Hives

Hives (urticaria) are skin reactions that appear as itchy swellings and can occur on any part of the body. Hives can be caused by an allergic reaction, such as to a food or medication, but they also may occur in non-allergic people. Typical hive symptoms are:

* Raised red welts
* Intense itching

Allergic Eczema

Allergic eczema (atopic dermatitis) is an allergic rash that is usually not caused by skin contact with an allergen. This condition is commonly associated with allergic rhinitis or asthma and features the following symptoms:

* Itching, redness, and or dryness of the skin
* Rash on the face, especially children
* Rash around the eyes, in the elbow creases, and behind the knees, especially in older children and adults (rash can be on the trunk of the body)

Allergic Rhinitis, Asthma, Allergic Eyes

Allergic rhinitis (“hay fever”) is the most common of the allergic diseases and refers to seasonal nasal symptoms that are due to pollens. Year round or perennial allergic rhinitis is usually due to indoor allergens, such as dust mites, animal dander, or molds. It can also be caused by pollens. Symptoms result from the inflammation of the tissues that line the inside of the nose (mucus lining or membranes) after allergens are inhaled. Adjacent areas, such as the ears, sinuses, and throat can also be involved. The most common symptoms include:

* Runny nose
* Stuffy nose
* Sneezing
* Nasal itching (rubbing)
* Itchy ears and throat
* Post nasal drip (throat clearing)

In 1819, an English physician, John Bostock, first described hay fever by detailing his own seasonal nasal symptoms, which he called “summer catarrh.” The condition was called hay fever because it was thought to be caused by “new hay.”

Asthma

Asthma is a breathing problem that results from the inflammation and spasm of the lung’s air passages (bronchial tubes). The inflammation causes a narrowing of the air passages, which limits the flow of air into and out of the lungs. Asthma is most often, but not always, related to allergies. Common symptoms include:

* Shortness of breath
* Wheezing
* Coughing
* Chest tightness

Allergic Eyes

Allergic eyes (allergic conjunctivitis) is inflammation of the tissue layers (membranes) that cover the surface of the eyeball and the undersurface of the eyelid. The inflammation occurs as a result of an allergic reaction and may produce the following symptoms:

* Redness under the lids and of the eye overall
* Watery, itchy eyes
* Swelling of the membranes

Who is at risk and why?

Allergies can develop at any age, possibly even in the womb. They commonly occur in children but may give rise to symptoms for the first time in adulthood. Asthma may persist in adults while nasal allergies tend to decline in old age.

Why, you may ask, are some people “sensitive” to certain allergens while most are not? Why do allergic persons produce more IgE than those who are non-allergic? The major distinguishing factor appears to be heredity. For some time, it has been known that allergic conditions tend to cluster in families. Your own risk of developing allergies is related to your parents’ allergy history. If neither parent is allergic, the chance that you will have allergies is about 15%. If one parent is allergic, your risk increases to 30% and if both are allergic, your risk is greater than 60%.

Although you may inherit the tendency to develop allergies, you may never actually have symptoms. You also do not necessarily inherit the same allergies or the same diseases as your parents. It is unclear what determines which substances will trigger a reaction in an allergic person. Additionally, which diseases might develop or how severe the symptoms might be is unknown.

Another major piece of the allergy puzzle is the environment. It is clear that you must have a genetic tendency and be exposed to an allergen in order to develop an allergy. Additionally, the more intense and repetitive the exposure to an allergen and the earlier in life it occurs, the more likely it is that an allergy will develop.

There are other important influences that may conspire to cause allergic conditions. Some of these include smoking, pollution, infection, and hormones.

What are common allergic conditions and their symptoms and signs?

The parts of the body that are prone to react to allergies include the eyes, nose, lungs, skin, and stomach. Although the various allergic diseases may appear different, they all result from an exaggerated immune response to foreign substances in sensitive people. The following brief descriptions will serve as an overview of common allergic disorders.

What causes allergies?

To help answer this question, let’s look at a common household example. A few months after the new cat arrives in the house, dad begins to have itchy eyes and episodes of sneezing. One of the three children develops coughing and wheezing, especially when the cat comes into her bedroom. The mom and the other two children experience no reaction whatsoever to the presence of the cat. How can we explain this?

The immune system is the body’s organized defense mechanism against foreign invaders, particularly infections. Its job is to recognize and react to these foreign substances, which are called antigens. Antigens are substances that are capable of causing the production of antibodies. Antigens may or may not lead to an allergic reaction. Allergens are certain antigens that cause an allergic reaction and the production of IgE.

