Re: blood donation - IBD epidemiology

[Guest guest]

<egroups1bp@y...> wrote in part:

>

> I would guess, from what I know know that this route is probably

> the cause of alot of problems that go mis-diagnosed.

I have been interested in this possibility too and intend to look into

it, but I dont have a scrap of data or any clues yet. There must be

something out there comparing the long-term health of recipients to

that of non-recipient controls.

Not only is it obviously a huge *possible* public health problem /

improvement opportunity, but study of it could shed light on the

general study of the idiopathic inflammations, which have odd

epidemiologic charecteristics.

For example, pretty high quality data show that incidence of Crohns

went up in Minnesota, USA rising dramatically from extreme rarity

during the period c 1940-1970 - after which it became stable. In Japan

the advent and rise were much later, occuring mostly in the late 70s

and 80s as I recall. No one seems to have any super-hot specific ideas

about why (IMO), tho Westernization of diet and other lifestyle

factors is a possible cause. Crohns is a pretty good disease to study

this way because it has a fairly objective and consistent dx based on

gut exam, tho I think different dx protocols/techs are used.

Trying to study historical change in entities like CFS or ADD would be

awfully difficult. Good luck controlling for changes in socio-cultural

and socio-medical practices and perceptions - the uncertainties would

be endless. Epidemiology can be a kinda slippery science to begin with

even without getting into vaguer diagnoses.