Quick Tips – Smoking Ban
Researchers in the United Kingdom found that following the indoor smoking ban instituted in 2006, hospital admission rates for asthma in children dropped 18 percent per year.
Quick Tips – Mistletoe
Despite the fun and stolen kisses that mistletoe can provide during the holiday season, keep in mind it can be a contact allergy for some allergic individuals. Contact with the skin can lead to a poison-ivy-type rash.
More autism research continues to show no connection to childhood immunizations
The medical journal Pediatrics just published research done by the Institute of Medicine to see if any relationship between vaccination and autism could be found.
The researchers at the Centers for Disease Control studied more than 1,000 children and matched controls. They found no evidence for increased risk for autism due to the preservative thimerosal used in some vaccines, or to vaccines themselves.
Special attention was paid to the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and, again, no association with autism was found. In the past two decades the number of children diagnosed with autism has increased. Also over that time period the number of standard childhood vaccinations has increased. Hence, the close scrutiny.
Yet, the study adds to a growing body of evidence demonstrating no association between immunizations and autism.
Celiac disease and gluten may not be good combo
A recent article in the Journal of Pediatric Medicine has this interesting title: “The Complexity of Celiac Disease”.
The reason for the title surfaced when the researchers were testing the validity of the standard approach to diagnosing celiac disease. The current gold standard for diagnosis consists of having a positive blood test and having an intestinal biopsy that shows villous atrophy (shortening of the absorptive “cilia” in the gut).
This study was conducted in Finland where this disease is quite common. In the study group of patients who had a positive blood test but a normal biopsy, half went on a gluten-free diet, and half continued to eat gluten.
After a year the gluten avoiders not only felt better, but their blood tests had become negative. The group that ate gluten continued to have symptoms and most of them developed a positive result on a repeat biopsy.
Their editorial conclusion was that a positive blood test warrants at least a trial of gluten-free diet.
Asthma Research: Steps to New Treatment
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) just finished a study on poorly controlled asthmatics. Asthma by its very nature is a condition that tends to wax and wane. When asthma worsens the standard medical approach is called step therapy; that is, whatever the current therapy is, additional steps are taken to regain control. These steps involve the addition of extra controller medicines.
Over the past few years a common step that’s been taken is to add a long-acting bronchodilator (LABA) to the use of an inhaled steroid. For example, someone on Flovent inhaler would step up to Advair (Flovent plus the LABA Salmeterol), or someone on Pulmicort inhaler would step up to Symbicort (Pulmicort plus the LABA Fomoterol).
Another approach is to double the inhaled steroid. If someone is on two puffs of an inhaled steroid twice a day, he or she is told to increase to four puffs twice a day, or a different, stronger inhaled steroid is used.
The NIH study compared these two standard options to a novel one, which is the addition of Tio tropium bromide to an inhaled steroid. Tio tropium is an anti-cholinergic medicine that has been used for years to help people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). The cholinergic nerves that innervate the lungs cause broncho constriction (airway narrowing) and excess mucus production. Blocking these nerves through an anti-cholinergic dilates airways and reduces excess mucus.
The NIH compared the three different steph in terms of regaining asthma control. All three steps worked. The mildest benefit came from doubling the steroid dose. The best effect came from adding a LABA or Tio tropium, with the latter being the more effective step.
The reason this study was done is that although LABA therapy has been extremely effective over the years, some people have not tolerated the medicine due to side effects such as tremor, anxiety, and rapid heart rate. Also, doubling the inhaled steroid works, but there is greater likelihood of systemic steroid effect from using higher doses.
As of now, the Food and Drug Administration has not approved Tio tropium for asthma, but experts expect this approval to be forthcoming.
Virus Research: New Protein Worth More Experimentation
New Research from the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England – home of 14 Nobel Prizes – give hope for better treatment of viruses.
Viruses are still mankind’s biggest killers, responsible for twice as many deaths as cancer.
The main reason for this lethality is that once viruses slip inside human cells, they effectively hide from the immune system which would try to destroy them.
The Cambridge group discovered a new cellular protein called TRIM 21. If it attaches to the virus inside the cell, it activates a powerful antiviral response by the cell’s other proteins that will destroy the virus immediately. The catch is that TRIM 21 will only attach to the virus if it has some other protein sticking to it like an antibody.
So, what the researchers propose is to synthesize TRIM 21 and use it as a way to coat the virus before it gets into the cells. Options available would include oral dosing of TRIM 21, or a nasal spray.