Author Archive
The Relevance of Prior Parasitic Infection and The Risk of IBS And CFS
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Giardia lamblia (synonymous with Giardia intestinalis, Lamblia intestinalis and Giardia duodenalis) is a flagellated protozoan parasite that colonises and reproduces in the small intestine, causing giardiasis. The giardia parasite attaches to the epithelium by a ventral adhesive disc, and reproduces via binary fission. Giardiasis does not spread via the bloodstream, nor does it spread to other parts of the gastro-intestinal tract, but remains confined to the lumen of the small intestine.
70% of Europeans suffer from low vitamin D levels
A group of experts has prepared a report on vitamin D supplementation for menopausal women after it was revealed that Europeans have suffered an alarming decrease in their levels of this vitamin. In their opinion, the ideal would be to maintain blood levels above 30 ng/ml. Vitamin D is essential to the immune system and processes such as calcium absorption.[1]
The team of experts analysed the conditions and diseases that are associated with vitamin D deficiency and recommended the intake of supplements in postmenopausal women. As well as stimulating calcium and phosphorus absorption, the vitamin D system has numerous functions. Low vitamin D levels are linked to rickets, osteomalacia, osteoporosis and the risk of bone fracture, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, infections and degenerative diseases.
“In healthy postmenopausal women, we have seen that a good level of vitamin D is linked to good physical fitness and has an effect on body fat mass as well as muscle strength and balance,” state the authors of the article published in the Maturitas journal.
The researcher explains that patients with risk factors associated with hypovitaminosis (obesity, pigmented skin, intestinal malabsorption syndromes and living in regions close to the North and South poles) should increase their intake to up to 4,000 IU per day. There is scientific evidence that a daily dose of 4,000 IU/day is not poisonous in healthy people.
Reference
[1] Faustino R. Pérez-López, Marc Brincat, C. Tamer Erel, Florence Tremollieres, Marco Gambacciani, Irene Lambrinoudaki, Mette H. Moen, Karin Schenck-Gustafsson, Svetlana Vujovic, Serge Rozenberg, Margaret Rees. “Vitamin D and postmenopausal health”. Maturitas, 71, 83-88, Jan 2012. View Full Paper
Brain Function and Bladder Cancer Respond To Multi Vitamins
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It can from time to time (some may say all of the time) seem as if the medical world simply wish, regardless of the building evidence pile, to deny the value of using concentrated food ingredients in the improvement of the human condition.[1] In part this is aggravated by the overly bold statements that are sometimes made for individual nutrients and their lack of suitable studies.
Does Your Daily Slice of Bacon With A Sausage Cause Pancreatic Cancer
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The thought that part of the British Breakfast may be nibbling away at our pancreatic cells integrity is bound to put a shock wave through households across the country – or is it? We as a nation along with most other advanced nations consider that our diet is no one else’s business and that eating processed meats is a perfectly acceptable part of the daily diet, despite long term questions about their health risks.
Functional Medicine, A Systems Wide Approach To Health Care
Over the time that man has worked to meet the medical needs of our various populations dealing with problems such as diseases and trauma the various cultures on our crowded planet have evolved differing philosophies, scientific explanation and style of medical practice.
The last 120 years or so has predominately favoured what is referred to as the western or reductionist approach, during which time we have seen tremendous gains in knowledge and comprehension of physiology, biochemistry and immunology. The results have been seen in the development of vaccines, medicines and sewerage management, all of which have contributed to substantial benefits in limiting the destruction wreaked on our populations from numerous diseases, infectious agents and trauma.
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Health Map Tracks Infectious Diseases
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HealthMap, a team of researchers, epidemiologists and software developers at Children’s Hospital Boston founded in 2006, is an established global leader in utilising online informal sources for disease outbreak monitoring and real-time surveillance of emerging public health threats.
Cod Liver Oil vs TB
In a feature article in the Christmas 2011 edition of the well-known British Medical Journal, Professor Emeritus Malcolm Green revisited an 1848 study looking at the potential benefits of Cod Liver Oil in the treatment of Tuberculosis.[1]
In the study, carried out by physicians at the Hospital for Consumption, Chelsea (now the Royal Brompton Hospital), 542 patients with consumption (tuberculosis) received standard treatment with cod liver oil. These patients were compared with 535 ‘control’ patients who received standard treatment alone (without cod liver oil).[2]
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Coeliac Disease and its Many Complications
Coeliac disease (CD), also called gluten-sensitive enteropathy or non-tropical sprue, is a unique autoimmune disorder which results from the interaction between gluten and immune, genetic and environmental factors. Originally CD was considered as a malabsorption syndrome of childhood, whereas it is now recognised as a disease which may be diagnosed at any age.
Gluten sensitivity is a new concept to define a condition of some morphological, immunological and functional disorders that withdraw with a gluten free diet in patients with or without HLADQ2/ DQ8 positive, with negative gluten-specific autoantibodies and without histological characteristic of coeliac disease (CD).
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Blastocystis Hominis Vs Saccharomyces Boulardii
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I have previously discussed the various genotypes of B.hominis and why in some patients the expected symptomatology is absent in the presence of occupation and in others symptoms are profound. You may read more on this subject by visiting: Blastocystis hominis. Is It Really A Problem?
Microbes and Us
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Over the past several years, studies have revealed an astonishing diversity in our so-called microbiome. A five year project utilising researchers from around the world has been constructed to identify our mutual cohabitants that define our microbiome.[1] In Europe the MetaHIT project has pulled 8 countries and 13 academic partners together to add further data to this project.[2]
The immune system is prone to the same grave misfortunes as any defense system handling weapons: collateral damage that comes with the destruction of the enemy on one’s own territory and friendly fire due to mistaken identity. Whereas the collateral damage is the price we pay for clearance of infections, autoimmunity is a pathological process. Nevertheless, the effector mechanisms involved in both processes are the same. Whether environment can be a cause, a trigger or an amplifier of an autoimmune disease are questions that are being intensively investigated.
