kiny
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- Apr 28, 2011
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ISPLWDgU0Xg
"Doctors who treat patients with Crohn’s disease have long regarded the illness as a biological version of friendly fire, where people’s own immune systems mistakenly attack the digestive tract. But Washington State University researcher William Davis said its cause may originate outside the human body - from a germ that sickens cattle.
Working with scientists internationally, Davis is developing a vaccine that could head off the problem.
In 2006, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a fact sheet acknowledging researchers’ concerns that MAP is being transmitted to humans in undercooked meat, unpasteurized milk and water.
In 2008, a report by the American Academy of Microbiology said that people with Crohn’s disease are "seven-fold more likely” to have MAP in their gut tissues. While the cause of Crohn’s is unknown, the authors wrote, "the possible role of this bacterium, which could conceivably be passed up the food chain to people, has received too little attention from the research community.”
More precise testing tools reveal MAP is present in healthy humans as well, said Davis – a finding that "tells us that all humans are susceptible to MAP infection but that its presence doesn’t always lead to disease. While not destroying MAP, the human immune system is keeping it in check.”
Skeptics insist that MAP be consistently found in all Crohn's patients before they will consider it as a potential cause of the disease, according to medical literature critical of the MAP-link theory. But physician and researcher William Chamberlin - who sees Crohn’s patients almost daily - doesn’t need that kind of evidence, he said.
"This is a classic case of the 800 pound gorilla in the living room that’s easier to ignore than to do something about,” said Chamberlin, a gastroenterologist who, in 2011, co-authored a review in the journal Clinical Immunology concluding that Crohn’s is caused by infections, not an autoimmune disorder.
Backing the 2008 report by the American Academy of Microbiology suggesting that Crohn’s isn’t a single disease but a syndrome with different causes, "MAP is but one of them,” said Chamberlin in an interview.
He likens the MAP controversy to the one that ensued over the link between H. pylori and stomach ulcers 30 years ago. Doctors entrenched in the belief that stress and spicy foods caused ulcers resisted an Australian physician’s evidence that the real culprit was a bacterial infection.
Desperate to prove his point, the physician drank a test tube of the bacteria and swiftly developed an ulcer. Then, instead of using the customary antacids to treat it, he took antibiotics – today considered the standard treatment for most stomach ulcers.
And so, as science moves in fits and starts and skepticism continues to percolate, Davis will soon enter his third decade of MAP research on cattle."
"Doctors who treat patients with Crohn’s disease have long regarded the illness as a biological version of friendly fire, where people’s own immune systems mistakenly attack the digestive tract. But Washington State University researcher William Davis said its cause may originate outside the human body - from a germ that sickens cattle.
Working with scientists internationally, Davis is developing a vaccine that could head off the problem.
In 2006, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a fact sheet acknowledging researchers’ concerns that MAP is being transmitted to humans in undercooked meat, unpasteurized milk and water.
In 2008, a report by the American Academy of Microbiology said that people with Crohn’s disease are "seven-fold more likely” to have MAP in their gut tissues. While the cause of Crohn’s is unknown, the authors wrote, "the possible role of this bacterium, which could conceivably be passed up the food chain to people, has received too little attention from the research community.”
More precise testing tools reveal MAP is present in healthy humans as well, said Davis – a finding that "tells us that all humans are susceptible to MAP infection but that its presence doesn’t always lead to disease. While not destroying MAP, the human immune system is keeping it in check.”
Skeptics insist that MAP be consistently found in all Crohn's patients before they will consider it as a potential cause of the disease, according to medical literature critical of the MAP-link theory. But physician and researcher William Chamberlin - who sees Crohn’s patients almost daily - doesn’t need that kind of evidence, he said.
"This is a classic case of the 800 pound gorilla in the living room that’s easier to ignore than to do something about,” said Chamberlin, a gastroenterologist who, in 2011, co-authored a review in the journal Clinical Immunology concluding that Crohn’s is caused by infections, not an autoimmune disorder.
Backing the 2008 report by the American Academy of Microbiology suggesting that Crohn’s isn’t a single disease but a syndrome with different causes, "MAP is but one of them,” said Chamberlin in an interview.
He likens the MAP controversy to the one that ensued over the link between H. pylori and stomach ulcers 30 years ago. Doctors entrenched in the belief that stress and spicy foods caused ulcers resisted an Australian physician’s evidence that the real culprit was a bacterial infection.
Desperate to prove his point, the physician drank a test tube of the bacteria and swiftly developed an ulcer. Then, instead of using the customary antacids to treat it, he took antibiotics – today considered the standard treatment for most stomach ulcers.
And so, as science moves in fits and starts and skepticism continues to percolate, Davis will soon enter his third decade of MAP research on cattle."
