Doctors use eggs to reverse egg allergies in kids

First peanuts, now eggs. Doctors have reversed allergies in some children and teens by giving them tiny daily doses of problem foods, gradually training their immune systems to accept them.

 

In the best test of this yet, about a dozen kids were able to overcome allergies to eggs, one of the most ubiquitous foods, lurking in everything from pasta and veggie burgers to mayonnaise and even marshmallows. Some of the same doctors used a similar approach on several kids with peanut allergies a few years ago.

Don't try this yourself, though. It takes special products, a year or more and close supervision because severe reactions remain a risk, say doctors involved in the study, published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

"This experimental therapy can safely be done only by properly trained physicians," says a statement from Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the federal agency that sponsored the study.

It didn't work for everyone, and some dropped out of the study because of allergic reactions. But the results "really do show there is promise for future treatment" and should be tested now in a wider group of kids, said the study's leader, Dr. A. Wesley Burks, pediatrics chief at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

More than 2 percent of young children have egg allergies, suffering wheezing and tight throats or even life-threatening reactions if they eat any egg, Burks said. Many will outgrow

this by age 4 or 5, and more will by the time they are teens, but 10 to 20 percent never do. The big worry is that these kids will eat eggs as an ingredient in a food they don't realize contains them, and have a severe reaction. Training a child's immune system to tolerate even small amounts of egg to prevent this was the goal of the study.

It enrolled 55 children ages 5 to 18. Forty were given tiny daily amounts of powdered egg white, the part that usually causes the allergy. The other 15 were given cornstarch - a dummy treatment - for comparison. The amounts were increased every two weeks until kids in the treatment group were eating about one third of an egg each day.

They periodically went to their doctors to try eating eggs. They failed the test if a doctor could see any symptoms such as wheezing.

At about a year, none receiving the dummy treatment passed the egg challenge. Those on the egg white powder fared better.

"At the end of the year, half of them passed. At the end of two years, 75 percent of them passed," Burks said.

Next, he went a step further, to see if participants could maintain tolerance without the daily powder. Those who passed the second test stopped using the powder, avoided eggs entirely for four to six weeks, then tried eating eggs again as they wished. Eleven of the 30 kids were able to do this with no problem.

The treatment worked for 10-year-old Nicholas Redmond of Huntersville, N.C., near Charlotte. Avoiding eggs has been "a huge problem," said his father, Chris Redmond. Now Nicholas has some egg nearly every day to maintain his tolerance, which his father finds terribly ironic.

"You spend 2 1/2 years avoiding eggs" and now have to make sure he gets some, Chris Redmond said.

Nicholas said the hardest part of his allergy was turning down birthday treats at school.

"I would say 'no thank you' and I had this little treat box with stuff filled for class parties," he said.

Now, "I can have eggs in cake and cookies" - if they don't contain peanuts, he said. He's also allergic to those, and will start sensitization therapy for peanuts next month.

Source : http://www.dailynews.com

Onions and cantaloupes latest cause of worry

Gill�s Onions, based in Oxnard, Calif., has issued voluntary recalls of diced and slivered onions because of a possible risk of listeriosis, the company has reported on its website.

Gill's Onions in Oxnard, Calif., has recalled diced and slivered onions after one package tested positive for listeria.

 
The large recall, triggered when the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes were detected at a processing plant, has stores across the country (including Trader Joe�s and Whole Foods Market) pulling �tons of ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook foods� off their shelves, WebMD reported Thursday.

Separately, a North Carolina grower has recalled cantaloupes, also citing worries about listeria contamination.        

Elderly people, pregnant women and individuals with weakened immune systems are most at risk of serious illness from listeria infection, according to this website from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Listeriosis can cause fever, muscle aches and diarrhea, as well as miscarriage. There are about 1,600 cases each year in the U.S.

One bright spot in the onion recall: No one has been sickened by tainted onions, and only one bag of onions has tested positive for listeria, Gill�s said on its website. According to CDC reports, a listeria outbreak in 2011 � which originated in cantaloupes from Colorado�s Jensen Farms and spread through 28 states across the U.S. � infected 146 people, killing 30 and possibly causing a miscarriage in a pregnant woman who fell ill.

The recalls coincide with recent reports that the country is not meeting its goals for reducing foodborne illnesses such as salmonella and listeria.  In this July 28  story about the CDC statistics from the Washington Post, consumer advocates complained that the government has been too slow to implement the Food Safety Modernization Act, which should help prevent foodborne illness. 

Source : LATimes

Top 5 foods to keep you younger

1. Avocados: help fight ravages of time, and also work magic to your hair and skin. They assist reduce cholesterol levels ranges, and consist of mono-saturated essential efas which can be great for the particular heart.

2. Berries: like blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, cranberries, goji berries, acai berries, lingonberries contain anti-oxidants that cleanse the body of toxins that cause ageing. They are also a rich source of vitamins and minerals that nourish your skin.

3. Tomatoes and carrots: contain anti-oxidants, beta carotene and lycopene that protect your skin from sun damage and repair skin cells.

