Asthma and Hookworms

[Guest Simone]

This really grossed me out but I thought some may find it interesting all the same.Its on Hookworms and a cure for asthma.Ewwwww

 

Im not sure how to do this so I hope this link works...

 

abc.net/au/science/new/st/ories/s406170.htm.com

 

Let me try this again, i have no clue how to do

All Right many moons later...Its from the News in Science webpage.Ive decided to just copy it I hope this works..

 

 

 

 

 

Infection with hookworm may prevent asthma, new research suggests ? providing more support for the idea that too much hygiene is responsible for rising asthma rates.

 

A study of more than 12,000 people in Ethiopia has found that those who tested positive for hookworm, an intestinal parasite, were half as likely to have asthma as those who did not. The results are reported in this week's issue of The Lancet.

 

Sarah Scrivener from the University of Nottingham and colleagues identified all rural and urban dwellers in and around the city of Jimma, Ethiopia, who had reported asthmatic wheezing in the previous 12 months. A similar group of people without wheezing acted as a control group.

 

They investigated several factors that they thought might affect asthma risk: parasites, hepatitis A infection, exposure to dust-mite allergen, and organophosphate insecticides.

 

Insecticide level and hepatitis A infection were not related to the risk of asthma, but the researchers uncovered an interesting relationship between asthma, dust-mite exposure and hookworm.

 

They confirmed earlier studies that showed exposure to the house dust-mite ? found, for example, in bedding and carpet ? is associated with an increased risk of asthma.

 

But in this study, urban residents who had dust-mite allergy were more likely to have asthma than those with dust-mite allergy in rural areas.

 

The researchers put this finding together with the data showing that people with hookworm had lower asthma risk. Hookworm is more prevalent in rural areas ? leading the researchers to suggest that hookworms in the intestine may suppress the body's inflammatory response to allergens such as dust-mite.

 

The parasite may have evolved this immune-suppressing ability to ease its passage into host tissues, they explain.

 

Asthma?allergy link

The findings of the Ethiopian study are consistent with previous research, and have implications for our understanding of how the immune response is 'trained' to respond to allergens, says asthma and allergy specialist Dr Frank Thien of Melbourne's Alfred Hospital.

 

"There's a growing body of evidence that a range of factors such as infections are protective against developing dust-mite allergy and asthma," he said.

 

Dr Thien said that people had varying reactions when exposed to allergens such as dust-mite. Some did not develop allergy, others developed allergy to dust-mites but did not develop asthma. And some unfortunate people developed both allergy and asthma.

 

"One of the implications of this study is that it suggests hookworm infection could stop people who are already allergic to dust-mite from progressing to asthma."

 

He said other studies had suggested some environmental factors might stop people from getting dust-mite allergy in the first place. These have included infections, exposure to farm animals, childcare centres, and bacterial toxins in house dust (not to be confused with dust mite).

 

However, he added, most studies have only looked at a cross-section, or 'snapshot' of the situation. Longitudinal studies, which follow a group of people over time, are required to confirm the findings.

 

The only longitudinal studies done so far, he believes, have found that people exposed to measles and tuberculosis are less likely to be allergic.

 

Another implication of the new finding is that it means hookworm vaccines being developed by the Sabin Institute in United States could result in unanticipated problems.

 

"If you have a vaccine that kills all the hookworm but fails to stimulate the immune system properly in the way hookworms do, you could end up with no hookworms but an increased rate of asthma," Dr Thien said.

 

 

whoo the "oldfashioned way"heheehehe