Iran holds pharmaceutical conference to honor Pharmacy Day

Tehran has hosted the 10th nationwide pharmaceutical conference to mark the Pharmacy Day.

Almost 2000 pharmacists from across the country attended the three-day conference, which was mainly focused on such issues as treatment of the common diseases of the elderly, pharmacotherapy, the elderly medicine and the application of herbal drugs.
The conference also came to mark the pharmacy day, which was named after Zakaria Razi; Born in 865 CE Mohammad Ibn Zakaria Razi was a great Iranian polymath, physician, alchemist and chemist, philosopher and scholar. Razi made fundamental and enduring contributions to the fields of medicine, alchemy, music and philosophy. He is known to have perfected methods of distillation and extraction. He has also discovered alcohol.
The advent of modern pharmaceutics goes back to 100 years ago. Since then Iran has made major developments in this field. To the extent that despite the ongoing sanctions against the country, Iran produces 95% of its domestic pharmaceutical needs.
According to reports, Iran is among the top 15 countries when it comes to treating its cancer patients. Meanwhile, Iran produces high quality drugs for asthma and cancer treatment. The country has already unveiled five different radiomedicine projects with applications for diagnosis, prevention and treatment of a number of diseases.

Low-fat yoghurt, childhood asthma linked

Mothers who eat low-fat yogurt during their pregnancy might increase their babies' risk of developing asthma and hay fever later in life.

Researchers who were trying to study whether fatty acids found in dairy products could help prevent childhood allergies surprisingly found that pregnant women who ate low-fat yoghurt with fruit once a day were 1.6 times more likely to have children who developed asthma by age seven.

The team analyzed dietary habits of more than 70,000 women and their children's health status until they reached the age of seven years.

Findings also showed, daily low-fat yoghurt consumption almost doubled the chance of having a baby with allergic rhinitis (hay fever).

Researchers noted that the possible relation between eating low-fat yogurt and babies' asthma risk may not be a cause and effect relation.

"This is the first study of its kind to link low-fat yoghurt intake during pregnancy with an increased risk of asthma and hay fever in children. This could be due to a number of reasons and we will further investigate whether this is linked to certain nutrients or whether people who ate yoghurt regularly had similar lifestyle and dietary patterns which could explain the increased risk of asthma," said lead author Dr. Ekaterina Maslova of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

He also suggested that absence of fatty acids in low-fat yoghurt might be the key to the puzzling results.

Researchers emphasized that their study didn't show that milk intake during pregnancy was not linked to any increased risk of asthma and it actually protected against the condition.

Experts suggest women especially pregnant ladies follow a balanced diet and do not make a significant change in their dietary habit before consulting with their physician.

Fresh Raw milk may prevent asthma or even allergy

Children who drink fresh raw milk are at a significant lower risk of developing asthma and allergies than those consuming safer pasteurized version.


Researchers from Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Basel interviewed a group of European parents about their children's milk consumption while collecting 800 milk samples from the participants' households, Reuters reported.

Results showed that kids who drank raw milk had a 41 percent lower risk of asthma compared to those who only using store-bought milk.

Raw milk drinker children were also about half as likely to develop hay fever, researchers wrote in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Researchers found that the protective effect of fresh raw milk was associated with whey proteins, such as BSA and alpha-lactalbumin, which possibly help children's immune system development. These helpful proteins are usually destroyed by heat during boiling or pasteurization process.

Previous studies had also showed an association between drinking fresh raw milk and lower risk of asthma, allergy and hay fever but the new research is the first to target certain components in the milk that might be protective.

Researchers, however, warned that parents shouldn't start giving their kids fresh raw milk due to possible infection risks.

"Consumption of fresh raw milk is a double-edged sword," said a study author Georg Loss. "On the one side it is protective for the development of asthma and allergies but on the other side it may imply serious health risks due to harmful microorganisms."

"Pasteurization remains an effective tool to inactivate harmful microorganisms but may simultaneously destroy whey proteins," said Loss. "The results may give rise to technological developments aiming to destroy harmful microorganisms but preserving beneficial components of milk. The ultimate aim is to use a safe and protective milk for prevention of asthma."

The Dirty Truth About Allergies

There may be no place like home, but for more than 50 million Americans who suffer from allergies , there's no place for allergens in the home.

