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Information/Articles
Beneficial
Bacteria (Probiotics) May Halt Allergies In Babies Giving
soon-to-be mothers and newborns doses of "good" bacteria may help
prevent childhood allergies">
Information/Articles Beneficial
Bacteria (Probiotics) May Halt Allergies In Babies Giving
soon-to-be mothers and newborns doses of "good" bacteria may help
prevent childhood allergies, new research suggests. Allergy experts
say they offer the first good evidence that harmless bacteria can train infants'
immune systems to resist allergic reactions. Researchers
in Finland used a type of bacteria found naturally in the gut--called
Lactobacillus GG (Lactobacillus rhamnosus), which is safe at an early age and
effective in treatment of allergic inflammation and food allergy--to try to
prevent allergy development in at-risk infants. Cultured
bacteria that can potentially promote health are called
probiotics.
Investigators
gave a group of pregnant women probiotic capsules every day for a few weeks
before their due dates. For 6 months after delivery, women who breast-fed
continued on the probiotics, while bottle-fed infants were given the treatment
directly. All of the babies were considered to be at high risk of developing
allergies because a parent or sibling was affected. By
the age of 2 years, 35%
of the children had developed allergic eczema, a condition in which the skin
becomes irritated, red and itchy. But
children who had received probiotics were half as likely to develop the skin
condition. This
cut in eczema risk is the most spectacular, single result to come out of studies
on preventing allergic disease. Exactly
why friendly gut bacteria might protect against allergies is unclear, but the
effect may be an "extension of the hygiene hypothesis." This
hypothesis holds that the worldwide growth in allergic disease is in part due to
our increasingly sterile surroundings. When babies are exposed to germs early
on, some experts suggest, their immune
systems are steered toward infection-fighting mode--and away from the
tendency to overreact to normally benign substances. Support for this idea comes
from studies showing that infants who have more colds and other infections have
lower asthma rates later in life.
The
results of this study suggest that intestine-dwelling bacteria may also play an
important role in pushing the immune system away from allergic reactions. The
Lancet
April 7, 2001;357:1076-1079 |