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Posts Tagged ‘Immune System’

Food allergies develop in around five percent of children. These allergies occur when the child’s body reacts to the food consumed as if it were a toxin or something that is harmful to the body and treats it as such. Antibodies are then produced by the immune system in order to protect the body against that specific food. Allergies are often confused with food intolerance, but these are not the same thing. Some of the most common types of allergies are allergies toward cow’s milk, nuts, gluten and eggs.

There are several symptoms that may indicate the presence of an allergy. These include an itchy throat, nausea, diarrhea, swelling of the throat, difficulty in breathing and coughing to name a few. While most children tend to outgrow their food allergies by the age of five or six, some allergies such as allergies to nuts tend to remain with the child for life. Occasionally allergies can be severe and potentially lethal which can result in anaphylactic shock.

There are no specific cures for these allergies; however there are a few tests which can be done to deduce whether or not the child is indeed allergic to something. Once this is known then the particular food types can be avoided to prevent any further allergic reactions. One test involves a blood test in which specially trained doctors examine the sample in a detailed analysis to find out exactly what type of allergies the child has. Another test is a simple prick test whereby the skin is pricked and the specific food is put onto the skin to see if a reaction develops.

Coping with these allergies often occurs without problems and needs a simple change in dietary habits. With some allergies like gluten, milk, egg and nuts it can be more difficult since many foods contain these products.

Parents are advised to educate the care-givers of the children as well as the children themselves so that they can learn what they can and cannot eat. If they are lucky, within a few years they will outgrow the allergy and be able to eat these foods as an adult.

Looking for effective koi treatment that will stop your fish contracting disease? This could be one of the most overlooked forms of disease prevention that you will find… and just as the name suggests, it is all about preventing disease, rather than treating and trying to cure your koi fish once they get sick.

And I could almost guarantee that there is not one koi fish enthusiast out there who would not jump at the opportunity to keep their fish free from any form of disease, because we know that just one sick or ailing fish will ultimately spread whatever it has to the others in the pond unless it is stamped out immediately.

So rather than merely hoping and praying that fish disease won’t invade your koi pond, here’s the very best way to get proactive with a koi treatment that will stop the vast majority of diseases before they ever have the chance to get started… and it’s called stress prevention!

Stressed koi fish are prone to disease!

You may think it a bit weird… but nonetheless it’s a fact…

In the same way that too much stress plays a major part in many of the diseases contracted by humans such as cancer, heart disease, mental illnesses and any number of other sicknesses… stress also plays a major part in affecting your koi and making them much more prone to disease.

The reason for this is that it slowly but very surely diminishes their immunity and of course a lower immune system will open them up to any type of disease carrying organism… where as healthy koi fish are much more disease resistant and far less likely to contract diseases.

So you may be wondering “how do koi get stressed?”

Well it mainly depends on their physical surroundings and environment. If you are a wise koi keeper you can gain good understanding of what koi need most, then seek to provide your koi with the very best natural environment… thereby eliminating many factors that stress your fish.

So here’s what you need to do:

Provide your koi with high quality water

Just think about this for a moment… would you survive for long breathing in thick, dirty, smoggy air? Probably not, right… in the same way koi fish need clean, well oxygenated and well chemically balanced water – if they don’t have it they start to get stressed!

And here’s what happens when they get stressed…

As soon as a koi comes under stress it produces and releases adrenalin into it’s body… which is a natural defence system, giving the fish strength, speed and stamina. So in the event of a predator being present the adrenalin produced allows the koi to quickly move to a safer position – and that’s fine under natural circumstances, because predators are not present all the time.

However, if your koi get stressed from poor water quality and start producing too much adrenalin as a defense, the effects can have dangerous consequences… because this excessive adrenalin release will seriously upset the balance of salt in the pond’s ecosystem… which in turn diminishes the koi’s immunity system making them more disease prone… do you see the problem here?

Ok that’s the first reason why poor water quality creates stress… here’s the second reason…

Koi naturally produce a mucus which acts as a kind of protective barrier between the fish, it’s environment and… harmful parasites! However…an oversupply of this mucus will actually act as an agent that assists the growth of two nasty little parasites called costia and trichodina.

So you also get this problem from excess adrenalin – the extra adrenalin affects the salt / water balance and the water quality starts to deteriorate – so the koi naturally produces more mucus as a form of protection – but without the fish knowing it, the extra mucus actually attracts costia and trichodina so it’s a no win situation for your poor koi…

So… can you see how vitally important it is to keep the koi’s water quality absolutely spot on?

As mentioned earlier prevention is far, far better than cure… and in this case prevention of stress in your pond through good water quality is actually the best koi treatment available – and it costs you nothing except a little bit of time.

Of course it will not prevent every disease… there will still be a few that you will need to treat from time to time – but it goes a long, long way toward keeping most diseases at bay, and keeping your pond full of healthy, vibrant koi fish.

For more info on disease prevention and koi treatment – click the link below

What does the word ‘allergy’ mean?

An allergy describes the way a particular person’s body will overreact to a certain substance which other people come into contact without any problems. People allergic to pollen for example, can suffer from sneezing, a runny nose, itchy eyes, and start coughing or wheezing – the classic ‘hay fever’ response of 10 – 15% of the general population.