No matter how clean the home, all mattresses are prone to the same problem. When we sleep, we produce up to half a liter of sweat every night & shed about a gram of skin each day and although we wear night clothes, which we wash regularly, together with our bed linen, this is no protection against what happens to the mattress.
Very quickly the mattress will become host to a multitude of horrors, from bacteria to fungal spores and microscopic house dust mites which feed off dead flakes of skin. Is it any wonder that without cleaning a mattress, it could be the dirtiest item in your home? It is estimated that there are up to 2 million house dust mites living in a mattress and in an average pillow, 10% of its weight is made up of dead skin and dust mites.
House dust mites find a mattress the perfect breeding ground. With warmth and moisture and no natural enemies, they will establish in a mattress within several months and it is their droppings which cause most problems. These have been medically proven to trigger a whole host of allergic reactions, from Asthma, Eczema and Bronchitis, to Itchy Eyes and Sneezing.
Even protective bedding sheets may be largely ineffective in reducing problems like asthma, when they are the only measure taken to combat an allergy (source: New England Journal of Medicine).
The idea of mattress cleaning isn't a new one. In other European countries and the United States, it has been performed for years. It's chemical-free, dry and all performed on site using specially designed state of the art equipment.
The current view of many experts is that dust mites are impossible to totally remove. This is true, it would be very expensive and almost impossible, but by knowing a little about them it is very feasible to make a dramatic impact on them and improve your dust mite allergy.
Therefore, if a combination of measures are undertaken, then the likelihood of some one's dust mite allergy improving will increase drastically.
Most suggestions will be to remove carpets and replace with hardwood floor, buy a good protective mattress cover, wash at 130+ degrees and clean regularly.

Allergy and Smoking

Smoking (cigaretts or mary jane) paralyzes the cilia (little hairs in our lungs that filter out what is not supposed to enter), so we develop asthma while we smoke and don't feel the filtering. As a result, when we stop smoking, they start to work again and now we FEEL the congestion in our lungs. Keep on truckin though! Life is so much better on the other side! Seeing what is coming out of my lungs after 10 years of smoking is so gross but smoking is even MORE GROSS. Time and avoiding smoke will help.

For the treatment of allergies - Zodak Review

My aunt boys / especially older / just tortured this spring colds and viral respiratory infections.
It seemed as chickenpox, but the cough continued to be bothered, sometimes for 2-3 hours in a row.
And the nose is constantly dripping. Cough and anti viral drugs did not help.
Complained to the doctor, she advised that the miracle medicine / say that the probability allergies - spring, because the lab tests were healthy kids /.
I thought that just'll throw money down the drain / 10 $ for a bottle / but very wrong!
Almost immediately after taking the rain stopped snot almost disappeared cough.
Our surprise, there was no limit - because the earlier gave more money from allergies - suprastin, diazolin ... but the effect was zero.
A drop is simply magical! Now they have to constantly look and use in allergic manifestations only them.
But still very useful - 20 drops / sentimental / in a glass of water - and on all day long enough! Recommend.

Research into the effectiveness of Zirtek in children younger than 3 years

The purpose of this study was to assess the Compliance Department and tolerance while taking cetirizine in children aged under 3 years of age suffering from atopic dermatitis and other allergic diseases. Under the on-compliance was 64 children. Mean age was 17 months (range 7-34 months).

The surveyed children suffered from allergic diseases following: atopic dermatitis, urticaria, rhinoconjunctivitis, atopic dermatitis associated with bronchial asthma, bronchial asthma, anaphylaxis to cow's milk.

(Zirtek) was administered in the form of a drop rate of 0.4 mg / kg for 2 months. Children with atopic dermatitis received a standard diet hypoallergenic. If necessary, erythromycin was administered.

In evaluating the clinical manifestations of disease after 2 months of treatment showed complete disappearance of the symptoms of urticaria and a significant reduction of clinical manifestations of atopic dermatitis (p <0,001). Any side effects while taking cetirizine wasn't observed.

Improvement of quality of life by treatment with cetirizine in patients with perennial allergic rhinitis as determined by a French version of the SF

Background and aim: Perennial allergic rhinitis impairs social life, but it is not known whether quality of life may be improved when patients are treated with an H1-blocker. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was carried out with cetirizine to assess the effect of this drug on quality of life.

