Thursday, January 5, 2017

Babies and Peanuts, et al.

Breaking news today...and it's not fake news, for once.

Fox News: "Giving peanut-based foods to babies early prevents allergies"

USA Today: "Peanut allergy: Everything they told you was wrong."

The Washington Post: "New NIH guidelines on infants and peanuts may contradict everything you’ve heard before."

Time: "How to prevent peanut allergies" 

The Scientist: "Allergen-Exposure strategy can prevent peanut allergy"

[From Pinterest]


Welcome to the Modern Family


The advice for decades has been for babies to avoid things like eggs, seafood, honey, and peanuts because they are allergenic to some. But this advice has caused more food allergies than it prevented. For the last several years, studies were showing that when babies were fed peanuts at an earlier age, they were less prone to peanut allergies, and that even by feeding kids with peanut allergies small bits of peanuts, the allergies could be reversed. There's even an FDA-approved skin patch to deliver peanut allergens for parents who can't be bothered feeding their kids peanuts.



But this is not news to us, here at the VeggiePharm.  Dr. Art Ayers wrote about this on his Cooling Inflammation blog in 2014.

The cure for peanut allergy should follow naturally from knowledge of the cause.  Since most allergies and autoimmune diseases result from the combination of 1) inflammation, 2) breakdown of immunological tolerance and 3) presentation of a primary immunogen, it follows that some types of peanut allergy are based on a continued problem with immune tolerance and fixing that defect should eliminate an allergic response to peanuts.  The current cure to resurrect immune tolerance is by enhancing regulatory T cells (Tregs) in the gut using resistant starch to improve the growth of Clostridia in the gut.

The new federally-approved advice comes in three flavors:

Guideline 1 focuses on infants deemed at high risk of developing peanut allergy because they already have severe eczema, egg allergy or both. The expert panel recommends that these infants have peanut-containing foods introduced into their diets as early as 4 to 6 months of age to reduce the risk of developing peanut allergy.

Guideline 2 suggests that infants with mild or moderate eczema should have peanut-containing foods introduced into their diets around 6 months of age to reduce the risk of peanut allergy.

Guideline 3 suggests that infants without eczema or any food allergy have peanut-containing foods freely introduced into their diets.

So many kids nowadays with eczema is a huge clue that we are not doing right. Back in the day, kids were weaned on chewed up yams, tiger nuts, or other starchy tubers. Now it's strained peas and carrots. Where's the fiber? The resistant starch? Even baby formula uses a fake fiber substitute (GOS) to mimic the fiber found in mama's milk.

Hopefully this advice from the National Institutes of Health is a step in the right direction. Wouldn't it be great to see baby food supplemented with potato starch, Hi-Maize, or banana flour? I'm confident that baby food manufacturers can come up with something similar that they can patent and protect. It's all about the money for these guys.

Too late for the rest?


And what about those that were raised, or are raising kids, on the advice to avoid all potential allergens as babies, to sterilize every surface, and to megadose on antibiotics at every sniffle?

The immune system is a complicated thing. I believe that some allergies and autoimmune diseases can be turned around with a concerted effort to eat right and get some exposure to the things we're allergic to. A sustained diet high in fiber and resistant starch is the first step to regaining immune function. If you made it into adulthood without any serious allergies or immune dysfunction, consider yourself lucky! If you have young ones in the house, or plan to, make sure you feed them some immune system builders like green bananas, raw potato, peanuts, etc...

Later!
Tim

14 comments:

  1. I know this is off topic but I figured you'd be interested in reading this:

    https://www.outsideonline.com/1923776/how-far-fitness-has-fallen

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  2. Hi! I read a great book on this topic, which is well written and researched.
    "The Peanut Allergy Epidemic: What's Causing It and How to Stop It" 2011 by Heather Fraser (Author)
    Definitely recommended reading, as it is about the immune system. When we take something healthy/normal/natural such as peanuts (peanut oil) and use it to poke and prod at the immune system.... you get, duh!, an immune system response.

    https://www.amazon.com/Peanut-Allergy-Epidemic-Whats-Causing/dp/1616082739/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483742800&sr=8-1&keywords=peanut+allergy+history

    Natasha

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    1. Natasha

      a customer review:

      "Peanut allergies did not exist a century ago. Heather Frasier exposes the reason why they occur today in one in fifty American children. Many vaccine use peanut oil as an adjuvant. When a study was done on this practice was done in the early '70s, Congress' response was to pass a law in 1973 permitting vaccine companies to not put "inactive" ingredients on the vaccine packages, calling their formulas secret and proprietary, never mind that they were killing and disabling many thousands. The peanut oil in vaccines sensitizes many to peanut protein, resulting in peanut allergies on later exposure to peanuts, with sometimes fatal results. Frasier includes statistics on exactly how quickly peanut allergies in the US exploded: in the wake of the Hib vaccine being put on the universal vaccine schedule in 1987, the incidence of peanut allergy increased three times in only three years. This is an aside, no included in this book: Israel has very few peanut allergies, because the vaccines manufactured there do not use peanut oil, but rather sesame oil, so they have a lot of sesame allergies in their children. This is an extremely detailed, well-researched book that all parents should read, and gives us yet another reason to just say no to vaccines."

