Loss Of Biodiversity May Lead To Increase In Allergies And Asthma
Declining biodiversity may be contributing to the rise of asthma, allergies, and other chronic inflammatory diseases among people living in cities worldwide, a Finnish study suggests. Emerging evidence indicates that commensal microbes inhabiting the skin, airway, and gut protect against inflammatory disorders. However, little is known about the environmental determinants of the microbiome...

In Infants, Gut Flora Affects Maturation Of B Cells
Infants whose gut is colonised by E. coli bacteria early in life have a higher number of memory B cells in their blood, reveals a study of infants carried out at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden...

Ancient Remedy Slows Prostate Tumor Cell Proliferation
An over-the-counter natural remedy derived from honeybee hives arrests the growth of prostate cancer cells and tumors in mice, according to a new paper from researchers at the University of Chicago Medicine. Caffeic acid phenethyl ester, or CAPE, is a compound isolated from honeybee hive propolis, the resin used by bees to patch up holes in hives...

Seasonal Allergies May Be A Good Thing
Seasonal allergies could, in fact, be a sign that the body is doing what it is supposed to do; that your immune system is protecting you from environmental toxins, which damage your health much more than pollen or other allergens, researchers from Yale School of Medicine andthe Howard Hughes Medical Institute reported in Nature...

News From The Journal Of Clinical Investigation: April 23, 2012
GENE THERAPY: Inadvertent changes: how engineered viruses disrupt normal gene expression Gene therapy holds the promise of treating genetic conditions by restoring normal gene function. The field has developed slowly over the last several decades with high importance placed on safety to reduce the chance that introduced genes cause problems...

No Link Between Depression, Nasal Obstruction
While mood disorders like depression or anxiety tend to negatively affect treatment for allergies and chronic rhinosinusitis, the same cannot be said for patients with nasal obstructions such as deviated septum, according to researchers at Henry Ford Hospital. The new study shows mood disorders are not linked to either nasal obstructive symptoms or the failure of nasal obstruction surgery...

Autism Linked To Immune System Problems, Further Evidence Found
According to a study in the April 2012 International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience, the plasma of children with autism disorder (AD) had significantly lower levels of various cytokines, compared with that of unrelated healthy siblings from other families, who had family members with autism spectrum disorders (ASD)...

Coronary Stents Safe For Those Allergic To Metals
In the April 16 issue of Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions, a study conducted by researchers at Mayo Clinic, reveals that coronary stents are not harmful to patients with coronary artery disease, who are allergic to nickle or other metal components. Coronary stents are small tubes inserted into narrowed or weakened arteries in order to help improve blood flow to the heart...

Hookworms And Allergies - Doctor Infects Himself For Experiment
In the first experiment of its kind to test the suggestion that hookworm infection can reduce some allergic responses, a UK doctor who specializes in medical entomology, infected himself with the parasite and then swallowed a pill camera to film the effect on his intestines...

Study Suggests Coronary Stents Not Harmful To Patients With History Of Metal Allergy
Study is first to compare clinical outcomes after placing stents in those with and without a history of skin allergy to stent metal components...

A Vaccination For Allergic Asthma That Works Using Intramuscular Injection
Allergic asthma is a chronic respiratory disease that affects 300 million people throughout the world. The number of people suffering from asthma has doubled over the last ten years and almost 250, 000 people die prematurely from this problem each year. In most cases, asthma is caused by an abnormal reaction to substances in the environment known as allergens...

Food Ingredients That Cause Milk Allergy May Be Missed By Standard Test
The standard test used to detect milk-protein residues in processed foods may not work as well as previously believed in all applications, sometimes missing ingredients that can cause milk allergy, the most common childhood food allergy, which affects millions of children under age 3, a scientist reported at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Socie...

New Regulator Identified In Allergic Diseases
Researchers have taken a critical step in understanding how allergic reactions occur after identifying a genetic signature for regulation of a key immune hormone, interleukin (IL-13). Scientists from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center say the finding opens the potential for new molecular targets to treat allergic disease...

Gut Bacteria Control Allergic Diseases
When poet Walt Whitman wrote that we "contain multitudes," he was speaking metaphorically, but he was correct in the literal sense. Every human being carries over 100 trillion individual bacterial cells within the intestine - ten times more cells than comprise the body itself...

Childhood Exposure To Germs May Help Immunity
A new study of mice supports the idea that exposure to germs in childhood helps develop the immune system and thereby prevent allergies and other immune-related diseases such as asthma and colitis later on in life. Researchers at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, US, led the study, a report of which is in the 22 March online issue of Science...