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Traditional Lifestyle (traditional + lifestyle)
Selected AbstractsDeterminants of atopic sensitization in Turkish school children: Effects of pre- and post-natal events and maternal atopyPEDIATRIC ALLERGY AND IMMUNOLOGY, Issue 1 2004Semanur Kuyucu Emergence of new environmental risk factors, and/or loss of protective factors of a traditional lifestyle may explain the increase, or variations in prevalence of allergic diseases. The aim of this study was to delineate the prevalence and spectrum of, and to reveal the causal and/or protective factors for atopic sensitization among a heterogenous cohort of Turkish children, for the first time in our country. The study design adhered to International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) phase II protocol. A self-administered parental questionnaire about demographic characteristics and detailed risk factors, and skin-prick test with 13 allergens were employed in a clustered random sample of 8,11-yr-old Turkish school children. Atopy was defined as the presence of at least one positive skin reaction to any allergen tested. The association between a total of 78 risk factors and different aspects of atopy were analyzed in 1144 children with multivariate logistic regression analysis. The overall prevalence of atopy was 20.6%. Most common sensitizations were to grass pollens, Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus and Blatella germanica. Day care attendance, high paternal education level, male gender and maternal asthma were significant risk factors for atopy. Breastfeeding more than 6 months (compared with 0,6 months), maternal smoking during pregnancy and a birth weight under 2500 g were inversely related to (or protective factors for) atopic sensitization. Maternal atopic disease had significant effects on risk factors pattern. In children with a maternal atopy history a low birth weight, day care attendance and maternal smoking during the first year of life independently increased the risk of atopic sensitization. Gender, breastfeeding and paternal education did not show any association with atopy in this group of children. A history of measles and low gestational age were significant protective factors for mite sensitization. This study showed that children of atopic mothers showed a different profile of risk factors associated with atopic sensitization, when compared with other children. Prenatal and early childhood events had important associations with atopic sensitization. [source] The protective role of country living on skin prick tests, immunoglobulin E and asthma in adults from the Epidemiological study on the Genetics and Environment of Asthma, bronchial hyper-responsiveness and atopyCLINICAL & EXPERIMENTAL ALLERGY, Issue 3 2002F Kauffmann Summary Background Farming environment and traditional lifestyle seem to protect from childhood allergy. Objective The aim is to analyse the relationships of living in the country to asthma, positive skin prick tests and IgE among adults considering various windows of exposure over the life-span. Methods The study concerns 805 adults drawn from the Epidemiological study on the Genetics and Environment of Asthma, bronchial hyper-responsiveness and atopy (EGEA) (asthmatic cases, non-asthmatic controls, and parents of cases with and without asthma). Ever living in the country concerned 55% of the subjects. Early (beginning <,1 years), childhood (beginning , 16 years), prolonged (duration , 10 years) and current life in the country were studied. Results The results based on the case control and family components of the study show that IgE levels were significantly lower in those who ever lived in the country and in particular in those who lived for , 10 years. Positive skin prick tests (SPT) were significantly less prevalent in those who ever lived in the country and in particular in those with childhood (, 16 years) exposure. These associations remained independent of age, sex, smoking or asthma with IgE levels of 64 vs. 88 IU/mL; P = 0.004 for those ever living in the country vs. others and odds ratio for SPT positivity of 0.72 (95% CI [0.53,0.98]). In the more specific group with traditional mode of heating in childhood (use of wood) associations were stronger. The association with asthma, studied in parents of asthmatic probands showed that fathers, but not mothers, of asthmatics were significantly less often asthmatic themselves in relation to country living. Conclusion Country life protects from asthma and adulthood allergy. The protective effect is not restricted to exposure in early childhood. [source] Primary prevention of allergy: avoiding risk or providing protection?CLINICAL & EXPERIMENTAL ALLERGY, Issue 2 2008E. Hamelmann Summary Primary prevention strategies of allergy so far have been aimed to fight allergy causes, by avoiding risk factors and inhibiting their mechanisms of action. The results of trials testing food or airborne allergen avoidance as a prevention strategy were, however, rather disappointing. A reverse approach for primary prevention of allergies aims to facilitate exposure to protecting factors which promote the induction of immunologic tolerance against innocuous antigens. These factors are associated with farming environment and a ,traditional lifestyle', but identification of these factors is quite difficult. Major candidates include food-borne microbes, helminths or their components, which are able to stimulate mucosal immunity, particularly in the gut. Similarly, new preventive and therapeutic strategies are being tested to induce specific food-allergen oral tolerance through the ingestion of progressively increasing doses of the offending food. This shifting of allergy prevention research from avoidance to tolerance induction will hopefully allow us to reverse the epidemic trend of allergy diseases. [source] Occlusal grooves in anterior dentition among Kovuklukaya inhabitants (Sinop, northern Anatolia, 10th century AD)INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OSTEOARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 2 2008Y. S. Erdal Abstract Mesiodistally directed grooves have been observed on the occlusal surfaces of nine incisors of five females in a small skeletal population from Kovuklukaya (Sinop, northern Anatolia, 10th century AD). There is no archaeological evidence to explain the cultural practices that must have caused such unusual abrasions of the anterior dentition. Investigations of the geographical characteristics of the region and data gathered on the traditional lifestyles of Çulhal, inhabitants enables us to reach meaningful conclusions about the Kovuklukaya people. According to the direction of the grooves, ecological characteristics of the region, and ethnographic data, it is proposed that the unusual abrasion observed in the Kovuklukaya population may be linked to passing yarn between the anterior teeth to wet it. The grooves in the Kovuklukaya population were found only in female skeletons, indicating the existence of a sex-based division of labour in yarn production. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||