported by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) at the National Institutes of Health have created two mouse strains that will permit researchers to trace, in a live animal, the activity of an enzyme believed to play a crucial role both in the normal immune response as well as autoimmunity and B cell tumor development.

Read the full press release here.

A recent post on signonsandiego.com points to “research suggesting that running a marathon depresses the immune system for three to 72 hours and thus increases the susceptibility to upper respiratory tract infections.”

Because the runner’s immune system is working hard to repair the thousands of microscopic damage to the muscles, the immune system diverts its “attention” to that damage and is vulnerable to other infections, especially upper respiratory tract infections, which are more common in marathoners than in non-runners.

The post suggests taking antioxidants like Vitamin C to combat the free radicals–byproducts of aerobic metabolism which appear to play a role in promoting the muscle-damage induced inflammatory response–and following these seven guidelines:

1. Keep other life stresses to a minimum.
2. Eat a well-balanced diet.
3. Obtain adequate sleep.
4. Avoid putting hands to eyes and nose.
5. Avoid sick people and large crowds.
6. Avoid overtraining and rapid weight loss.
7. Use carbohydrates beverages before, during and after marathon races and long training runs.

Researchers from Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, and the Wellcome Trust Centre for Research in Clinical Tropical Medicine, Imperial College London, have found that a single dose of Vitamin D may be enough to help the immune system fight TB and similar bacteria for up to six weeks.

TB still kills as many as 2 million people each year, and those most at risk tend to have an extraordinary deficiency in Vitamin D, according to the study.

“We found that a single large dose of vitamin D was sufficient to enhance a person’s immunity to the bacteria,” says Dr Adrian Martineau from Imperial College London, who co-ordinated the study. “This is very significant given the high levels of vitamin D deficiency in people at the highest risk of TB infection, and shows that a simple, cheap supplement could make a significant impact on the health of people most at risk from the disease.”

Read the full article from news-medical.net.

I recently came across a blog post praising the merits of ionic air purifiers. Interestingly, the blog is under review by Blogger.com for “possible Blogger Terms of Service violations and is open to authors only”.

Look instead at this article about Consumer Reports’ study of indoor air cleaners.

The short word on the subject: ionizing air filters charge particles to make them stick to walls so you don’t breathe them in. This means dirty walls and an opportunity for those particles to be reintroduced into the air when you walk by. The also generate ozone, which is nice for the planet at 40,000 feet, but a lung irritant in your living room. And since 80% of air purifier buyers are asthmatic…

In contrast, a combination of HEPA and carbon filters is recommended by achooallergy.com, a company which promotes itself as a “allergy, asthma, and sinus relief products retailer”.

Can you trust their review? I don’t know. Hard to find articles on these things not written by the companies selling them.

Research by Osaka University and the Institute of Physical and Chemical Science (Riken), to be published in the May 21 edition of the Journal of Cell Biology, finds that the trace amounts of zinc in our bodies serve to transmit information within the body’s mast cells, which play a major role in the immune system.

They have found that several minutes after stimulating the mast cells, the endoplasmic reticulum began to release large amounts of zinc.

“There are only about 10 different types of material inside the human body known to transmit information within a cell - including calcium and lipids,” says Toshio Hirano, a graduate professor at Osaka University. “If zinc is being released in other cells, too, this information may prove to be a new means by which to control them.”