Posted by stjames on December 8, 2003, at 2:10:51
In reply to Re: Lar...the parasitologist's dilemma, what say you » stjames, posted by Larry Hoover on December 7, 2003, at 19:13:41
> I differ from you in one key aspect of your analysis....I think that exposure to pathogens is the key variable....Nope, we don't. We are 100% here, the science is clear. I was past a page and had to stop !
The cleaner the environment, the sicker we get, generally. There are notable exceptions here, but I think the worst thing you can do in raising kids is to sanitize everything. I heard a study as reported on NPR which blows a hole into the common assumption that kids from the country don't get as many illness because the air is cleaner, ect. Nope, the kids from the counrty are exposed to
a diverse soup of allergins, they tend to have more contact with many species of animals and more contact with the earth and outdoors. A dirty (within some reason) environment allows the immune
system to do what it needs to do. Gather pathogen DNA so next time it can pattern match and do it's thing.This study found that the city kids were overloaded, too few things but far too
high a concentration of what was there.
They then swapped the kids locations
and reproduced the same results. They found
the country kids reverted as did the city kids,
one was more sick and the other less. The pro or
negative effects of environment were short lived
once the environment was changed. You can undo things, even after being in a bad environment.I have the worst allergies, the kind that can impair your life as much as mental illness. I got in with a mad allergy doc, and was on huge amounts
of steroids. I had a adreanal crisis and ended up
in the hospital and met a brilliant endrocronoligist. It took a long time for him to fix the mess I was in; the adreanals did not want to come back on line, ect. I was also seeing a brilliant psychopharacologist and she had to walk on water to keep me stable. I still required steroids to function, Atavan as not kill anyone in a rage roid and AP's at the first sigh of going psychotic.7 years of this and I reached the point that optical nerve damage was going to start soon.
I was loosing bone and there was evidence my body
was not localizing infections as quick as before.
All the danger signs for steriods.The was no choice but to do a geographic. Considering my allergy profile, molds were the worst. I was living in New Orleans and it was killing me. The desert SW was the clear win,
so my company transfered me, in 1995. With the
NPR report in mind, I stopped using bleach and
other strong cleaners in the house, used the HEPA less
and made some other changes. It costs a lot to keep the house at 50% humidity in New Orleans, via
AC but I had to kill the molds as I was starting to have hints or the deadly reactions to them.The geographic worked, the desert made me healthy,
got me off all steriods & I use antihistamines as needed now. I now have run of the mill allergies,
but not all the time. I live in the high desert, most time on the border between the high desert and Alpine biome, ie 7,000 to 8,000 feet.
Gone is the ozone and particulates in the air
that were horrible, plus the high concentrations
of allergins. However, the high desert is far from barren, so there is enough, a better balance
of pathogins and allergins so I stay healthy.
My body fends off infections and can localize them. Since 95, I have only required
2 courses of an antibiotic, instead of every month. I no longer require the big guns, like Augmenten or Biaxin; Bactrum DS is enough and
easy on my system. I met yet another brillant doc in a med trial, he became my primary. he is an DO and allergist with an intrest in environmental med. Just what I needed. He helped me off the steroids and helped me to start regrowing bone.
poster:stjames
thread:287474
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20031204/msgs/287595.html