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    2. I was on the anti-vaxxer bandwagon for many years, and the peanut oil conspiracy theory is always discussed. I've never been able to find any credible evidence this is true, nor many of the other arguments against vaccinating children except that sometimes serious side-effects do occur.
      J.L.M.

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    3. Dear Gemma,

      Hi! Have your read the book? I read it a few years ago. I don't know about any conspiracies. But, I do know people with nuts allergies, I worked in a school (high school, now in a University), and I have teacher friends. I used to have the epi-pen at my desk, just in case. It was part of my job, to know who had heath issues.

      From what i have seen, there was definitely an "epidemic" of nut allergies in students of a certain age. We thought it was the new normal. But as the students groups moved on, the next group, didn't have the nut allergy! Something different happened over time.

      Whether or not peanut oil was used, definitely something activated the immune system into overdrive.

      What do you think?
      Natasha

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    4. Natasha

      No, I haven't read the book. I only posted the quote because you recommended the book without providing a a summary (or a that it is linked to vaccinations). This review seemed to provide it so I posted it to save time for others.

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  3. In a recent read, the author stated that baby lotion products often have some peanut oil derivatives. These molecules pass thru babies tender skin and are treated as invaders by the body. Whereas the same molecules passed thru the digestive system would not be. The authors hypothesis was that when new molecules, at least in babies, are introduced into the body via the skin, the bodies defenses are raised. But when introduced via the digestive system the body responds normally.

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  4. Pediatric and obstetrical medicine fields are rife with unsupported, theoretical guidelines.

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  5. Overuse of antibiotics seems to be a likely culprit. Martin Blaser's book The Missing Microbes makes a compelling case for this.

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  6. Sorry - I'm trying to do this in a rush! I should have said "a likely culprit for causing nut and other allergies".

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    1. Antibiotics, excessive sterilization, C-sections, and fiber missing from formula/babyfood are all hazardous to the microbiome. I think that once modern medicine realizes this, they should be able to offer solutions. It really boggles my mind that everyone ignores it. If a new mom had a C-section, there should be some type of probiotic salve or something available to replace the microbes bypassed in the operation, same as with antibiotics. And babyfood/formula needs a complete makeover.

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    2. There actually is something people are doing. Basically, use gauze that has been in mom’s vagina to wipe down baby’s face, mouth, eyes and skin immediately after birth. You can read here:
      https://wellnessmama.com/77406/microbes-to-cesarean-babies/
      Teddy

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    3. Yep, I know about that. Unfortunately it's not an accepted practice, only done by a few caring midwifes or moms. Here's an NIH article discussing the matter:

      https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/restoring-microbes-infants-born-cesarean-section

      What I really think they are hoping for is a new pharmaceutical grade probiotic therapy that can be patented and sold.

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  7. 'modern medicine' knows all of this. all about money. but more importantly (and also disguised by the moneymotive) is population control and making us sick fat and dumb. Everything needs a makeover. When one sees the very large picture, it becomes less mind boggling that so many things are counter-sanity. When you see it, its so blatant that all this is not by chance or by just some corporate greed. Corporate (and individual) greed alone wouldn't lead to year 2017 wherein we still have all these 'mindboggling' issues. lots of good people who realise its and bits of stuff (midwives doing that practice you mention), but where it matters that changed could be made its deliberately not happening.
    The state of 'modern medicine' is exactly what 'they' want it to be (and ofcourse corporate greed plays into all of this). Everything is molded so that this can continue on, until its way too late (as it is already or almost is). Eg they got you thinking that they will come up with a patented solution, and that respresents some sort of progress towards better situations in future. But thats not real real reality. Its an example of how everything is tucked into the matrix (keeping you inside the box)
    They're beginning to throw it all in the open, as we're to dumb to see it anyways.
    Curious if trump will get fake assassinated on 19/1 (9/11) (sniped like with jfk)
    Btw vaccinations and babyformula is ruining my sisters 8months old babydaughter (even though she had been breastfed 2months i believe), has gotten more cold/flu than not. big problem of babyformula is the caseinomorphine. She shakes her head sideways, just like I did when i was a baby (light ass, in fact i discovered that i had it first when i saw video of myself doing that).

    Oh well the world keeps on turning (not really xp)

    Mister Meat trying all browsers to post comment lol

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