Immune System

Cases of celiac disease may be on the rise, in large part because people can develop the autoimmune disorder much later in life than previously thought, according to a study published Monday in the Annals of Medicine. The prevalence of the disease more than doubled among a group of 3,511 seemingly healthy adults between 1974 and 1989, researchers found. By retesting blood samples collected decades ago, they also determined that 15 of the 16 people who had celiac disease were not diagnosed at the time by their doctors.

Circumcision is known to reduce a man's risk of HIV infection by at least half, but scientists don't know why. A new study offers support for the theory that removing the foreskin deprives troublesome bacteria of a place to live, leaving the immune system in much better shape to keep the human immunodeficiency virus at bay. Anyone who has ever lifted a rock and watched as the earth beneath it was quickly vacated by legions of bugs and tiny worms...

Devotees of massage therapy know it's relaxing and feels good. But massage may also be an effective tool for maintaining good health. Researchers from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center reported this week that a single massage produced measurable changes in the immune system and endocrine system of healthy adults. The researchers, led by Dr. Mark Rapaport, studied 29 healthy adults who received a 45-minute Swedish massage and 24 healthy adults who had a 45-minute session of light touch massage, a much milder exercise that served as a comparison to the more vigorous Swedish massage.

The deadly and mysterious coronavirus that first appeared in Saudi Arabia last year has claimed two more victims, bringing the official death toll to 11. The World Health Organization said a 73-year-old man from the United Arab Emirates who was taken to Germany for medical treatment died at a Munich hospital Tuesday. The United Nations health authority also announced that a man from Britain who became sick in January has died. That man had traveled to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and presumably became infected there.

For more than 100 years, medical literature has contained reports of a debilitating illness that causes prolonged fatigue, memory loss, headaches, cognitive problems and issues with digestion and sleep. Teddy Roosevelt, John Muir and Thomas Eakins all suffered from what was then known as neurasthenia. At that time, the recommended treatment for women was bed rest; men were advised to head to the Wild West. But neither treatment could be counted on to cure the disease. Toward the end of the 20th century, doctors came up with the term chronic fatigue syndrome (or, in Europe, myalgic encephalomyelitis)

Former Vice President Dick Cheney's heart transplant Saturday at Inova Fairfox Hospital in Virgina highlights the fact that, while such operations may offer patients a new lease on life, they come with their own set of complications. "It's a long haul," said Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist who serves as director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute. "The first few days is basically like healing from an open-heart operation … so mainly he would have a lot of discomfort in his chest wall.

Doctors have overcome 30 years of false starts and found success with a new way to fight cancer: using the body's natural defender, the immune system. The approach is called a cancer vaccine, although it treats the disease rather than prevents it. Researchers at a cancer conference in Orlando said Sunday that one such vaccine kept a common form of lymphoma from worsening for more than a year.

I am 62 years old and just had my second bone-density test. I was told I have osteopenia and should take Boniva. I have been lactose-intolerant, so I avoid dairy products. I have tried calcium, but it makes me constipated. I took Actonel but developed leg cramps. I took one Boniva tablet the nurse gave me as a sample, but I now have unbearable indigestion. Is there anything natural I can take? Osteopenia is a controversial condition. The concept of pre-osteoporosis was created somewhat arbitrarily in 1992 for research purposes rather than to guide treatment.

HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is one of the fastest-evolving entities known. That's why no one has yet been able to come up with a vaccine: The virus mutates so rapidly that what works today in one person may not work tomorrow or in others. A study published Wednesday in the journal Nature confirms that dizzying pace of evolution on a global scale.

An experimental drug that stimulates the immune system may someday help doctors treat chronic infections and some kinds of cancer, a study suggests. In mice, the drug reduced virus levels in an experimental infection and cut the growth of implanted tumors. In people, the drug might prove useful for chronic infections such as hepatitis B and the AIDS virus, and cancers where the immune system may limit tumor growth, such as melanoma, said researcher John Rhodes.

