Expert sees possible link between strep, anorexia: rarely, group A [beta]-hemolytic streptococcal infection can lead to sudden onset of psychiatric symptoms.
MONTREAL -- Streptococcal pharyngitis may be a very occasional trigger for anorexia nervosa and other neuropsychiatric conditions and should be investigated in patients with sudden onset of psychiatric symptoms, Mae S. Sokol, M.D., said at an international conference sponsored by the Academy for Eating Disorders. Identification of...

Strep throat can cause anorexia nervosa, OCD: rarely, group a [beta]-hemolytic streptococcal infection can lead to sudden onset of psychiatric symptoms.
MONTREAL -- Streptococcal pharyngitis may be a very occasional trigger for anorexia nervosa and other neuropsychiatric conditions and should be investigated in patients with sudden onset of psychiatric symptoms, Mae S. Sokol, M.D., said at an international conference sponsored by the Academy for Eating Disorders. Identification of...

What causes multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) and environmental illness (EI)?
Several hundred thousand persons in the US are afflicted with MCS and EI. The typical patient with multiple chemical sensitivity has been ill for 5-20 years. Patients with these illnesses react with allergic responses to a progressively greater number of substances until they become "universal reactors" who are sensitive...

Hematopoietic stem cell support in patients with autoimmune bullous skin disorders.
Sponsored by Northwestern University. Autoimmune bullous skin disorders are believed to be due to immune cells, cells that normally protect the body and are now causing damage to the body. This study is designed to examine whether treating patients with high dose cyclophosphamide (a drug which reduces the function...

Anthrax toxin curbs immune cells. (Biomedicine).
Scientists have revealed yet another way in which the bacterium that causes anthrax disarms the immune system. The microbe, Bacillus anthracis, produces a molecular complex that's called lethal toxin known to interrupt a cascade of signals inside macrophages, the immune cells that envelop and destroy bacteria (SN:...

At last, now serving the gluten-adverse.
According to research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, celiac disease, also known as gluten intolerance, is a genetic disorder that affects 1 in 133 Americans. Yet since that 2003 report, awareness of the disorder--whose effects are lifelong and if untreated, devastating--might be described as peripheral at best....

In search of safer marrow transplants.
A bone marrow transplant preceded by destruction of one's own bone marrow with radiation or chemotherapy is a bleak prospect for a leukemia patient. Although the procedure can be lifesaving, it carries toxicity risks and weakens the patient. That's why people with autoimmune diseases rarely get a marrow transplant--even...

Common variable immunodeficiency: experience in Puerto Rico.
Resumen La inmunodeficiencia comun variable es una de las inmunodeficiencias primarias mas comunes. El proposito de este estudio ha sido el analizar las caracteristicas clinicas y la respuesta a la terapia con inmunoglobulina intravenosa de un grupo de pacientes a los que se hizo el diagnostico de...

Action of calciotropic hormones on bone metabolism--role of vitamin [D.sub.3] in bone remodeling events.
Abstract: Vitamin [D.sub.3] is known to have immunosuppressive effects that can be beneficial for treatment of immune disorders and transplant rejection, however therapeutic application is limited due to hypercalcemia and hypercalcuria. The goal of our studies was to explore both the acute and steady state effects of vitamin [D.sub.3]...

Food for healing; oral tolerance therapy aims to neutralize autoimmune diseases.
Roberta Henderson's daily routine includes a long draft of juice spiked with chicken gristle to ease her arthritic joints. Her more sophisticated friends tell her that this folksy remedy appears antiquated in the face of all the new advances in medical science. But to each of these naysayers, Roberta points...