"Lupus Studies Point to Gut Microbes, Epigenetics"

[hedgehog]

"The complex network of genetic, environmental, and hormonal factors believed to contribute to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is slowly being dissected, researchers report in a special issue of Lupus devoted to environmental causes of SLE. Several lines of research converged on the commensal bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract (the gut microbiota), which can be influenced by dietary and other external factors to alter immune response, and on environmental agents that inhibit epigenetic T-cell DNA methylation, which can trigger lupus flares in the genetically predisposed.

......

"n the clinical setting, Dr. Kriegel recommended that patients pay a little more attention to what effects various diets may have on their disease. "The long-standing anecdotal patient reports of certain diets worsening or improving flares might be more real than we thought. They should be studied more systematically, now that we know that almost any dietary component acts on the gut microbiota, [which] in turn has profound effects on the immune system," Dr. Kriegel said. He also warned that patients should not assume that the various "probiotic" products now available to consumers would have a beneficial effect in lupus. "Probiotics could theoretically even worsen a disease state, since it is possible that physiologic immune responses against benign commensals could fuel autoimmune responses via cross-reactivity (as we hypothesize) or other mechanisms," he said.

Dr. Kriegel concluded, "I think the best will be to wait until we have a better understanding of which commensals or commensal-derived products might be driving which autoimmune disease and then target those with a diet that is known to modulate these strains or products. Ideally, the field will also develop eventually novel types of antibiotics or vaccinations against certain commensals. Such approaches would allow us, in the future, to more specifically modulate the gut microbiota in autoimmunity.""

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/825045

[libodem]

1. Interesting

My ex husband passed in 1987 from Lupus. We had something called 5ths Rash or 5th 's disease pass through the community before he came down with symptoms.it is similar to Roseola a measles like disease that babies get. Both my 6 month old son and he had a rash from the 5ths. My ex ' s never resolved and I believe it turned into lupus as far as I'm concerned. There was one distant female cousin who had lupus but that was the only genetic link we could find.

He used to have flairs when he ate the pancake syrup we made at home from boiled sugar, water, and a dash of Mapline flavoring. Never knew if it was the sugar or the maple that set it off.

I wish we didn't have to sign into that site to finish reading.