allergies and GERD

[Guest guest]

This is from my apraxia group I belong to.

Source:

Children's Hospital Medical Center Of Cincinnati

(http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/)

Date:Posted 12/29/2000

Researcher Uncovers Allergy/Reflux Link

A new Children's Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati discovery may

have significant implications for children with a eosinophilic

esophagitis, a fast-growing new disease whose symptoms mimic

gastroesophageal reflux, and for adults with reflux who are not

being helped by currently available medications.

In a study published in the January issue of The Journal of Clinical

Investigation, Marc E. Rothenberg, M.D., Ph.D., has established a

link between reflux and allergy - not only food allergies but also

environmental allergens such as pollens and molds. Dr. Rothenberg,

the study's senior author, and his colleague Anil Mishra, Ph.D.,

have developed the first experimental system, a mouse model, for

eosinophilic esophagitis - a disease whose numbers have exploded in

recent years.

" We're saying that what a person breathes in can actually affect the

gastrointestinal system, " says Dr. Rothenberg, who directs the

section of allergy and clinical immunology in Cincinnati Children's

division of Pulmonary Medicine, Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

" There is a direct link between exposure to allergens that go to the

lung -- aeroallergens -- and development of esophageal inflammation. "

Moreover, Dr. Rothenberg has discovered that this pathway is

mediated by a molecule called interleukin-5. When Dr. Rothenberg's

research group gave mice an allergen that induced asthma, all the

mice developed esophagitis. But none of the mice deficient in IL-5

who were given the allergen developed esophagitis. " They were

completely protected, " says Dr. Mishra, Ph.D., a research associate

in Dr. Rothenberg's lab and the study's lead author.

Children with eosinophilic esophagitis often have abdominal pain,

difficulty swallowing, vomiting, failure to thrive and weight loss.

Just a few years ago, incidents of the disease were rare. Now, Dr.

Rothenberg and his colleagues at Cincinnati Children's food allergy

clinic treat about 60 cases each year. Physicians throughout the

United States also report an explosion in the number of cases.

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The results, which shed new light on a possible cause of

esophagitis, suggest that therapy should be directed at controlling

allergies and preventing exposure to environmental allergens.

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