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Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Vitamin D3 and Langerhan suppression!!!

Soooooo remember how I told you about these Langerhan cells, well in my "langerhan and" searches, I found a connection. I constantly google key phrases together. When I say key phrases I mean whatever new term I am looking into with the addition of "and MTHFR", or "and B vitamins", or "and methylation". Today I googled "langerhan and B vitamins", since that is the major deficiency with MTHFR, and found this......

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9627697
Concluding with :
"It is proposed that the inhibitory effects of the vitamin D3 on Langerhans cells may induce immunosuppression in the skin."

What does this mean? Why should we care? Well remember, Langerhan cells are antigen producing immune cells in the skin. This means they produce an allergic or inflammatory response in the skin. If we have too many of these we have inflammatory skin issues, in our case....eczema. I have noticed a consistent response in J's inflammation with the introduction of D3 drops. The other day I didn't realize the drops started and I gave her too many. The next day she was glowing and so much less red. Does this mean D3 is the cure to eczema, probably not. Do I think D3 is a must for ALL atopic kids, absolutely. I am glad to have found the "why" D3 was such a game changer for us.

In addition, the difficulty with starting to find the "why" in things that are not working correctly, is the common realization of our own role in the "why". I have found many things that I could have done better or different in many aspects of my pregnancy and motherhood. I try not to waste too much time with the "what ifs". What we know to be true is always true until we find out it is not. Hindsight is often 20/20. So please learn from my learning curve :). Here is an article that outlines motherhood D deficiency and fetal immune system. Sure wish I had known I was deficient!

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/81/5/1177.1.full

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Langerhan cells and eczema!!!!

During my obsessive searching for today, I stumbled upon some interesting ideas. We are at the point with our little eczema princess that we pretty much have her allergies understood, to a certain degree anyway. So now I am onto the skin surface area issues. It has always been my strategy to heal J from the inside and then work on the skin. I felt as though I couldn't keep on top of her flares if they kept at the pace they were going. We now have them relatively under control, but she still shows so much dryness in her hands and feet. She still has flares of histamine when she goes out in the cold or rolls on certain surfaces and when she encounters certain things. This I think is due to the fillagrin piece. So I am throwing myself at you Mr. Fillagrin producer, I want to know how you work!!! While reading about Fillagrin and its function, I stumbled upon something called a langerhan cell, yeah I know, what the heck is that right??? Well langerhan cells are ANTIGEN PRODUCING immune cells IN THE SKIN!!!!

http://www.hkmacme.org/course/2010BW10-06-00/derma%20review_1010.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1385540
http://www.articledashboard.com/Article/The-Effect-Of-A-Hyperactive-Langerhans-Cell-On-Eczema/192961

So my new quest for information is centered around Fillagrin as well as langerhan cells, how they work, what the body needs to produce/regulate them, how to optimize regulation as well as what causes the deregulation (outside of the immune response due to vaccine adjudvants as previously discussed). It is my experience, that when doctors or science says its "genetic", what this really means is a malformation on a gene. All the reading I have done on malformations tend to be because of epigenetics and deficiencies caused by our toxic environment and food choices. There are obviously genetic pieces besides just malformations due to epigenetics, but for the chronic stuff it seems this is the place to focus If I can figure out what makes these processes work, what genes they are on etc.... then maybe I can figure out some supports!!! Stay tuned because I will share ;)