Is the human-infecting parasitic worm
Helminths Ancylostoma duodenale,
Necator americanus the ‘American murderer’ or a therapeuticagent? Parasites are
prevalent in human body, there is tons of it and some of them help us survive.
How strange is that? Many research and studies, clinical data supports that
Helminths could provide protection against IBD. They regulate host’s immune
system by influencing both innate and adaptive immune reactions. Talking about
IBD, it is not a single ailment; it actually refers to numbers of disorders
that causes inflammation and often ulcers in the intestinal tract. Researchers have collected a significant amount of
information concerning the genetics, distribution, and contributing environmental
factors for IBD. It is even said that Overall, IBD is a disease of white
persons living in developed countries. It is because of better sanitation
conditions, high quality water and better medical standards. But the question
is – Doesn’t better hygienic circumstances diminish exposure to infections and
promote good health?
About 1 million Americans
have IBD, and 30,000 new cases are diagnosed each year; which clearly states
that people in developed countries are more susceptible to IBD and infections
than people in the developing countries because people in developing countries
are exposed to helminths, which render immune system less prone to allergic,
and immune responses.
Usually, IBD can be
diagnosed at any age, most often affects people between 15 and 35 years old but
has even been found in babies as young as 18 months old! And in the United
States, it is thought that as many as 100,000 kids younger than 18 years old
have IBD.
References:
In my opinion, there is a possibility that as we have become more industrialized, we as humans have been raised on the mindset that getting rid of all the bacteria and parasites in our bodies will prolong the average human lifespan. I agree that IBD has been a disease that was inflicted on our society by our cleanliness.
ReplyDeleteI feel that if there was more research into parasite secretions, we could find a way to find a cure for IBD. I feel that there is a possibility that using serum or possible secretions for IBD could be a possible treatment. Another theory that could be possible is the reactions our bodies create (besides immune responses) in the presence of parasites (increased pH in our stomach/digestive tract, etc).
There seems to be more proof that IBD can be caused by an environmental factor considering that there is a higher prevalence in more developed countries. But one can wonder what factors in the more developed countries causes IBD besides the hygeine hypothesis. Could it the air in more developed countries? Could it be the food supply access or the different factors within industrialized cities?
I agree with Liz that there are so many different possible factors that can attribute to why the wealthier people in developed countries have a higher prevalence of IBD. She brought up an interesting note about food, I think that it could be a big factor as far as a possible explanation. People in developed countries have a wider array of food to choose from, whereas people in rural areas, especially in farming communities live off the land and aren't really exposed to processed foods like we are. Again like Liz pointed out the quality of air can be different as well in more industrial areas vs. more rural under developed parts of the world.
ReplyDeleteAfter I read and learned in class that the inflammatory bowel disease could be caused by the improved hygiene, I began to wonder how this disease varies among individual occupations. I guessed that if a person is working as a constructor, a farmer or some other occupation in that area, they should have lower number of this disease since they are not in cleaner working condition compare to let say someone who work in the office. Luckily, I found that there was a study that was already been done on German employees to see if this is true. The study support that there is low number of incidence to people who have physically demanding job than people work regular hours in a clean place. For example out of 36,268 men who work in the area of Agriculture, animal breeding, fishing 33 of them have crohn’s disease and 27 have ulcerative colitis compare to 30,730 men who works as social care and teacher have 52 crohn’s disease and 33 have ulcerative colitis. The numbers of people who are sick might look closer but the number of social care and the teachers could have been higher because they were about 5,000 fewer in comparison.
ReplyDeleteI have attached the link to the actual articles and you can see it if you would like.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1378665/pdf/gut00603-0099.pdf
I think that the study you mentioned is very interesting that there were more men that had ulcerative colitis and chrohn's disease who worked in social care and as teachers than those who worked in agriculture. I think there is a correlation between environment and IBD,but I think the Western diet does have a significant role in the diagnosis of IBD in the United States, and possibly in other Western countries as well. The Western diet is high in fat and processed foods which could be causing an inflammatory response of the intestinal tract. I think a combination of clean environments in industrialized countries and the S.A.D. (Standard American Diet) are primary causes of IBD.
DeleteI agree that western diet could also contribute to the IBW. It would have been nice if there was a study that was done in The United States the same way as the Germany study. The study could help us to determine how much a diet and health can contribute to IBD compare to the other countries.
Deleteone thing that make me wonder is if the Standard American Diet are the primary causes of IBD, why are the papers we read in class mentioned that mostly higher socioeconomic people have higher chance of getting this diseases since the low socioeconomic people are also eating the Standard American Diet i assumed.
i think that this research is really interesting because i always thought that parasites will damage us instead of helping us survive, and there could be a lot of research done in this area, maybe this kind of research could lead us to answers we have been looking for years and we been thinking the opposite
ReplyDelete