The aim of the immune system is to mobilize its forces at the site of invasion and destroy the enemy. One of the ways it does this is to create protective proteins called antibodies that are specifically targeted against particular foreign substances. These antibodies, or immunoglobulins (IgG, IgM, IgA, IgD), are protective and help destroy a foreign particle by attaching to its surface, thereby making it easier for other immune cells to destroy it. The allergic person however, develops a specific type of antibody called immunoglobulin E, or IgE, in response to certain normally harmless foreign substances, such as cat dander. To summarize, immunoglobulins are a group of protein molecules that act as antibodies. There are five different types; IgA, IgM, IgG, IgD, and IgE. IgE is the allergy antibody.

(In 1967, the husband and wife team of Kimishige and Teriko Ishizaka detected a previously unrecognized type of immunoglobulin in allergic people. They called it gamma E globulin or IgE.)

In the pet cat example, the dad and the youngest daughter developed IgE antibodies in large amounts that were targeted against the cat allergen, the cat dander. The dad and daughter are now sensitized or prone to develop allergic reactions on subsequent and repeated exposures to cat allergen. Typically, there is a period of “sensitization” ranging from months to years prior to an allergic reaction. Although it might occasionally appear that an allergic reaction has occurred on the first exposure to the allergen, there must have been a prior contact in order for the immune system to be poised to react in this way.

IgE is an antibody that all of us have in small amounts. Allergic persons, however, produce IgE in large quantities. Normally, this antibody is important in protecting us from parasites, but not from cat dander or other allergens. During the sensitization period, cat dander IgE is being overproduced and coats certain potentially explosive cells that contain chemicals. These cells are capable of causing an allergic reaction on subsequent exposures to the dander. This is because the reaction of the cat dander with the dander IgE irritates the cells and leads to the release of various chemicals, including histamine. These chemicals, in turn, cause inflammation and the typical allergic symptoms. This is how the immune system becomes exaggerated and primed to cause an allergic reaction when stimulated by an allergen.

On exposure to cat dander, the mom and the other two children produce other classes of antibodies, none of which cause allergic reactions. In these non-allergic members of the family, the dander particles are eliminated uneventfully by the immune system and the cat has no effect on them.

What does an allergy mean?

An allergy refers to an exaggerated reaction by our immune system in response to bodily contact with certain foreign substances. It is exaggerated because these foreign substances are usually seen by the body as harmless and no response occurs in non- allergic people. Allergic people’s bodies recognize the foreign substance and one part of the immune system is turned on. Allergy-producing substances are called “allergens.” Examples of allergens include pollens, dust mite, molds, danders, and foods. To understand the language of allergy it is important to remember that allergens are substances that are foreign to the body and can cause an allergic reaction in certain people.

When an allergen comes in contact with the body, it causes the immune system to develop an allergic reaction in persons who are allergic to it. When you inappropriately react to allergens that are normally harmless to other people, you are having an allergic reaction and can be referred to as allergic or atopic. Therefore, people who are prone to allergies are said to be allergic or “atopic.”

Austrian pediatrician Clemens Pirquet (1874-1929) first used the term allergy. He referred to both immunity that was beneficial and to the harmful hypersensitivity as “allergy.” The word allergy is derived from the Greek words “allos,” meaning different or changed and “ergos,” meaning work or action. Allergy roughly refers to an “altered reaction.” The word allergy was first used in 1905 to describe the adverse reactions of children who were given repeated shots of horse serum to fight infection. The following year, the term allergy was proposed to explain this unexpected “changed reactivity.”

Allergy Fact

* It is estimated that 50 million North Americans are affected by allergic conditions.
* The cost of allergies in the United States is more than $10 billion dollars yearly.
* Allergic rhinitis (nasal allergies) affects about 35 million # Americans, 6 million of whom are children.
# Asthma affects 15 million Americans, 5 million of whom are children.
# The number of cases of asthma has doubled over the last 20 years.

Acupuncture stimulates brain metabolism in dementia patients

CM NEWS – Needling specific acupoints may help patients with dementia, a recently published study shows. The acupoint combo seems to increase cerebral glucose metabolism in the brain, as indicated by cerebral functional imaging.

The study has been published in the January 2007 issue of the Journal of Acupuncture and Tuina Science. Chinese researchers observed the effects of needling three acupoints – Baihui (百會, Hundred Convergences; GV 20), Shuigou (水溝, Water Trough; GV 26) and Shenmen (神門, Spirit Gate; HT 7) – and their effects on cerebral glucose metabolism in patients with vascular dementia.

25 patients with vascular dementia were divided into 5 groups (Group A, B, C, D and E) randomly. Patients in the Group A were treated by needling routine acupoints for hemiplegia (paralysis in the vertical half of a patient’s body), which are acupoints of the three “yang meridians” of the hand and foot.

