Sunday, July 02, 2006
Worms for asthma
One way to deal with your asthma seems to be to deliberately get yourself infested with hookworms. That story is at asthmahookworm.com
I'm trying a slightly different path - here's a reply I've sent to the guy behind asthmahookworm.com with a new hypothesis about why worms work to keep asthma under control:
I've also put this note to you up at completeconfusion.com:
Before anything else I should mention a truly excellent recent review article, that's up on the web (freely available to all):
Clinical & Experimental Allergy
Volume 36 Page 402 - April 2006
doi:10.1111/j.1365-2222.2006.02463.x
Volume 36 Issue 4
Review
Too clean, or not too clean: the Hygiene Hypothesis and home hygiene
S. F. Bloomfield, R. Stanwell-Smith, R. W. R. Crevel and J. Pickup
Use of the term 'hygiene hypothesis' has led to several interpretations, some of which are not supported by a broader survey of the evidence. The increase in allergic disorders does not correlate with the decrease in infection with pathogenic organisms, nor can it be explained by changes in domestic hygiene. A consensus is beginning to develop round the view that more fundamental changes in lifestyle have led to decreased exposure to certain microbial or other species, such as helminths, that are important for the development of immunoregulatory mechanisms.
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-2222.2006.02463.x
Fascinating, with lots that's new to me, such as:
"The reunification of Germany provided some new insights into the influence of lifestyle on atopic disease within relatively homogeneous populations. Von Mutius et al. [9] showed that hayfever and atopic sensitization among children in the former East Germany both significantly increased between 1991–1992 and 1995–1996, raising the issue of 'Western living' influences on children, as previous studies had shown lower rates in East Germany compared with West Germany."
It's a mixed review at best - helminths seem to be a rather lonely success for the hygiene hypothesis, so just maybe there's another reason why helminths work... for instance, maybe they're eating selectively, perhaps reducing the otherwise surprisingly large amount of neurotransmitters that are in modern, cultured foods. (If so, a glutamate restricted diet should work as well as worms do against asthma.)
(This is only part of what I'm trying, so even though I'm having real success against asthma, this diet may not be why. But I am free of asthma, just now.)
The amino acid Glutamate/glutamine is the main neurotransmitter for humans - while lower creatures cheerfully use it as a food and energy source. It is extremely abundant in many modern, cultured foods such as wheat, soy, peanut butter and beans - up to 3% by weight in modern foods! Since it passes easily into the brain. supply and transport of glutamate are obvious targets in order to control seizures/epilepsy (however most current epilepsy drugs boost the inihibitory neurotransmitter GABA to counter glutamate et al and so reduce hyperexcitability.)
So I'm following the lead of http://dogtorj.tripod.com/id2.html, a veterinarian who first found that glutamate restricted diets helped pets with seizures. (He's not your regular scientist, but he also may be onto something.) The result, within days of my adopting the diet - no more seizures, but also, a bit later, no more hyperexcitable airways either, so no more asthma.
Even so, I don't think glutamate is the whole story behind modern asthma (but the rest of the story I'm still trying to write up.)
I think helminths can pretty much be counted on to eat a whole lot of glutamate, it's a great energy source for them. Because glutamate (think monosodium glutamate) makes foods taste better, foods we've shaped through agriculture have undoubtedly been selected to have more and more of it over the years - maybe too much of it for some of us, now, particularly with modern agricultural breeding techniques.
Russell Johnston
I'm trying a slightly different path - here's a reply I've sent to the guy behind asthmahookworm.com with a new hypothesis about why worms work to keep asthma under control:
I've also put this note to you up at completeconfusion.com:
Before anything else I should mention a truly excellent recent review article, that's up on the web (freely available to all):
Clinical & Experimental Allergy
Volume 36 Page 402 - April 2006
doi:10.1111/j.1365-2222.2006.02463.x
Volume 36 Issue 4
Review
Too clean, or not too clean: the Hygiene Hypothesis and home hygiene
S. F. Bloomfield, R. Stanwell-Smith, R. W. R. Crevel and J. Pickup
Use of the term 'hygiene hypothesis' has led to several interpretations, some of which are not supported by a broader survey of the evidence. The increase in allergic disorders does not correlate with the decrease in infection with pathogenic organisms, nor can it be explained by changes in domestic hygiene. A consensus is beginning to develop round the view that more fundamental changes in lifestyle have led to decreased exposure to certain microbial or other species, such as helminths, that are important for the development of immunoregulatory mechanisms.
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-2222.2006.02463.x
Fascinating, with lots that's new to me, such as:
"The reunification of Germany provided some new insights into the influence of lifestyle on atopic disease within relatively homogeneous populations. Von Mutius et al. [9] showed that hayfever and atopic sensitization among children in the former East Germany both significantly increased between 1991–1992 and 1995–1996, raising the issue of 'Western living' influences on children, as previous studies had shown lower rates in East Germany compared with West Germany."
It's a mixed review at best - helminths seem to be a rather lonely success for the hygiene hypothesis, so just maybe there's another reason why helminths work... for instance, maybe they're eating selectively, perhaps reducing the otherwise surprisingly large amount of neurotransmitters that are in modern, cultured foods. (If so, a glutamate restricted diet should work as well as worms do against asthma.)
(This is only part of what I'm trying, so even though I'm having real success against asthma, this diet may not be why. But I am free of asthma, just now.)
The amino acid Glutamate/glutamine is the main neurotransmitter for humans - while lower creatures cheerfully use it as a food and energy source. It is extremely abundant in many modern, cultured foods such as wheat, soy, peanut butter and beans - up to 3% by weight in modern foods! Since it passes easily into the brain. supply and transport of glutamate are obvious targets in order to control seizures/epilepsy (however most current epilepsy drugs boost the inihibitory neurotransmitter GABA to counter glutamate et al and so reduce hyperexcitability.)
So I'm following the lead of http://dogtorj.tripod.com/id2.html, a veterinarian who first found that glutamate restricted diets helped pets with seizures. (He's not your regular scientist, but he also may be onto something.) The result, within days of my adopting the diet - no more seizures, but also, a bit later, no more hyperexcitable airways either, so no more asthma.
Even so, I don't think glutamate is the whole story behind modern asthma (but the rest of the story I'm still trying to write up.)
I think helminths can pretty much be counted on to eat a whole lot of glutamate, it's a great energy source for them. Because glutamate (think monosodium glutamate) makes foods taste better, foods we've shaped through agriculture have undoubtedly been selected to have more and more of it over the years - maybe too much of it for some of us, now, particularly with modern agricultural breeding techniques.
Russell Johnston