Methods: Two hundred seventy-four patients with perennial allergic rhinitis were tested. Quality of life was measured by using the Medical Outcome Study Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) questionnaire. After a 2-week run-in period, cetirizine, 10 mg once daily, (136 patients) or placebo (138 patients) was given for the next 6 weeks. The SF-36 questionnaire was administered after the run-in period (at the start of treatment) and after 1 and 6 weeks of treatment. Symptom-medication scores were measured daily during the study.

Results: After the run-in period (baseline), there were no significant differences between the cetirizine and placebo groups in terms of symptoms or quality-of-life scores. After 6 weeks of treatment, percentage of days without rhinitis or with only mild rhinitis symptoms was significantly greater in the cetirizine group in comparison with the placebo group (p < 0.0001, Mann-Whitney U test). All of the nine quality-of-life dimensions were significantly improved (from p = 0.01 to p < 0.0001, Mann-Whitney U test) after 1 and 6 weeks of cetirizine treatment compared with placebo. There was no improvement in the placebo group.

Conclusions: This study is the first to demonstrate that an H₁-blocker, cetirizine, can improve quality of life for patients with perennial allergic rhinitis.

Efficacy and safety of cetirizine therapy in perennial allergic rhinitis

A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was undertaken to assess the safety and efficacy of once daily cetirizine in alleviating the symptoms of perennial allergic rhinitis. Subjects were adults with perennial allergic rhinitis, characterized by nasal congestion, postnasal discharge, sneezing, rhinorrhea, nasal itching, lacrimation, ocular itching, and itching of the roof of the mouth, and a total pretreatment symptom severity score of greater than or equal to 8.

Patients were randomized to treatment with 10 mg cetirizine, 20 mg cetirizine, or placebo for 4 weeks. Efficacy was assessed in 215 patients and safety in 216. Cetirizine in once daily dosages of 10 or 20 mg proved to be effective in relieving the overall symptoms of perennial allergic rhinitis and particularly postnasal discharge and sneezing.

The 10-mg dose afforded optimal symptomatic relief, and the 20-mg dose provided little or no additional benefit. Cetirizine was well tolerated, and the frequency of somnolence was not significantly greater in patients receiving this drug than in those given placebo.

Urticaria

Acute urticaria which may last from several hours to several days, often has an allergic nature. In contrast, chronic urticaria, which exists in the weeks and months, very rarely is an allergic reaction. Urticaria often cause food allergens and additives, and drugs (often in the form of pseudoallergy).

Symptoms

Hives can take many forms, but it is always characterized by a rash of blisters, which may merge with each other. The rash can appear on any parts of the body and accompanied by severe itching.

Special forms of urticaria

Angioedema. Process involving a person and is accompanied by swelling of the lips, eyelids ("slit eyes"), mucous membranes and other body parts. Itching is absent, there is a painful burning.

Angioedema is a life-threatening if the process extends to the mucous membranes of the mouth and pharynx. Swollen tongue and back of the throat block the airway and can lead to suffocation.

The causes of urticaria are:

* Food allergens (egg, fish, nuts, fruits);
* Drugs (penicillins, hormonal, sulfonamides);
* Air allergens (pollen, hair, dust);
* Insect bites (bees, wasps);
* Infection (infectious mononucleosis, hepatitis B).

In contrast, allergic urticaria is one that is caused by physical factors: the sun, cold, atmospheric pressure.

Risk of Atopy

Young adults born prematurely with very low birth weight, have almost 60% lower risk of atopy than their peers born at term, in a cord of study conducted in Finland.

"Most studies of long-term consequences of premature birth has negative effects on health" - said Dr. Eero Kajantie (National Institute for Health and Welfare in Helsinki), coauthor of the study.

To study the effect of birthing time on the risk of atopy, the researchers examined 166 adults born before term and weighed 1500 grams or less, and 172 adults born in time from «Helsinki Study of Very Low Birth Weight Adults», ongoing study of preterm birth and adult health.

In the online edition of «Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology», the authors identified atopy as a positive reaction to tests for scarification any of six common allergens:
birch, timothy grass, mugwort, cat, dog and dust. Study participants underwent these tests, as well as measuring serum concentrations of IgE, at the age of 18 - 27 years.

The prevalence of atopy was 45.5% in the group of adults with very low weight premature births, compared with 57.9% in the control group. Adjusted odds ratio for atopy to a group of preterm birth was 0.43.

The more premature the birth was, the lower the likelihood of atopy or high levels of specific IgE. Adjusted odds ratio for atopy decreased by 0.82 for each additional week of premature birth.