Scary New Asthma Commercials
Anyone seen these yet? I guess you could make a case for not freaking people out about what is usually a pretty treatable condition. On the other hand, with the dramatic rise in asthma cases unmatched by an equal increase in asthma education among parents and patients, scaring the snot out of people may just give them the jolt they need.
Doctors Closer to Understanding C-Section, Asthma/Allergy Link
If you didn’t already know the link existed, there’s evidence pointing to higher rates of asthma and allergies in babies born through C-sections for as-yet undetermined reasons. Apparently researchers are that much closer to understanding the why. I’m guessing the next step involves figuring out ways to pre-treat, if possible, for births in which C-sections are medically necessary.
Adult-Onset Asthmatics and COPD Patients, Take Note
This research is for you. It’s all scientific and stuff, with mention of “molecular code,” viral infections, and better diagnosis and treatment. My non-scientific brain can’t translate the article, so you’re better off just clicking over and reading it.
Behold, a Test Tube Lung
I meant to post this link weeks ago about a lab lung that should help further asthma and COPD research.
The Green Goodies Contest
A community leader and columnist from the *Green Home* portion of the brand-new Huddler.com sent me the heads-up about this contest. Green Home is an eco-conscious product review and research site and shopping community. Sort of an Epinions/MySpace/Flickr combo for sustainability. In honor of its recent expansion to include green baby care and personal products, Huddler.com is giving away 10 recycled nylon messenger bags full of good things like Dr. Bronner’s organic soap and Pangea Organics lip balm. To enter, you have to join Greenhome.Huddler.com and contribute a little something to the community. If you decide to enter, good luck!
Have You Heard About Google Health Yet?
From the site:
Google Health allows you to store and manage all of your health information in one central place.
I’m all for streamlining personal medical information, but I need to read way more about the security issue before I form an opinion. Here’s a short article that explains how Google Health is different from its competitors.
Oops, Edited for One More: My Vote for Mother of the Year
In the aftermath of the massive earthquake in China, police officer Jiang Xiaojuan is breastfeeding orphan babies in addition to her own 6 month-old son. She calls her contribution a “small thing,” but I wonder how many other nursing mothers would have done it. Would I? Would you?
No, I think this qualifies as a very big thing.
I’m not even sure I want to watch the scary asthma commercial. It’s tough enough to endure the breathing crap without someone doing a dramatization. Although I applaud them for making it real!
The molecular code stuff is fantastic. Basically they could test my molecular code and find out which immune pathway changed and began replicating the inflammation response, theu causing asthma. (They’ve already identified two seperate pathways) Using that data, they could determine how severe the asthma was and prescibe more exact treatments, there would be less hit an miss with therapies. In the long term, they’d be able to study how the code changes following a respiritory infection and possibly be able to impact/prevent adult onset asthma.
Rock on!
Isn’t that interesting. My granddaughter was born via C-section and she has GERD, allergy to milk protein, low immunoglobulin (they suspect celiac), is not gaining weight, has stridor on occasion due to the reflux. She’s only 15 months and I always wondered if there was a connection between her birth (emergency C-section) and all these problems!
Thank you so much for posting this. It is the “link” I was looking for.
This week did bring a stellar batch of research links, didn’t it? I figured you’d like that one, Asthmagirl.
And you’re very welcome, Wendy. I sure hope that baby catches a break and can overcome some of these digestive issues soon.
It is funny you mention celiac Wendy- My mom had me via c-section and I am an asthmatic with allergies, etc. Incidently, my brother and sister were also born via cesarean with no health issues at all.
Very recently though, we found out that Mom has celiac.
While the c-section research may prove to have an impact on health outcomes, I am most interested to see if there is a strong link between celiac and asthma, because celiac is A) autoimmune and B) genetic . If I am not mistaken, correlations have already been drawn between celiac and food allergies. What we may see is that these these immune conditions are controlled by a group of genes that may express themselves differently in different people. (of course, this is all speculation, and of course asthma itself is not autoimmune..)
My mom has celiac, but not asthma and food allergies. I have food allergies and asthma but not celiac (yet).. and now that I think of it, I know at least one other person with the same history…
It’s interesting, and confusing, and I hope we find some answers!
Good luck with your granddaughter! I’m sure she’s beautiful
Heather, what you are going to school for? You always have great comments here, and I bet you’ve got some sort of science background.
I’m pretty interested in that celiac/asthma link, too. My twin brother has celiac disease, though not asthma, and my daughter so far doesn’t have it but has had a history of GI problems. Immune stuff seems to run in my side of the family and allergies in her dad’s. Plus, she’s 1/4 Puerto Rican (highest group for asthma rates) and was born early. The poor kid’s lungs didn’t stand a chance!
What food allergies do you have?