In addition to the “routine acupoints”, Group B patients received acupuncture to Baihui (GV 20); Group C to Shuigou (GV 26), Group D to Shenmen (HT 7), and Group E to Baihui (GV 20), Shuigou (GV 26), and Shenmen (HT 7).

All the patients were examined by Positron Emission Tomography (PET) to detect cerebral glucose metabolism in the bilateral frontal lobes (orbital gyri), parietal lobes, temporal lobes (hippocampus and hippocampal gyrus), occipital lobes, thalamus, lentiform nucleus, caudate nuclei, cingulate gyms and cerebellum before treatments and after treatments.

Why checking on cerebral glucose metabolism? Studies have linked dementia with the slowing of glucose metabolism in certain parts of the brain. One study indicated that patients with frontotemporal dementia not only showed significant metabolic deficits primarily in frontal cortical areas, but also in the caudate nuclei and the thalami. These findings demonstrate that the clinical progression in patients with frontotemporal dementia is accompanied by a region-specific decline in cerebral glucose metabolism.

Another study found that patients with multi-infarct dementia (MID) had significantly lower glucose metabolism in all the grey matter regions measured and were also characterized by more individuality in metabolic pattern.

The present study shows that after needling the routine acupoints for hemiplegia, glucose metabolism increased in lentiform nucleus and temporal lobe; and:

* patients with Baihui (GV 20) needled showed increased glucose metabolism in the frontal lobe, temporal lobe and lentiform nucleus.
* patients with Shuigou (GV 26) needled showed increased glucose metabolism in the frontal lobe, thalamus and lentiform nucleus;
* patients with Shenmen (HT 7) needled got more glucose metabolism in the parietal lobe and lentiform nucleus;
* patients who recieved needling to all these three acupoints has higher glucose metabolism in the frontal lobe, temporal lobe, thalamus and lentiform nucleus.

The results suggest that needling Baihui (GV 20), Shuigou (GV 26) and Shenmen (HT 7) affect glucose metabolism in different functional regions of the brain. In other words, the three acupoints are closely correlated to different functional regions of the brain.

Placebo effect may be at play in acupuncture studies: analysis

Reuters Health – Acupuncture can bring some relief to people with knee arthritis, but the benefits may be at least partly from a placebo effect, a new research review suggests.

In an analysis of 9 clinical trials from the past 15 years, researchers found that acupuncture generally seemed to improve knee arthritis sufferers’ pain and stiffness in the short term. The patients had osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease associated with age, as opposed to arthritis associated with an autoimmune disorder.

However, a closer look showed that the benefits were limited to trials that compared acupuncture with doing nothing or with “usual care,” such as anti-inflammatory medication.

In trials that compared acupuncture with “sham” acupuncture, on the other hand, there was no clear evidence that the real therapy was more effective.

Sham acupuncture is accomplished by using non-penetrating needles, or inserting needles only into the superficial layer of skin, at random sites rather than the specific points used in real acupuncture. In studies that evaluated electro-acupuncture, the sham version involved phony electrodes and “mock” electrical stimulation of acupuncture points.

The point is to keep study participants from knowing whether they were receiving the real or the placebo treatment. This helps separate the specific effects of a therapy from any placebo effects — where people feel better simply because they believe they’ve been treated.

The new findings suggest that the benefits of acupuncture for knee arthritis are at least partly due to patients’ expectations, the study authors report in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

However, that doesn’t mean acupuncture is not worthwhile, according to the researchers, led by Eric Manheimer of the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore.

Research does suggest that acupuncture has a “genuine biological effect,” and there was evidence in some studies that the real therapy resulted in somewhat better short-term effects than sham acupuncture, the researchers note.

For their study, Manheimer and his colleagues combined the results of nine clinical trials conducted in Europe, the U.S. and Thailand. The trials included a total of more than 3,500 subjects.

Each trial included a patient group that received acupuncture for knee arthritis, as well as a “control” group. In some studies, control patients were placed on a waiting list for acupuncture, while in others they received some standard therapy that acupuncture patients did not. Control patients in other studies received sham acupuncture.

In general, the Manheimer’s team found, only studies that pitted acupuncture against doing nothing, or against standard care, showed clear benefits. The results of the sham-controlled trials were too mixed to show any benefits, according to the researchers.

The investigators do not, however, dismiss the potential benefits of acupuncture for knee arthritis. Indeed, they note, a possible explanation for the mixed results is that sham acupuncture had some actual biological effects.

Given the overall safety of acupuncture, the researchers conclude, patients can still consider it as one option in a “multidisciplinary approach” to treating knee arthritis.

