Paracetamol and antibiotics increase the risk of atopic dermatitis

As shown by a study by Spanish scientists, when taking infants paracetamol and antibiotics increases the risk of atopic dermatitis in older age.

Dr. Luis Garcia-Marcos of the University of Murcia, say that at present the accuracy is unknown whether the increased risk of drugs called themselves of infection, in which they are used, or something else .

The link between paracetamol and asthma is shown for both children and adults, but previous attempts to figure out how to influence the development of atopic dermatitis receiving paracetamol and antibiotics, have produced conflicting results. "It also is complicated by the fact that children who are given paracetamol from the heat, often simultaneously receive and antibiotics," - says Dr. Garcia-Marcos.

We used data from 13 900 children aged 6-7 years who participated in the International study of allergic reactions and asthma in children (International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood) in Spain. Of these, 7% had atopic dermatitis place.

It was found that children who received the first year of life acetaminophen, the risk of atopic dermatitis increased by 56%, and those receiving antibiotics - up to 66%, and the results did not depend on whether one child at the same time, and other drugs.

It is curious that in children with asthma or seasonal allergic rhinoconjunctivitis results were somewhat different. If in infancy they were given paracetamol, but not antibiotics, the risk of atopic dermatitis did not increase, but the reception and paracetamol, and antibiotics increased the risk even more than children not suffering from these diseases.

"Nevertheless, we can not exclude the possibility that this reaction does not provoke the antibiotics and the infection," - said Dr. Garcia-Marcos.

"Paracetamol - a very safe drug, it is used for many years, not watching with serious side effects, but the parents, fearful of atopic dermatitis, can replace it with ibuprofen," - he said.

"In order to estimate the risk more precisely controlled, randomized trials would be required - adds the scientist. - In the meantime, the main conclusion we can draw from the study is this: the events occurring in early childhood may have consequences later."

Good news for families who would like to have a dog or a cat, but are afraid of allergies in children.

Good news for families who would like to have a dog or a cat, but are afraid of allergies in children. Pets has positive effect on children's health, say Australian researchers.

The researchers found that children who had contact with animals at an early age, had lower rates of nasal allergies, as well as adolescents.

"Family pets, especially dogs, should not be removed to prevent allergies, and, in fact, may protect against it" - said Dr. Melanie Matheson ( (University of Melbourne).

After examining almost 8500 adults from Europe and Australia, researchers have focused on subjects who grew up with pets, and patients suffering from nasal allergies.

Communicating with pets already associated with a lower risk of other types of allergies. A study from the University of Cincinnati in 2010 showed that the presence of dogs may reduce the risk of eczema and skin diseases in childhood. Similarly, a study from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit in 2011 found that the presence of pets in children life reduces the risk of developing an allergy to animal hair in half.

In a new study published in the online edition of «Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology» from 13th July, more than one in four respondents complained of nasal allergy, in most cases began in adolescence.

Many factors have been associated with increased risk of nasal allergies in the study. Some, such as family history of allergy and maternal smoking during pregnancy are well documented risk factors.

But the scientists also found that young children who had younger brothers or sisters, or attending nursery and kindergarten, had a lower risk of nasal allergies. And the more relatives of siblings had a child, the lower were the chances that a child will develop nasal allergies later in life.

The researchers also observed a similar association among subjects who grew up on a farm or have had pets before their fifth birthday. Compared with the norms of the people who had no contact with the animals closely in early childhood, the chances of nasal allergy in adolescence were 30% lower in subjects who grew up on a farm, and the presence of a dog or cat was associated with a 15% reduced risk of th nasal allergies.

Asthma Facts

Asthma is characterized by inflammation of the air passages resulting in the temporary narrowing of the airways that transport air from the nose and mouth to the lungs. Asthma symptoms can be caused by allergens or irritants that are inhaled into the lungs, resulting in inflamed, clogged and constricted airways. Symptoms include difficulty breathing, wheezing, coughing tightness in the chest. In severe cases, asthma can be deadly.

• There is no cure for asthma, but asthma can be managed with proper prevention and treatment.
• Asthma has a genetic component. If only one parent has asthma, chances are 1 in 3 that each child will have asthma. If both parents have asthma, it is much more likely (7 in 10) that their children will have asthma.
• More Americans than ever before say they are suffering from asthma. It is one of this country's most common and costly diseases.

