Luvs TV Commercials Promote The Hygiene Hypothesis

Why are the more experienced parents in these humorous Luvs commercials allowing their babies to "get dirty"? It's because of a theory that attempts to explain why well-developed countries like the United States have so many more people suffering from asthma and allergies compared to third world countries which suffer almost none. Known as the " Hygiene Hypothesis,"  it conjectures that major improvements in public health and medical technology have led to a clean…

7/20/2015 0

Continue Reading

Reflux Medications Linked to Heart Attacks: Not as Bad as You Think

In June 2015, media reported a link between heart attacks and taking a certain class of reflux medications known as proton pump inhibitors (PPI). Such medications include nexium , prilosec , prevacid , etc and are very common to treat heartburn. This reported link was due to a paper published in PLOS One which you can read here . How high is the risk? The research suggested an increased risk of 16%. Although this may sound high, this translates into one heart attack for every 4000 patient…

7/01/2015 0

Continue Reading

Why is Allergy Present More Now than in Past? Hygiene vs Hapten Hypothesis

It is pretty much well-established fact that there are more people with food and inhalant allergy now than in the past. Two main theories have been proposed to try and explain this unfortunate phenomenon that is affecting more kids with each new generation. Keep in mind the explanations provided below are significantly simplified for lay public understanding. One can go into cytokines, Th1 and Th2 responses, and other techno-jargon, but not here. Perhaps the most popular explanation is th…

6/19/2014 0

Continue Reading

Allergies May Prevent Heart Attacks???

Research has been published suggesting an inverse relationship between serum IgE and heart attacks in the US population independent of coronary risk factors. No kidding... This conclusion was reached based analyzing 4002 participants between 2005-2006. They also detected that of the 7 "data-driven, prespecified allergen clusters," house dust mite was the only allergen cluster for which serum IgE is associated with reduced risk for heart attack. For those wondering, serum IgE…

8/29/2012 0

Continue Reading