Dear Dr. K: I have red, itchy, peeling eyelids and my dermatologist said it’s most likely due to using hand sanitizers. But I don’t use the sanitizers on my face, so how can that be true? Your dermatologist is probably right. The hand/face connection is an interesting dichotomy. The skin on our hands is some of the thickest and toughest on our bodies; while the skin on our faces – especially on the eyelids – is among the thinnest and…
· The University of Pittsburgh studied short versus long duration (5-day versus 10-day) of antibiotics for middle ear infections in children. There was a much better success rate with 10 days of therapy.
· Having pregnant women take cold-water fish oil during pregnancy reduced the risk for asthma in their children by 30%. So showed research at the University of Copenhagen. In general, modern diets tend to run low in the n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids found in fish. These oils are known to reduce inflammation.
· The National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease recommends the introduction of peanut to infants of allergic parents between the ages of 4 and 11 months, as a proven strategy to avoid the development of severe peanut allergy later in childhood.
Protein pump inhibitors which are so helpful in treating reflux, gastritis and ulcers have been shown to decrease absorption of magnesium. Low magnesium levels have a potential to worsen asthma and to contribute to cardiac arrhythmias.
A recent article in The New England Journal of Medicine points out that the human GI tract contains up to 10-million different microbial species. This review of the human intestinal microbiome found bacteria, fungi (yeast), viruses, archaea (specialized bacteria with a resistant cell wall) and algae. More than a billion years of co-evolution of mammals and their gut flora has led to a complex interdependency of the mammal and the microbes, and the microbes with one another. Humans today are…
Having elevated levels of the heavy metals lead and cadmium does result in an increased incidence of asthma, as demonstrated in recently published research from Brown University. Elevated lead levels can be seen in children living in homes with old-fashioned lead paint, and in adults with workplace-exposure to lead fumes. Elevated cadmium levels are typically only seen due to industrial workplace exposure. The heavy metals cause a shift in TH1/TH1 response, thus leading to much greater production of IgE, the…
Dermatology researchers at the University of Oregon recently published two Phase 3 trials of Dupilumab in eczema. Phase 3 trials are the ones that can lead to FDA approval of a new drug. These trials were very successful. Dupilumab is a human monoclonal antibody against interleukin-4 receptor alpha. Interleukin-4 is a cytokine (inflammatory molecule) that is an important cause of allergic eczema. The studies were done on 1,500 patients with moderate-to-severe eczema that was not responding to topical medications. In…
Dear Dr. K: My friend and I, who have both been on allergy shots for four years, went off them. My friend remains allergy-free, but my allergies are coming back again. What gives? That is a simple question to ask, but a more difficult one to answer. Let’s start with how allergy shots work. Actually, we should call them allergy vaccines because all vaccines lead to the production of protective antibodies (called IgG). For example: in the case of tetanus…
People allergic to coconut commonly will have cross-reacting allergy to both almond and macadamia.