Infections may do more than run you down, make you feel miserable and cause absences from work or school: A new study finds that having a long track record of infections may bite into your mental reserves as well. Scientists have long suspected that infections wreak havoc not just on the body but on the mind as well, and it doesn't seem to matter whether the infections are viral or bacterial, or what part of the body they affect. Having a medical history that includes more than the usual infections puts a patient at higher risk of stroke and vascular disease.

If you're trying to ward off the sniffles, you can take vitamin D supplements out of your shopping cart: A new study reports that dosing with the vitamin does nothing to prevent colds or other forms of upper respiratory tract infections (URTI). The effect of vitamin D on the immune system has been debated for a long time. Controlled laboratory research has shown that vitamin D has several beneficial effects on the immune system, and some studies conducted in the past have suggested that people with low levels of the vitamin are at higher risk for URTIs.

Officials of the MacArthur Foundation must have had a gut feeling when they awarded Caltech microbiologist Sarkis Mazmanian one of 23 "genius grants," a half-million dollars over five years to recipients of all stripes, from physicists to novelists.   Mazmanian explores the complex relationship between the immune system and the diverse community of microbes that inhabit the digestive tract. His work could lead to new drugs inspired by beneficial bacteria in the human body, and it has implications for the way in which we see the causes of autism, multiple sclerosis and a host of other conditions and diseases.

WASHINGTON -- The face of AIDS is aging. Thanks to major scientific advances in antiretroviral drugs, people with HIV are no longer condemned to early death, and can live near-normal lifespans. But as the epidemic enters its fourth decade, healthcare providers must face the unique challenges and complications that arise when aging and HIV intersect, according to experts. Throughout the International AIDS Conference this week, speakers said we were just starting to understand the medical and other needs of the aging HIV/AIDS population.

The two Alaskan fishermen had stopped to examine a bald eagle when they noticed something sleek and gray in the Bristol Bay surf: a baby beluga whale in the shallows, faintly whistling and clicking. The whale, already dehydrated and disoriented, soon swam away, but then circled back to shore. The fishermen began making phone calls. In almost no time, marine specialists raced in. The Alaska SeaLife Center - a research and rehabilitation organization - grounded local flights, then settled the whale calf on an air mattress, draped him in wet towels and airlifted him toward safety.

Last week, scientists reported on a 5-year study of all the bacteria that inhabit the human body - 100 trillion of them, weighing 2 to 6 pounds total (in a 200-pound person) - and of 10,000 different types, though not all of them will reside in any one particular person. This week, an interesting article published in the journal Cell points to just how crucial the correct bacteria may be for developing a robust immune system. Scientists know that mice reared in a germ-free environment don't develop normally.

Sometime in the late 19th century, both Europeans and North Americans realized that the herb echinacea was a medicinal gift from nature. In 1919, noted anthropologist Melvin Gilmore remarked in a study of the Plains Indians that "echinacea seems to have been used as a remedy for more ailments than any other plant." A member of the sunflower family, echinacea remains a popular herb. Nine species are found in North America, but only three (E. pallida, E. angustifolia and E.

The 1996 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine was awarded Monday to two scientists who shed new light on how the immune system battles viruses, ingeniously telling friend from foe as it spares healthy cells but hunts down those that have been invaded. The recipients, who split the $1.1-million prize, are Peter C. Doherty, 55, an Australian immunologist now working at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.

Allergy season came early this year. Unprecedented warmth this winter caused plants to begin blooming earlier than normal, flooding the air with pollen and triggering fits of sneezing, runny noses, itches and rashes. Scientists have struggled for decades to understand why humans suffer such nasty allergic reactions and why the incidence of allergies -- such as to peanuts -- seems to be increasing almost exponentially. There still is no good answer, but Yale researchers suggested Wednesday that allergies may be an outgrowth of the way our body protects us from noxious substances in the environment.

An experimental drug called ONO-4641 reduced the number of lesions in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis by as much as 92%, Colorado researchers reported Tuesday. The drug must undergo a larger clinical trial before it can be approved for general use, but the early results suggest it could be a major new addition to the slowly growing armamentarium against the cruel disease. MS is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks the myelin that surrounds and insulate nerves, effectively short-circuiting them and making movements difficult.