#interleukin-10

No autoimmune diseases can currently be cured, only treated, and this is also true for neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NEMOSD). Neuromyelitis optica disorder spectrum is one of them and it causes inflammation of the central nervous system, leading to vision and sensory loss, weakness and bladder dysfunction. The condition, which sometimes flares up in waves, has a treatment consisting of…

var citeN=0;

Biochemistry-based arguments can be very misleading. Yet, biochemistry can be extremely useful in the elucidation of diet and lifestyle effects that are suggested by well-designed studies of humans. If you start with a biochemistry-based argument though, and ignore actual studies of humans, you can easily convince someone that glycogen-depleting exercise (e.g., weight training) is unhealthy, because many health markers change for the worse after that type of exercise. But it is the damage caused by glycogen-depleting exercise that leads to health improvements, via short- and long-term compensatory adaptations (citeN=citeN+1;document.write(Number(citeN)) ). Biochemistry is very helpful in terms of providing “pieces for the puzzle”, but biochemical reductionism is a problem. Analogous to biochemical reductionism, and perhaps one example of it, is hormonal reductionism – trying to argue that all diet and lifestyle effects are mediated by a single hormone. A less extreme position, but still myopic, is to argue that all diet and lifestyle effects are mostly mediated by a single hormone. One of my own “favorite” hormones is adiponectin, which I have been discussing for years in this blog (citeN=citeN+1;document.write(Number(citeN)) ). Increased serum adiponectin has been found to be significantly associated with: decreased body fat (particularly decreased visceral fat), decreased risk of developing diabetes type 2, and decreased blood pressure. Adiponectin appears to also have anti-inflammatory and athero-protective properties. As a side note, typically women have higher levels of serum adiponectin than men, particularly young women. Culturally we have a tendency to see young women as “delicate” and “vulnerable”. Guess what? Young women are the closest we get to “indestructible” in the human species. And there is an evolutionary reason for that, which is that fertile women have been in our evolutionary past, and still are, the bottleneck of any population. A population of 100 individuals, where 99 are men and 1 is a woman, will quickly disappear. If it is 99 women and 1 fertile man, the population will grow; but there will also be some problems due to inbreeding. Even if the guy is ugly the population will grow; without competition, he will look very cute. Jung and colleagues measured various hormone levels in 78 obese people who had visited obesity clinics at five university hospitals (Ajou, Ulsan, Catholic, Hanyang and Yonsei) in Korea (citeN=citeN+1;document.write(Number(citeN)) ). Those folks restricted their caloric intake to 500 calories less than their usual intake, and exercised, for 12 weeks. Below are the measured changes in tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α, now called only TNF), interleukin-6 (IL-6), resistin, leptin, adiponectin, and interleukin-10 (IL-10).

OK...so how do probiotics prevent and treat allergies?  First we have to understand how the immune system works.  Part of your immune system comprises of T-helper cells produced in the Lymphatic system.  They migrate to the Thymus gland where they mature.  5% of these T-cells then move on to peripheral areas, like the skin or GIT, where they remain as naive T-cells.  Naive T-cells can turn into any type of T-cell.  Some of the other T-helper cells that exist are:

Th1 - activated by intracellular parasites, viruses and certain bacteria - produce INFLAMMATION

Th2 - activated by extracellular pathogens outside the body's cells - ALLERGIES

Th17 - activated by extracellular pathogens esp. bacterial infections - INFLAMMATION

Both Th1 & Th17 have been implicated in auto-immune conditions where the body starts to attack itself.

Then you also get the T-regulatory cells.  T-regs produce a cytokine IL-10 (interleukin 10) that blocks the production of other T-cells.  So imagine this...if you have lots of T-reg cells and you come into contact with a potential reactive substance, the T-reg cells will hold the hand of this substance and stop it from going down the Th1 or Th17 pathway (which will create inflammation) or Th2 pathway (which will lead to an allergy to the substance).  The problem comes when you have very few T-reg cells and too much Th1, Th2 or Th17 cells.  This leads to auto-immune diseases, inflammation and allergies.

Now lets get back to our Naive T-cells which is a very precious commodity.  It has been found that certain strains of probiotics will actually turn naive T-cells into T-reg cells inside the intestinal wall.

So this made me think of 2 things:

What creates that 'deficiency' of T-reg cells in the first place?  Possibly stress, heavy metals, poor nutrition, etc.