Fast Facts

Every day in America:

• 40,000 people miss school or work due to asthma.
• 30,000 people have an asthma attack.
• 5,000 people visit the emergency room due to asthma.
• 1,000 people are admitted to the hospital due to asthma.
• 11 people die from asthma.

Prevalence

• An estimated 20 million Americans suffer from asthma (1 in 15 Americans), and 50% of asthma cases are “allergic-asthma.” The prevalence of asthma has been increasing since the early 1980s across all age, sex and racial groups.
• Asthma is the most common chronic condition among children.
• Asthma is more common among adult women than adult men.
• Asthma is more common among male children than female children.
• Asthma is more common among children (7 to 10%) than adults (3 to 5%).
• Nearly 5 million asthma sufferers are under age 18. It is the most common chronic childhood disease, affecting more than one child in 20.
• Asthma is slightly more prevalent among African Americans than Caucasians.
• Ethnic differences in asthma prevalence, morbidity and mortality are highly correlated with poverty, urban air quality, indoor allergens, and lack of patient education and inadequate medical care.

Morbidity

• Asthma accounts for one-quarter of all emergency room visits in the U.S. each year, with 2 million emergency room visits.
• Each year, asthma accounts for more than 10 million outpatient visits and 500,000 hospitalizations.
• The average length of stay (LOS) for asthma hospitalizations is 3 days.
• Nearly half (44%) of all asthma hospitalizations are for children.
• Asthma is the third-ranking cause of hospitalization children.
• Asthma is the #1 cause of school absenteeism among children accounting for more than 14 million total missed days of school.
• African Americans are three times more likely to be hospitalized from asthma.

Mortality

• Each day 11 Americans die from asthma. There are more than 4,000 deaths due to asthma each year, many of which are avoidable with proper treatment and care. In addition, asthma is indicated as “contributing factor” for nearly 7,000 other deaths each year.
• Since 1980 asthma death rates overall have increased more than 50% among all genders, age groups and ethnic groups. The death rate for children under 19 years old has increased by nearly 80% percent since 1980.
• More females die of asthma than males, and women account for nearly 65% of asthma deaths overall.
• African Americans are three times more likely to die from asthma. African American Women have the highest asthma mortality rate of all groups, more than 2.5 times higher than Caucasian women.

Social and Economic Costs

• The annual cost of asthma is estimated to be nearly $18 billion.
• Direct costs accounted for nearly $10 billion (hospitalizations the single largest portion of direct cost) and indirect costs of $8 billion (lost earnings due to illness or death).
• For adults, asthma is the fourth leading cause of work absenteeism and “presenteeism,” resulting in nearly 15 million missed or lost ("less productive") workdays each year (this accounts for nearly $3 billion of the "indirect costs" shown above).
• Among children ages 5 to 17, asthma is the leading cause of school absences from a chronic illness. It accounts for an annual loss of more than 14 million school days per year (approximately 8 days for each student with asthma) and more hospitalizations than any other childhood disease. It is estimated that children with asthma spend an nearly 8 million days per year restricted to bed

A Spooky and Safe Halloween For Your Asthmatic Child

In addition to watching for ghosts and goblins this Halloween, you also need to be mindful of your child's asthma. These 9 tips can help you and your child have a safe, happy, and asthma-free Halloween.

Carry a rescue inhaler. Make sure you trick or treat with an asthma inhaler in case your child's asthma does worsen this Halloween. Just like school, athletics, or other events, asthma is unpredictable and you never know when you may need your SABA.

• Inspect costumes. If you have stored costumes in an attic or closet, be mindful of dust, dust mites, and molds. Make sure to thoroughly clean them--or get a new costume altogether.


• Nix the mask. Because masks are so close to the face and can trap things like molds and dust mites, anything that is in them is easily inhaled into the lungs. If your child absolutely must where a mask, a half-mask is a better option.


• Don't let your kids enter homes while trick or treating. You never know what sort of triggers are in other people's homes, or what may trigger your child's asthma. Unknown pets, smoke, or even strong chemical odors from creating party props may trigger asthma.


• Consider a medical alert bracelet. If your child is older and will be trick or treating without you, a medical alert bracelet or necklace might be a good idea.
• Keep tabs on the weather. If weather is one of your child's triggers, make sure to carefully check out the forecast and dress appropriately.
• Yield to sickness. While it may not be a popular decision, not trick or treating may be the best thing if your child is sick this Halloween.
• Monitor your child closely. Follow your asthma action plan -- and use your rescue inhaler -- if need be. If your child's symptoms continue to be bothersome, it may be time to call it a night.

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.