Bacteria & Asthma: Untangling the Links

[Guest guest]

I originally asked permission to cross-post the article below from

another group and then saw it on several other groups.

It emphasizes several points a number of us have been trying to

communicate to this group for some time. Some of you won't like

it because it doesn't make our situation simple with a single

cause or a single drug or some other high tech cure.

But hopefully it will help some to better comprehend why a cure

isn't available yet and why so many " remedies " may help but few

are sufficient. And why although mold exposure is important and

may have been our primary trigger our problem isn't only mold. It

sometimes isn't even only stopping exposure because of the

involvement of our internal bodily processes.

The point of this article is a critically important concept which we

must begin to understand and appreciate.

Our health or lack thereof is not always the result of one cause

and one effect. It isn't even many causes with many effects. It is

the ecosystem of the human body and its interactions with the

larger ecosystem of our built environment and that of the greater

one outdoors.

Carl Grimes

Healthy Habitats LLC

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Science Magazine > 26 November 2010 > Couzin-el, 330

(6008):

1168-1169

Science 26 November 2010:

Vol. 330 no.! 6008 pp. 1168-1169

DOI: 10.1126/science.330.6008.1168

News Focus

Bacteria and Asthma: Untangling the Links

Couzin-el

Summary

The number of asthma cases is soaring, but the causes remain

elusive.

Researchers have some striking clues: For example, children on

farms

are much less likely to get the lung disease. There's mounting

evidence that bacteria matter. Babies born via cesarean section,

who

experience a more sterile entry in! to the world than those born

vaginally, are more likely to get asthma. So are young children

treated with many courses of antibiotics. Along with animal

studies,

these observations suggest that the balance of bacteria and other

microbes help guide immune development-and that when the

balance is

disrupted, disease may follow. The picture can be dishearteningly

complicated. Thousands of species of bacteria have constructed

virtual

cities inside us, along with fungi and viruses-a world called the

microbiome. And it's not so much the presence or absence of

bacteria,

or even certain species, that matter, but rather the shape of the

whole community. All of us play host to bacterial residents. But

children who develop asthma, researchers are learning, are

home to

different bacteria-and sometimes a less diverse mix-than

those who

stay healthy.

http://www. sciencemag.org/content/330/6008/1168.summary