Thursday, July 17, 2008

Place Blame for Asthma Here: Stomach Germs and Peanut Butter Sandwiches

Yesterday, my co-worker shared with me an article that stated that eating too much peanut butter during pregnancy may increase the likelihood that your child will develop asthma.

Now I know that I craved - and indulged in - many peanut butter sandwiches during one of my pregnancies...but was it child one, child two, or the miscarriage before both? (I know it wasn't child three - I was too busy to EAT during that one!)

It's a theory I can get behind because, having the traditional "mother's guilt", it puts the blame on me. I can take responsibility for my kids' asthma once and for all. Pretty messed up, huh?

But another theory that seems a little sane is this one: A study at the NYU Langone Medical Center found that H pylori, a bacterium that used to be common in the human stomach, seems to prevent pediatric asthma, allergies and hayfever. Prior to WWII, this was a familiar germ, but with the advent of antibiotics and antibacterials, resulting in cleaner homes and schools, it's become pretty rare. Here are some stats and quotes from the study worth sharing:

"In our study we asked the question, is there any relationship between having H. pylori in the stomach and having asthma and other allergic disorders," said lead researcher Dr. Martin J. Blaser, the Frederick H. King Professor of Internal Medicine and chairman of the department of medicine at the New York University Langone Medical Center in New York City.

"We found a strong inverse association between H. pylori and childhood asthma, childhood hay fever and childhood allergies," added Blaser, who's also a professor of microbiology and has studied H. pylori for more than two decades.

Blaser thinks that H. pylori may protect the body against asthma. "When children have H. pylori in their stomach, their immune system is different than if they don't have H. pylori," he said.

...

Among children in the survey, just 5.4 percent born in the 1990s tested positive for H. pylori. In addition, 11.3 percent of the children under 10 had taken antibiotics in the month before the survey.

Blaser and Chen found that among children 3 to 13 years of age, those who carried the stomach bug were 59 percent less likely to develop asthma than children without H. pylori. These children were also 40 percent less likely to suffer from hay fever and other allergies, such as eczema or rash.

Among children aged 3 to 19, the researchers found that those who harbored H. pylori reduced their risk of asthma by 25 percent.


OK...if there's an experiment related to this study, can I bring my kids?

5 comments:

Rick Frea said...

Great information. Those seem to be pretty overwhelming results. Can we inject H. Pylori into our kids.

I wonder what kids are prone to have H. Pylori.

Anonymous said...

Hey all of you need to read www.asthmastory.com and learn about "infectious astham" and how it is treated and cured with Zithromax given long term weekly over a 12 week period. Through this website you can get more information from the links provided and see the research that Dr. David Hahn of Wisconsin - a study across the country which is proving that antibiotics can cure asthma. Also read about the mycoplasma bacteria that they believe is causing asthma. Pass this website along to everyone you know with asthma. It is working for my son who has suffered with asthma for the past ten years.

soccermom said...

Still trying to figure out how all of this works to blog. You need to read www.asthmastory.com and you will see how asthma is being treated and cured with Zithromax given over a twelve week period - you can read about the research that has been done by Dr. David Hahn of Wisconsin (Google that too) and the link with mycoplasma bacteria to asthma. Asthma is cureable - read about the studies being done across the country now. Hope you see this Aimee as you can get help for your children now and not have years of asthma like my son has dealt with the past ten years. My son is dramatically better now after simply taking Zithromax (600 mg. tablet three days in a row and then one tablet weekly the next next 11 weeks) for the past 12 weeks. Zithromax gets inside of the cell bacteria and eliminates it - see links to Dr. Hahn's information on the website listed above. You will be amazed. Good luck to you! Spread the word to others!

soccermom said...

Read www.asthmastory.com to see how asthma is cured with Zithromax which goes inside of the bacteria cells that causes the infection of astshma and eliminates the bacteria.

Shirky said...

isn't that the same thing that causes ulcers?