Immunity Health News

Here’s an interesting article on probiotics in today’s National Post (Canada).

According to the article,

the tissue in the gut linked to immune system functions constitutes 80% of the entire immune system in the body.

Of particular note is the author’s mention of research indicating the decrease in “transit time” for food passing through the gastrointestinal systems of elderly constipation sufferers when taking probiotic supplements.

Rosacea, a skin condition affecting an estimated 45 million people worldwide, is now thought to be caused by an overly zealous immune response, and not bacteria.

Researchers at the University of California at San Diego found

…that “too much stratum corneum tryptic enzyme and too much cathelicidin leads to the abnormal peptides that cause the symptoms of this disease,” Dr. Gallo said.

“Antibiotics tend to alleviate the symptoms of rosacea in patients because some of them work to inhibit these enzymes,” he noted. “Our findings may modify the therapeutic approach to treating rosacea, since bacteria aren’t the right target.”

Read more.

A recent blog post is reporting a study in the British Medical Journal about the potential rise in antibiotic resistance in the general public as a result of overprescription.

The authors believe these results show that prescribing amoxicillin to a child doubles the risk of finding antibiotic resistant strains in that child later. They warn that although this effect is temporary in the individual child, it may be sufficient to sustain a high level of antibiotic resistance in the population.

Read the published study.

An interesting blog report on an Israeli study of probiotic supplements given to burn patients. Apparently, in the patients who received the probiotic supplements, “a significant benefit of probiotic supplementation was observed, specifically in those patients which had burns covering 41-70% of their body.”

Furthermore, none of the patients in the probiotic group died of their burns, while five patients died who were in the placebo group.

Read more.

A study last year out of the University of British Columbia shows that babies exposed to at least one antibiotic are twice as likely as those unexposed to develop asthma in childhood. It also concludes that for each additional course taken during the first year of life the overall chance of developing asthma increased by 16 per cent.

More about antibiotics in infants.

In a related study, children who grew up with dogs in the home were less likely to develop asthma, possibly because the increased number of microbes the dog brings in helps to prime the child’s immune system.

More about dogs and asthma.

Here is an interesting blog post about the health claims of food companies, in particular those with products like yogourt claiming to have “probiotic” properties. In light of the increasing notoriety of probiotics, it’s not surprising that companies are trying to capitalize on the public’s buying trends, even if their claims may be misleading or fallacious.

This is why I’m such a big proponent of empirical testing as opposed to anecdotal or “traditional” evidence for product efficacy.

Here’s another article following up from my earlier post on bacteria and health.

We hear more and more about the dangers of the “anti-bacterializing” of our environments, and the need we have for healthy bacteria in our systems (and even some unhealthy ones, to give our immune system a workout).

So what’s the answer? Reintroduce more bacteria into your system.

“Probiotics (pills containing bacteria) have resulted in complete elimination of eczema in 80 percent of the people we’ve treated,” says Dr. Joseph E. Pizzorno Jr., a practicing physician and former member of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy. Pizzorno says he’s used probiotics to treat irritable bowel disease, acne and even premenstrual syndrome. “It’s unusual for me to see a patient with a chronic disease that doesn’t respond to probiotics.”

Read the whole article, and then tell me, should we expect to see anti-antibacterial soaps on the market soon?