Mothers Intuition

Have you ever had an instinct? An instinct that begins as a gnawing...Then grows into a raging burn; a burning instinct that something is wrong...

Your baby continues to get sick from the very foods he is supposed to thrive on. I did. I am a mom of a little boy just diagnosed with FPIES.

And that burning feeling now? Extinguished. My instincts? Stronger than ever. Guiding me, with my faith, as we navigate through the murky waters of our new world created by something called FPIES.

"Faith is not about everything turning out OK; Faith is about being OK no matter how things turn out."

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Immune System and Respone...General overview

Immune Response happens when white blood cells present foreign materials to the B or T cells. 

B cells= antibody-mediated immunity (IgE)

T cells = direct cellular processes to protect the body, but does not produce antibodies.

T cells carry T cell receptors that recognize specific antigens; and there are 3 main types of T cells:
Th1=regulation of defenses against bacteria, virusus, fungi, parasites.
Th2=promotes antibody production
Th3=responsible for immune regulation of T1/T2, which gives us oral tolerance. 

T cells can cause immune dysfunction in two ways.  One is there the Th2 is dysregulated and this results in overprodcution of antibodies which cause typical allergy and allergy associated diseases (IgE, eczema, allergy induced asthma...).    The second is when the Th1 is overactive and this leads to auto-immune diseases- the body attacking itself instead of bacterian, viruses, fungi and parasites (rheumoatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Crohns, psorasis...)

FPIES is thought to be a Th1 response, not over active but over RE-active.  The Th1 isn't activated to attack unless it recognizes foreign antigens (food triggers).   There are some FPIES that remain complex, and the question remains is if this over-reactive response doesn't just become over active in general turning the FPIES into an auto-immune and chronic condition that is more difficult to control. 

Gut flora helps to regulate immune system responses (continued in another post: )

3 comments:

  1. where is the rest of this article?? id love to have the link :)

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  2. Lisa, these are my notes from a few articles and books, and my background knowledge in allergies/nutrition; as I learned my way to a deeper understanding of FPIES. There wasn't an article to go with this- just what was in my head :)

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  3. oh...i got confused because you said continued in another post. was there more?

    ReplyDelete