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From: Taka on 7 Aug 2008 21:16
On Aug 7, 5:57 pm, François Rose <fr.r...(a)free.fr> wrote:
> On Aug 7, 8:13 am, Kofi <k...(a)anon.un> wrote:
>
>
>
> > <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080715071419.htm>
>
> > Science News
>
> > Share Blog Cite
> > Print Email Bookmark
>
> > Stomach Bug Appears To Protect Kids From Asthma, Says New Study
> > ScienceDaily (July 20, 2008) ‹ A long-time microbial inhabitant of the
> > human stomach may protect children from developing asthma, according to
> > a new study among more than 7,000 subjects led by NYU Langone Medical
> > Center researchers. Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium that has co-existed
> > with humans for at least 50,000 years, may lead to peptic ulcers and
> > stomach cancer. Yet, kids between the ages of 3 and 13 are nearly 59
> > percent less likely to have asthma if they carry the bug, the
> > researchers report.
>
> > The study appears in the July 15, 2008, online issue of The Journal of
> > Infectious Diseases.
>
> > "Our findings suggest that absence of H. pylori may be one explanation
> > for the increased risk of childhood asthma," says Yu Chen, Ph.D.,
> > assistant professor of epidemiology at New York University School of
> > Medicine and a co-author of the study. "Among teens and children ages 3
> > to 19 years, carriers of H. pylori were 25 percent less likely to have
> > asthma."
>
> > The impact was even more potent among children ages 3 to 13: they were
> > 59 percent less likely to have asthma if they carried the bacterium, the
> > researchers report. H. pylori carriers in teens and children were also
> > 40 percent less likely to have hay fever and associated allergies such
> > as eczema or rash.
>
> > These results, which follow on from similar findings in adults published
> > by the same authors last year, are based on an analysis of data gathered
> > from 7,412 participants in the fourth National Health and Nutrition
> > Survey (NHANES IV) conducted from 1999 to 2000 by the National Center
> > for Health Statistics.
> > Dr. Chen collaborated on the survey with Martin J. Blaser, M.D., the
> > Frederick H. King Professor of Internal Medicine, chair of the
> > department of medicine, and professor of microbiology at NYU Langone
> > Medical Center. Dr. Blaser has studied H. pylori for more than two
> > decades.
>
> > Asthma has been rising steadily for the past half-century. Meanwhile H.
> > pylori, once nearly universal in humans, has been slowly disappearing
> > from developed countries over the past century due to increased
> > antibiotic use, which kills off the bacteria, and cleaner water and
> > homes, explains Dr. Blaser. Data from NHANES IV showed that only 5.4
> > percent of children born in the 1990s were positive for H. pylori, and
> > that 11.3 percent of the participants under 10 had received an
> > antibiotic in the month prior to the survey.
>
> > The rise in asthma over the past decades, Dr. Blaser says, could stem
> > from the fact that a stomach harboring H. pylori has a different
> > immunological status from one lacking the bug. When H. pylori is
> > present, the stomach is lined with immune cells called regulatory T
> > cells that control the body's response to invaders. Without these cells,
> > a child can be more sensitive to allergens.
> > "Our hypothesis is that if you have Helicobacter you have a greater
> > population of regulatory T-cells that are setting a higher threshold for
> > sensitization," Dr. Blaser explains. "For example, if a child doesn't
> > have Helicobacter and has contact with two or three cockroaches, he may
> > get sensitized to them. But if Helicobacter is directing the immune
> > response, then even if a child comes into contact with many cockroaches
> > he may not get sensitized because his immune system is more tolerant."
>
> > In other words, the presence of the bacteria in the stomach may
> > influence how a child's immune system develops: if a child does not
> > encounter Helicobacter early on, the immune system may not learn how to
> > regulate a response to allergens. Therefore, the child may be more
> > likely to mount the kinds of inflammatory responses that trigger asthma..
>
> > "There's a growing body of data that says that early life use of
> > antibiotics increases risk of asthma, and parents and doctors are using
> > antibiotics like water," Dr. Blaser says. "The reality is that
> > Helicobacter is disappearing extremely rapidly. In the NHANES IV study,
> > less than six percent of U.S. children had Helicobacter, and probably
> > two generations ago it was 70 percent. So, this is a huge change in
> > human micro-ecology. The disappearance of an organism that's been in the
> > stomach forever and is dominant is likely to have consequences. The
> > consequences may be both good--less likelihood of gastric cancer and
> > ulcers later in life--and bad: more asthma early in life."
>
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Adapted from materials provided by NYU Langone Medical Center / New York
> > University School of Medicine.
>
> > Need to cite this story in your essay, paper, or report? Use one of the
> > following formats:
>
> > APA
> > MLA
>
> Hi Kofi.
>
> There are, however, potential dangers in H. Pylori
> The two that I'm aware are peptic ulcer (that my wife suffered) and
> gastric cancer: see below
>
> From the abstract ofhttp://pmid.us/15106235
> "REVIEWERS' CONCLUSIONS: Treatment of H. pylori infection is more
> effective than antisecretory non-eradicating therapy (with or without
> long-term maintenance antisecretory therapy) in preventing recurrent
> bleeding from peptic ulcer. Consequently, all patients with peptic
> ulcer bleeding should be tested for H. pylori infection, and
> eradication therapy should be prescribed to H. pylori-positive
> patients."
>
> From the free full text ofhttp://pmid.us/17589938
>
> "H PYLORI INFECTION AND GC [Gastric Cancer] RISK
>
> Since the incidental discovery in 1983, the association of H pylori
> with GC has become a hot topic of gastroenterological studies. Just a
> decade later, a large cross-sectional study (the EUROGAST study)
> involving 17 populations from 13 different countries (Unites States,
> Japan and 11 European countries), concluded that H pylori-infected
> patients had six-fold increased risk of GC compared with uninfected
> subjects[72]. In 1994, despite some controversial opinion, the
> International Agency for Research on Cancer declared H pylori to be a
> groupⅠhuman carcinogen for gastric adenocarcinoma[73]. The statement
> was mainly based on epidemiological investigations since no
> experimental studies had been performed at that time to prove the
> causal link between H pylori and GC. Currently, although substantial
> evidence supports the role of H pylori infection in GC development,
> the magnitude of the risk of GC associated with infection remains
> unclear.
> <big snip>
>
> However, the most powerful evidence comes from a prospective study on
> 1526 Japanese patients followed for approximately 7.8 years. GC
> developed in 36 out of 1246 H pylori-positive patients (2.9%) in
> contrast to none of the 280 non-infected subjects[146]."
>
> François Rose

Japanese do have higher occurrence of H. pylori and stomach cancer.
They also have higher consumption of Omega-3 and other PUFAs
generally. If this was a politically correct view, the "experts"
could call it a correlation or even causation ... I would call this
"how stressy conditions can turn symbiont into a pathogenic bug".

Taka
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