Anatomy of an allergic reaction

Why is it that most people can breathe in pollen or house dust without feeling ill? Well, the allergic person’s immune system recognizes the pollen or dust particles as foreign bodies that must be got rid of and begins to develop a protein called an antibody against the specific irritant. The problems for the allergic person begin when the antibody and substance (known as an allergen) join together, a bit like a key in a lock, and produce a variety of chemical substances. The best known of these chemicals is histamine and when this is released the result is to start off an inflammation along with swelling, redness and irritation. If this occurs in your nostrils, eyelids or the bronchial tubes of your lungs, then you are going to have an attack of hay fever or asthma. The majority of the population don’t react in this way because their bodies do not have the antibody so the pollen or house dust to them is just a temporary minor irritant.

Testing for allergies

You can find out if these substance-specific antibodies are in your system by having an allergy skin test. All this involves is putting a small amount of the suspect material onto the back of you hand say, and lightly pinpricking through it. If the result is a small itchy swelling around where the pin prick was made then you have the special antibody to whatever substance you were testing for. On the whole an allergy skin test is quite a reliable indicator that you are allergic to something although there can be a number of ‘false positives’.

Allergy patterns

Amongst family members it’s been noticed that allergies tend to follow a pattern. During childhood allergies to a number of different things develop in a variety of ways only to be grown out of when they become teenagers. Other people in their late 30′s or older have had allergies since being a child and some allergic children may develop asthma. Just why allergies take different patterns of development is not known but is seems that they are definitely inherited from parents.

Can we do anything about it?

Yes, a good first step is for you to find out root cause of your allergy. Once this is known you can avoid coming into contact with the allergen but in the case of pollen this is not easy. Air conditioning in cars and buildings help the hay fever sufferer as do anti-histamine tablets. Try keeping generally fit which will help avoid cold infections that can make hay fever that bit worse.

As mentioned in the other article, the immune system, which is the set of cells and their activity against antigens or infectious agents that comprises of the body’s defense system against diseases. The immune system does a great job of keeping people healthy and preventing infections. Beside foods and nutritional supplements, herbs also play a important role in helping the immune system defend against viruses and bacteria attacks.

Here are some very common herbs that have proven record in strengthen the immune system

1. Echinacea
Echinacea, or the “purple cornflower,” has been used as a medicinal remedy by Native American Indians for over 400 years. Unlike antibiotics, which are directly lethal to bacteria, echinacea makes our own immune cells more efficient in attacking bacteria and viruses. In other words, unlike a vaccine which is active only against a specific disease, echinacea stimulates the overall activity of the cells responsible for fighting all kinds of infection.

2. Goldenseal Roots
Goldenseal Root contain the powerful alkaloids like berberine and hysdratine to help maintaining a strong inmune defense. and exhihit anti-microbial and anti- bacteria properties. Goldenseal root is often used to boost the medicinal effects of other herbs it is blended or formulated with.

3. Usnea
Usnea is a lichen; a combination of an algae and a fungus growing together. Also known as Old Man’s beard, it grows in little hair-like tufts, with the green algae covering the white string like fungus. Usnea might be used in acute situations as well as for long term immune enhancement and general prevention.

4. Shitake
Like other mushrooms, these specialty mushrooms are as mysteriously unique as they are delicious. Shitake contains an active compound contained in these mushrooms called lentinan that has the ability to power up the immune system, strengthening its ability to fight infection and disease.

5. Hyssop oil
Hyssop oil is great for cleansing the aura and breaking energetic cords. The oil is mild enough to be applied directly on almost any of the chakras. Hyssop boosts the immune system and fights viruses, fungi and bacteria. One safe way to apply it is to rub a drop into the soles of each foot so that it will be absorbed.

6.Siberian ginseng
Specialized cells which eliminate bacterial and viral infections are made as needed by the immune system. Richly supply your immune system with nutrients, and it easily counters infection, building healthy white blood cells to kill anthrax and other germs. Starve your immune system and it will falter, leaving your lymph nodes and other tissues open to infection and destruction.

If you need more information how to strengthen your immune system in defending against virus and bacteria, please visit my home page:

Allergies – an inflammatory response to any number of things you may be exposed to each and every day.

There is a big difference between food allergy and food intolerance. An allergy, such as the one some people have to peanuts, causes the immune system, that is the body’s defense mechanism against bacteria, viruses and any other intruder, to leap into action. One person in six has a food allergy. Sometimes a person is born allergic to something, often an allergy may develop.

Foods such as papaya, shellfish and strawberries, which to anyone else would be totally harmless, can make a person who is allergic to them extremely ill because of this exaggerated immune response. The skin may erupt into a rash, wheeziness may occur, the face may swell and the stomach may become upset. In severe cases of food allergy, the person may collapse and, without an injection of adrenaline, could die.

This serious condition is called anaphylactic shock. What is food intolerance? When you have an adverse reaction to a particular food, but there is no evidence that your immune system has gone into overdrive, nor is your life in danger, this is food intolerance. Intolerances are usually cause because your body does not produce enough of a particular enzyme to digest that substance properly.

For most people, peanuts are totally harmless. But for the unfortunate few who have a peanut allergy, they can cause a violent and potentially dangerous reaction. Even foods that are usually part of a healthy diet can cause an adverse reaction. They include fish and shellfish, pulses, wheat, sugar, strawberries and citrus fruits. So, now you have a better understanding on food allergies and food intolerance.