4. Water-rich food like watermelons, cucumbers and celery are great for hydrating the skin and keeping wrinkles away.

5. Green tea: There is no end to the benefits of this super drink; green tea boasts a wealth of benefits that earns it the top spot in our anti-aging food list. Green tea is believed to help regulate blood pressure, lower blood sugar, boost the immune system, lower cholesterol and studies have even shown that green tea can be effective at preventing cancer. That's as close to the elixir of life as you can get.

The Right Way Is The Best Way

Everyone gets excited about working out every now and then, and once the excitement hits you all you want to do is start right away. Some get results they are after others complain about why their workouts haven't been much effective. The only reason these people aren't getting results is the lack of proper information. Beginner or no beginner, there are some things you should always keep in mind before you start, especially before aerobic exercises.

There are many people out there who think they are doing aerobic exercises but these exercises haven't been performed correctly hence they don't give results. For results that speak for themselves and help you maintain fit, healthy bodies here are some very basic tips on how to do aerobic exercises.

Making the right choice

Aerobic exercises are very different from normal exercises. An aerobic workout session should have continuous intense movements that raise the heart rate for a certain amount of time. So when you are doing group exercises in class sessions at your fitness center or your local gym, it doesn't always necessarily mean that you are doing an aerobic exercise. Many of these classes don't actually qualify as an aerobic class. Dance-based, stepping, and martial arts classes can still very much be considered as an aerobic class but exercises like yoga, Pilates, stretch and tone do not qualify as an aerobic exercise. Please ensure you have gathered all the correct information from your fitness instructor before joining any of the workout programs. It is always better to do an online search or seek guidance from your personal trainer or doctor and then choosing the program that best suits your needs.

Warming up before you get started

Warming up is very important before you start a routine. It is essential but most people don't actually bother practicing it. Although the starting of many aerobic exercises is of low intensity by nature, you will still need to do some warming up before you start your workout. Warming up helps your body to slowly open up, making your muscles contract and prepares your body for the upcoming exercise. One of the best ways to do a warm up is to start doing the same exercise that you are about to do for the workout at an easy and slower pace for a couple of minutes. Say for instance, if you are going for a run, then you can start with a slow jog first. Stretching and relaxing will also aid your purpose for warming up. Once you've warmed up you are good to go for the rest of your fitness routine.

So, if you want to really want do an aerobic workout, make sure you choose a class that includes at least 20 minutes of continuous movements that can actually raise the heart rate and breathing such as hip hop classes, step aerobics and kickboxing. These will lead your body into having a better, healthier cardio- respiratory system.

Lorcaserin: the Latest FDA-approved Obesity Drug

The FDA recently approved a new drug called lorcaserin (brand name Belviq) for the treatment of obesity. Lorcaserin causes an average of 13 lbs (5.8 kg) of weight loss over a year, compared to 5 lbs (2.2 kg) for placebo (1), which is less than the other recently approved drug Qsymia (formerly Qnexa; topiramate/phentermine).

Learning about obesity drugs is always a good opportunity to gain insight into the mechanisms that underlie the development and reversal of obesity. If you've been following this blog for a while, you already have a pretty good guess what organ this new drug acts on. Make your guess and read on!

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Tips Reduce Weight Without Dieting

A strict diet is often the choice of many people to get the ideal body shape. But in some people eat these restrictions would cause side effects such as decreasing the body's metabolism to less energy to work. In addition to diet, you can actually implement a strategy of downsizing is easy but should be part of the lifestyle. One of these six steps:

Breakfast
Research shows that regular breakfast will maintain weight. But the menu chosen should be low fat, complex carbohydrates, protein, fiber and equipped.

Eat foods low in calories
Fill your plate with low-calorie foods such as fruits, vegetables, or complex carbohydrates. These foods make the stomach full longer so you will not "go crazy" when she saw other foods.

Start with Soup
At lunch or dinner, vegetable-based soup menu pilihlh or contain vegetables. Soup will overcome excessive hunger so you will not be tempted to enjoy food with high calories.

Came too late
Arriving late at the party or banquet will make your meal is reduced.

Divide the lunch menu
At lunchtime, try to divide the menu into a half eaten at lunch, you enjoy the other half in the afternoon.

Exchange with mustard mayonnaise
One teaspoon of mayonnaise has 100 calories, while a teaspoon of mustard has 10 calories.

Two Great Quotes About Obesity (technical)

By Dr. Hans-Rudolf Berthoud, from a recent paper, "The Neurobiology of Food Intake in an Obesogenic Environment" (1). I came across it because it cites my review paper (2). My perspective on obesity is similar to his. From the abstract:

The modern lifestyle with its drastic changes in the way we eat and move puts pressure on the homoeostatic system responsible for the regulation of body weight, which has led to an increase in overweight and obesity. The power of food cues targeting susceptible emotions and cognitive brain functions, particularly of children and adolescents, is increasingly exploited by modern neuromarketing tools. Increased intake of energy-dense foods high in fat and sugar is not only adding more energy, but may also corrupt neural functions of brain systems involved in nutrient sensing as well as in hedonic, motivational and cognitive processing.

And a nice one from the conclusions:
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