March 13, 2008
News Report Notes that Modern Life May Be Taking Its Toll on Our Immune Systems
Modern life may not be as healthy as many think. In a recent Washington Post article, writer Rob Stein reports that medical researchers are becoming increasingly convinced that lifestyles found in modern, developed nations may be contributing to a dramatic rise in allergies and other immune system diseases.
In the March 4 article titled "Is modern life ravaging our immune systems?", Stein writes that "Although hay fever, eczema, asthma and food allergies seem quite different, they are all "allergic diseases" because they are caused by the immune system responding to substances that are ordinarily benign, such as pollen or peanuts. Autoimmune diseases also result from the body's defense mechanisms malfunctioning. But in these diseases, which include lupus, MS, Type 1 diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease, the immune system attacks parts of the body such as nerves, the pancreas or digestive tract.
Syed Hasan Arshad, of the David Hide Asthma and Allergy Research Centre in England, refers to the increase in immune system diseases as "an epidemic. We're talking about millions of people and huge implications, both for health costs and quality of life. People miss work. Severe asthma can kill. Peanut allergies can kill. It does have huge implications all around. If it keeps increasing, where will it end?"
The reasons for the increases aren't exactly known, but researchers believe some of the culprits include the sterile homes in which we grow up, our modern diet, air pollution and our less active, modern lifestyles.
The theory that our sterile home environments play a role results from research indicating that those who grow up on farms have far fewer allergies. Researchers hypothesize that being exposed to grasses and animals early in life helps avoid future allergies.
Of other theories, Stein writes that "some researchers blame exposure to fine particles in air pollution, which may give the immune system more of a hair trigger, especially in genetically predisposed individuals. Others say obesity and a sedentary lifestyle may play a role. Still others wonder whether eating more processed food or foods processed in different ways, or changes in the balance of certain vitamins that can affect the immune system, such as vitamins C and E and fish oil, are a factor."
Researchers are on the hunt for ways to get our immune systems back on track. They're experimenting with such things as feeding high-risk children allergy-inducing foods in hopes of training their immune systems not to overreact and exposing people to things such as bacteria to get their immune systems busy doing something other than turning on the body.
Improving the modern diet could help as well. Fewer processed foods and more immune boosting foods could make a difference. And when it comes to immune-boosting foods, mushrooms are one of the best. High in antioxidants, beta-glucans and polysaccharides, mushrooms are one of nature's most perfect foods. Not only are they loaded with healthy nutrients, but those nutrients are easily absorbed and used by mammals, which includes humans and most animals - horses and the family dog and cat among them.
Help protect your immune system from the ravages of modern life with Mushroom Matrix nutritional supplements. Produced by Golden Gourmet Mushrooms of San Marcos, California, Matrix products are 100 percent certified organic and contain up to ten of the most nutritious varieties of medicinal mushrooms. For more information on Matrix nutritional supplements and the health benefits of mushrooms visit www.mushroommatrix.com.
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