World’s largest conference on acupuncture to convene in China

Xinhua – More than 1,500 acupuncturists from nearly 30 countries and regions will gather in Beijing this October, to discuss the future of traditional Chinese medicine.

From Oct. 20 to 22, the acupuncturists will attend an academic forum for the 20th anniversary of the World Association of Acupuncture. The forum, with the theme of “acupuncture: looking back and looking forward”, will have eight sub-forums on topics like education, the evolution of acupuncture and needle therapy practise and assessment.

An exhibition of new methods and technologies in the field will also be held.

Deng Liangyue, chairman of the World Association of Acupuncture, said the association had successfully held six forums on acupuncture in China, Japan, the United States, France and the Republic of Korea over the past 20 years. With efforts from acupuncturists worldwide, needle therapy has spread to the four corners of the earth.

So far, more than 140 countries and regions have adopted acupuncture treatment. Traditional Chinese medicine represented by needle therapy is accepted and welcomed by mainstream society in many countries.

Statistics from the World Association of Acupuncture show there are about 100,000 people engaged in acupuncture services in Japan. 29 percent of Tokyo’s residents have received acupuncture treatment at least once. More than five million European patients choose needle therapy every year.

Acupuncture, one of the oldest traditional Chinese therapies, can not only help people give up smoking, but also cure sterility and even drug addiction. For poor people, it is a low-cost and easily accessible medical resource.

Acupuncture offers long lasting relief to migraines

CM NEWS – Acupuncture has been proved to provide effective and persistent relief of migraine headaches, according to a new study in Italy.

To check the effectiveness of a true acupuncture treatment according to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in migraine without aura, researchers of the Department of Medico-Surgical Specialities of University of Padua in Italy compared true acunpuncture to a standard mock acupuncture protocol, an accurate mock acupuncture healing ritual, and untreated controls.

“Migraine prevalence is high and affects a relevant rate of adults in the productive phase of their life,” says the study to be published in the journal Headache.

“Acupuncture has been increasingly advocated and used in Western countries for migraine treatment, but the evidence of its effectiveness still remains weak. A large variability of treatments is present in published studies and no acupoint selection according to TCM has been investigated so far; therefore, the low level of evidence of acupuncture effectiveness might partly depend on inappropriate treatment.”

In the study, the patients were divided into the following 4 groups:
(1) group TA, treated with true acupuncture (according to TCM) plus Rizatriptan; (N=32)
(2) group RMA, treated with ritualized mock acupuncture plus Rizatriptan; (N=30)
(3) group SMA, treated with standard mock acupuncture plus Rizatriptan; (N=31)
(4) group R, without prophylactic treatment with relief therapy only (Rizatriptan); (N=39)

What is Rizatriptan? Rizatriptan is used to treat the symptoms of migraine headaches (severe, throbbing headaches that sometimes are accompanied by nausea and sensitivity to sound and light). Rizatriptan is in a class of medications called selective serotonin receptor agonists. It works by narrowing blood vessels in the brain, stopping pain signals from being sent to the brain, and stopping the release of certain natural substances that cause pain, nausea, and other symptoms of migraine. Rizatriptan does not prevent migraine attacks.

The MIDAS Questionnaire was administered before treatment, at 3 and 6 months from the beginning of treatment, and the MIDAS Index (MI) was calculated. Rizatriptan intake was also checked in all groups of patients at all three time intervals. All patients had moderate to severe with no significant intergroup differences before treatment.

What is MIDAS Questionnaire? MIDAS is a questionnaire that measures headache-related disability simply and easily by counting the number of days of lost and limited activity due to migraine. Activities are classed into three areas:

* Paid work and education (school / college)
* Household work (unpaid work such as housework, shopping and caring for children and others)
* Family, social and leisure activities

Migraine sufferers count the number of days on which they missed out on these activities because of their migraine in the previous 3 months. Also, they count the number of days where their productivity was at most half as normal in paid and household work. The overall MIDAS score is reached by summing the answers to these five questions, and is scored in the number of days.

Group TA and RMA were evaluated according to TCM as well; then, the former was submitted to true acupuncture and the latter to mock acupuncture treatment resembling the same as TA. The statistical analysis was conducted with factorial ANOVA and multiple tests with a Bonferroni adjustment.

Results show that the migraines improved in all patients after 3 months and 6 months of treatment. However, those treated with true acupuncture plus Rizatriptan showed a significant improvement at both 3-month and 6-month treatments than with Rizatriptan only.

The researchers thus conclude that true acupuncture was the only treatment able to provide a steady outcome improvement in comparison to the use of only Rizatriptan, while Rizatriptan plus mock acunpuncture showed a transient placebo effect after 3 months into treatment.

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