Bacteria in the gut are linked to childhood eczema, asthma, hay fever and allergies to certain foods, suggests a Canadian study, and researchers note infants who are prescribed antibiotics are at greater risk of developing one or more of the conditions.
Dr. Stuart Turvey, one of the senior researchers of the study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, said disruptions to a maturing microbiome have the immune system waging a battle against innocuous foods or pollens including grass, in that case triggering reactions such as a stuffy nose, sneezing, coughing and swollen skin under the eyes.
The risk of developing at least one of the major allergies more than doubled by age five for kids who had been prescribed antibiotics before their first birthday because the medication wipes out protective bacteria and introduces harmful ones that cause burdensome lifelong impacts, Turvey noted.
“We linked that back to the structure of the microbiome because what we know and understand, through this work and other work, is that the early-life bacterial colonization is key for training the immune system and helping it to know what it should react to and what it shouldn’t,” said Turvey, a pediatrician and investigator at the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute.
“The immune system becomes confused and that lies at the heart of these allergic diseases,” said Turvey, also a professor at the University of British Columbia who led the study that involved multiple universities across the country.
The study considered eczema, asthma, hay fever and food allergies together, though their unique symptoms mean they have typically been researched separately. It included 1,115 children who were tracked from birth to age five, with 523 of them having no evidence of allergies. The remaining 592 kids had been diagnosed with one or more allergies by age five. Of the latter group, 367 of the children had eczema, or atopic dermatitis, 165 had asthma and some suffered from three or all of the conditions.
Researchers evaluated each child’s microbiome from stool samples collected at clinical visits when they were three months and a year old. The samples showed a “bacterial signature” associated with the children developing any of the four allergies by age five. The signature is considered a hallmark of dysbiosis, or an imbalance between good and bad bacteria in the gut, making people prone to allergies.
The data that researchers used was from the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) Cohort Study, the largest population-based study in the country since its launch in 2008.
Turvey said a powerful message of the study is that antibiotics should not be used unless the medication is absolutely necessary for a bacterial infection. That can include an ear or a bloodstream infection or something as severe as meningitis. Antibiotics do not work for viral infections.
“But we know that many antibiotic prescriptions in that first year of life are not for bacterial infections and could be avoided,” said Turvey, adding parents should also be educated about the drugs’ role in disrupting the microbiome.
“Some parents will come to the clinic, essentially demanding antibiotics,” he said.
The study also bolstered previous research that found breastfeeding babies up to six months is a protective measure because the milk has bacteria that promote a healthy microbiome.
Turvey and his colleagues hope their work will lead to treatments or ways to predict whether a child will develop allergies, which affect one in three kids in Canada and millions around the world.
“They’re the No. 1 reason children come to the emergency room, the No. 1 reason children miss school, the No. 1 reason for billing our health-care system in Canada.”
Jennifer Gerdts, executive director of the non-profit Food Allergy Canada, said milk and eggs are the most common culprits but some people interpret an allergy to milk as lactose intolerance although each condition has very different consequences.
Food allergies can create a lot of anxiety for parents who worry about their children being exposed to unsafe food in different settings, especially when they rely on others to understand the condition, she said.
“It comes with a serious psychological impact because there’s that fear of not being able to control the environment that you’re in, that fear of the next reaction.”
About 40 to 50 per cent of children with food allergy also have asthma, Gerdts said.
“They are all tied together. I think that’s what’s interesting about this (study), that there may be possibilities for the research community taking a look at this and saying ‘How can we explore the treatment possibilities for those that have the highest burden of allergic disease across all of these?’”
Her twin sons, now 21, were both diagnosed at age three as being allergic to peanuts, eggs, sesame, seafood and fish. They also had eczema.
They were diagnosed after they had an anaphylactic reaction to seafood and ended up in an emergency room, Gerdts said. She happened to have an EpiPen in a first aid kit the family took on camping trips.
The device is used to quickly deliver a measured dose of epinephrine, which reverses the symptoms of anaphylaxis and potentially saves someone’s life.
Gerdts said education is crucial for the public health concern but childhood allergies remain under-recognized because most of the kids look healthy — until they have a severe reaction.
In the new school year, Food Allergy Canada will be offering a national food safety program that has already been launched online. It was piloted at 55 schools in Ontario, New Brunswick and Alberta in May with “outstanding results” showing 97 per of them would teach it again, she said.
“All About Food Allergy” for Grade 4-6 students is meant for children with allergies as well as those who could be a “food allergy ally,” she said.
“If you can cement the understanding in kids that this is a serious medical condition with the science behind it, that this is what’s happening in a child’s body, then it becomes just a part of life.”
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
All orders are protected by SSL encryption – the highest industry standard for online security from trusted vendors.
Bizarre Sunlight Loophole Melts Belly Fat Fast! is backed with a 60 Day No Questions Asked Money Back Guarantee. If within the first 60 days of receipt you are not satisfied with Wake Up Lean™, you can request a refund by sending an email to the address given inside the product and we will immediately refund your entire purchase price, with no questions asked.
