immune26

[Guest guest]

This came to me as a private email, but raises some points about the

immune system. I've left the name off, but here's the message with my

comments interposed:

> If you are talking about rosacea being a primary immune

> dysfunction,

> would you also come to the conclusion that treatments that

> bolster the immune system...

No. The immune system is extraordinarily complicated in it's normal

function, and abnormalities are even more complicated, but in general

conditions such as AIDS or the Bubble Boy (if you remember the

Travolta movie, or the Seinfeld episode ) represent deficiencies

in the immune system, whereas autoimmune and other immune-mediated

disorders (that may involve rosacea) represent inappropriate

activation of the immune cascade. " Bolstering " would theoretically

work for AIDS and the Bubble Boy, but obviously that's very, very

difficult to do. It would do nothing for all the other immune

problems.

(As an aside, allergists are actually medical specialists in

immunology (the specialty is called allergy & immunology), which

helps explain why they only deal with classic allergies -- those are

defined immunologic events, so it fit nicely into their specialty.

Intolerances may share some of the same symptoms, but they don't have

the same immunologic mechanisms, intolerances are a different

phenomenon than allergies. It's like a broken bone caused by a car

accident, or caused by a bone cancer -- the latter is treated by a

cancer doctor, not an orthopedist, even though both present as broken

bones.)

> ...and return it to normal would be the best course of

> treatment? I have spoken with several people about taking

> immune26, an immune balancing product, and they said that they saw

a

> complete reversal withtin three months of use and that they no

longer exhibit

> the features of rosacea .... would this perhaps be a solution if it

> were true that rosacea was primarily an immune dysfunction?

I took a quick look at some of the Web sites and from what I can

gather, immune26 is an egg-based protein powder obtained from

chickens fed 26 different inactivated bacterial strains -- presumably

the theory being that the chicken's antibody production to these 26

bacterial strains are contained in the eggs. It includes some other

nutrients, but the antibodies are the big thing.

Whether antibiodies from another species works in humans, whether the

antibiotics survive the egg-to-powder process, whether the antibodies

are present in sufficient amounts to do anything, and whether humans

are likely to be exposed to just those 26 bacterial strains vs the

billions of other strains -- all that aside, two facts are clear: (1)

human antibodies (in gamma globulins, for example) cannot be

ingested, they must be given intravenously to be effective, so I

don't see how immune26 antibodies in a powdered antibody-fortified

drink could ever be absorbed into the bloodstream, and (2) rosacea

has nothing to do with any of the 26 bacterial strains the chickens

are exposed to.

Marjorie

Marjorie Lazoff, MD