Asthma is the leading cause of school absences from a chronic illness, accounting for an annual loss of more than 14 million school days per year and more hospitalizations than any other childhood disease.
To examine the relationship between urban, indoor environments and the development of allergies, researchers from the University of California, San Francisco; Johns Hopkins University; and Washington University studied more than 400 children from birth through age 3. They were assessed based on exposure to environmental allergens and bacteria in house dust collected during the first year of life.
All study children lived in areas of high poverty and had a mother or father with allergic symptoms. The children were tested yearly for allergic sensitivities to milk, egg, peanuts and cockroaches. At ages 2 and 3, additional tests were performed for dust mites and dog, cat and mouse dander.
The results? The immune system's secret recipe for lowering rates of wheezing at age 3 was exposing the children to mouse and cat dander, cockroach droppings and certain bacteria in the first year of life. And it worked better after exposure to each additional allergen.
Those exposed to all three allergens plus the bacteria did better than those exposed to just one, two or none. When all three allergens plus bacteria were present in the home during the first year of life, the rate of wheezing was one-third that of children raised in the absence of the allergens. The group of children without any wheezing or signs of allergic reactions had the highest first-year exposure to the allergens and bacteria.
Source: http://ift.tt/1lNh4oL
Put the internet to work for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please, don't spam! Send only useful and thematic comments. Thanks!