Health-Medical-Fitness-Diet-zk: Allergies

marți, 13 decembrie 2011

Few Allergies In Unstressed Babies

Main Category: Anxiety / Stress
Also Included In: Allergy
Article Date: 13 Dec 2011 - 0:00 PST

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A new study from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet shows that infants with low concentrations of the stress-related hormone cortisol in their saliva develop fewer allergies than other infants. Hopefully this new knowledge will be useful in future allergy prevention. The study is published in the December paper issue of Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

The incidence of allergies in children has increased over the past few decades, especially in the West. In Sweden, 30 to 40 percent of children have some kind of allergy. A combination of environmental and lifestyle factors during pregnancy and early infancy are thought to be responsible for the sharp rise in allergic diseases.

"Psychosocial factors and the stress hormone cortisol are associated with allergic diseases," says Dr Fredrik Stenius of the Department of Clinical Research and Education at Stockholm South General Hospital. "Our study found that children with low salivary cortisol levels as infants have a lower prevalence of allergies during the first two years of life, compared to other children."

The team has previously described a link between a lower prevalence of allergies in school children and an anthroposophic lifestyle.

"And now we've found the same link in infants from families that follow anthroposophic lifestyles, and that they have relatively low levels of cortisol," adds Dr Stenius, who earned his PhD earlier in the year with a thesis on the subject.

The researchers believe that factors related to stress regulation also influence the development of infant allergies and will now monitor the infants from the neonate period and into childhood.

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Source: Karolinska Institutet
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vineri, 9 decembrie 2011

High Intestinal Microbial Diversity Safeguards Against Allergies

Main Category: Allergy
Article Date: 09 Dec 2011 - 2:00 PST

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High diversity and a variety of bacteria in the gut protect children against allergies as opposed to some individual bacterial genera. These are the findings of a comprehensive study of intestinal microflora (gut flora) in allergic and healthy children, which was conducted at Linköping University in Sweden.

One hypothesis is that our immune system encounters too few bacteria during childhood, which explains the increasing proportion of allergic children. However it has been difficult to substantiate the hypothesis scientifically.

"We conducted the study in collaboration with Karolinska Institute and the KTH Royal Institute of Technology which substantiates the so-called hygiene hypothesis. Children acquire intestinal microflora from their environment, and in our society they are probably exposed to insufficient bacteria that are necessary for the immune system to mature", says Thomas Abrahamsson, paediatric physician and a researcher at Linköping University.

Abrahamsson is the lead author of the study recently published in the esteemed Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Researchers previously believed that diversity and variability -microbial diversity - is significant for allergy development in infants. However, not until now, can a clear connection be established due to the latest DNA-based technologies. Employing these cogent methods enables a complete overhaul of the microbiological framework.

Stool samples from 40 children were analysed: 20 children with atopic eczema and allergic IgE antibodies to foods, and another 20 in a control group that lacked these conditions. Using the so-called 454-pyrosequencing, the researchers identified DNA sequences that were then simultaneously linked with a database to determine which bacterial genera was present in the samples.

The results show that diversity was significantly greater in the healthy children at one month of age compared to those children who later developed allergies. Diversity in certain groups appears to be particularly important: Proteobacteria consists of so-called gram-negative bacteria which are associated with protection against allergies and are common in children who grew up on livestock farms with cattle, and even Bacteroides which as shown in the experiments counteract inflammation.

Meanwhile, the results of other studies would appear to be discredited.

One example is Bifidobacteria that used as a supplement in dairy products. They were abundant in the study however the researchers could not identify support for any protective effect.

It is the composition of intestinal microflora during the first weeks of life that show signs of being critical to the immune system's development. In the absence of sufficient stimuli from many different bacteria, the system may overreact against harmless antigens in the environment, such as foods. The risk of developing asthma at school age for children afflicted by these allergies is five to six times higher.

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Source: Linkoeping Universitet
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