濕疹的原理

濕疹的原理 顧小培 老天爺對女孩子頗為偏心。發育中女孩的雌激素，會輕輕觸動皮下的肥大細胞（Mast Cell），令其分泌小量的組織胺（Histamine）。組織胺本是肥大細胞用來召集白血球的生物訊息，但它會舒張皮下微絲血管，從而令少量的紅血球和水滲出了微絲血管，皮膚便紅（來自紅血球）和潤（來自水）了。不過，發育期過後，再沒有紅血球和水不斷地滲出微絲血管，柔嫩情況慢慢消失，皮膚逐漸失去昔日光澤，雖不致又黃又乾，但每況愈下，足以令女士大破慳囊，購買各種化妝品以圖補救。及後去到更年期，卵巢停止製造雌激素，肥大細胞不再分泌組織胺，皮膚出現雞皮的現象。 肥大細胞的主要功能，卻並非在於令皮膚紅潤。從免疫學的角度來看，肥大細胞是一類哨兵，駐守在皮膚和黏膜中，一旦有「非我」物質闖進皮膚，例如被蚊子叮了一口，有蚊子唾液中的蛋白質走了進來，肥大細胞會盡快召喚淋巴細胞到來迎「敵」。淋巴細胞怎樣從血管去到皮膚？正是靠肥大細胞用組織胺去舒張微絲血管。不過，當舒張的程度令胖嘟嘟的淋巴細胞可以離開微絲血管之時，體積比它小的紅血球也會尾隨進入皮膚，於是令有關部分紅了；同一時間，亦有大量的水滲入。由於皮膚是一個密不透水的屏障，水困於其中，會令皮膚腫起來。再者，這些水壓在皮膚中觸覺神經的末梢，造成痕癢的感覺。整體而言，皮膚內的紅血球和水，引出紅腫和痕癢；這便是皮膚敏感和濕疹的病因和病徵。 回到免疫學原理，組織胺乃是濕疹病理機制的關鍵，因此，若能制止肥大細胞分泌組織胺，便不會有紅血球和水進入皮膚了。問題是如何能抑制。有兩個方法：一是釜底抽薪，根本不讓組織胺造出來。循這方向思考，組織胺來自一個很平常的胺基酸，叫組胺酸（Histidine），這是細胞用來合成蛋白質的，是由人體中一些脫羧酶（Decarboxylase）的酵素造出來。理論上，若能將那些酵素廢掉，便沒有任何組織胺可供肥大細胞用以分泌了。第二種方法，是直接阻止肥大細胞分泌組織胺。具體而言，肥大細胞之所以會分泌組織胺，是受到一種所謂E型抗體的刺激。理論上，若能減低肥大細胞表面的「E型抗體」接受體，不讓它「接受」E型抗體，也就不會有濕疹了。有沒有藥能抑制上述酵素的功能，或阻止E型抗體的作用？對不起，沒有。不過，有兩種補健食物有此能耐，一是洋葱素（五羥黃酮Quercetin），它能干擾組織胺之製作（Clin. Exp. Med., Vol.6, pp.150-156）；另一是綠茶素（EGCG），能減少E型抗體接受體。雙管齊下，能大大減少皮膚內的組織胺，不但防止濕疹，更可令已滲出皮膚的血和水慢慢被回收進血管。水分一去，便不癢了。再者，紅血球被回收後，皮膚也就不紅了。 Quercetin (洋蔥素) & EGCG (綠茶素) are just two of the substances that help Eczema (濕疹). For full treatment on Eczema, see the article below from a Medical Doctor in US who use nutritional approach to treat his patients with great success. I have friends who have fully recovered using his recommendation. Ray D. Strand, M.D. Specialist in Nutritional Medicine Eczema or Atopic Dermatitis or Dermatitis Many of my patients suffer from dry, scaly skin. I see this in babies, children, and adults. This is called many names but the most common names are eczema, dermatitis, atopic dermatitis, nummular eczema, and allergic or contact dermatitis. The hallmark characteristic of this disease is a very dry, scaly, and often inflamed skin. It can appear all over the body and even in the scalp. The frustration to parents of children and adults with this problem is the fact that it does not respond all that well to traditional creams, lotions, and prescription medication. Many of these patients suffer from significant itchy skin and frequent skin infections. I have personally found that the majority of these patients respond very well to nutritional supplementation. I would encourage anyone with this problem to compliment their medication with the following aggressive nutritional supplementation support. Over 80% of the population today is deficient in essential fats. When my patients begin taking these essential fats in the form of filtered fish oil or flax seed, their skin improves significantly. Also there is strong evidence in the medical literature that grape seed extract improves dermatitis as well as skin diseases like psoriasis. It is critical to offer the body the nutrients it needs internally to improve these skin diseases. Minimal support for Cellular Nutrition My minimal recommendation for creating cellular nutrition is to simply take an Antioxidant Tablet and Mineral Tablet that contains as close to the recommended nutrients you can see by clicking on each particular nutrient or tablet. Several nutritional companies are now combining most of these nutrients into one or two different tablets, which makes it much more convenient to get the cellular nutrition that I recommend. The Antioxidant and Mineral Tablets need to offer the cell ALL of the antioxidants, B cofactors, and antioxidant minerals needed by the cell at ideal levels. In order to achieve the best results, in general I recommend taking 2 Antioxidant Tablets and 2 Mineral Tablets in the AM with breakfast and in the PM with your evening meal. Now the exact amount may vary with the particular nutritional company you choose; however, nutritionals should always be taken with food because of better absorption and better tolerance. Optimal support for Cellular Nutrition For the most favorable results for basic cellular nutrition, I also recommend adding to the Antioxidant Tablet and Mineral Tablet some additional Calcium/Magnesium Tablets and essential fats. You are able to get additional essential fatty acids from high-quality Flax Seed Oil or pharmaceutical-grade, filtered Fish Oil Capsules. These recommendations provide all the nutrients at their ideal levels creating the cellular nutrition I recommend in my book, What Your Doctor Doesn’t Know About Nutritional Medicine. Enhancers It is critical that you know the necessity of adding Enhancers, which contain additional potent antioxidants, to your foundational cellular nutrition for optimal results. Patients who are suffering from a chronic degenerative disease or illness are producing more free radicals and are under more oxidative stress than the average healthy individual. Therefore, adding potent Enhancers to the basic cellular nutrition I recommend offers you the best chance to bring this oxidative stress back under control. The synergy and increased potency created by this approach to nutritional medicine is why I’m able to get such consistent improvement in the health of my patients. However, in order to suit each individual’s unique financial situation, I always offer both an optimal and a minimal plan for cellular nutrition and for adding Enhancers. Obviously, one’s improvement of their health will be more consistent with the optimal recommendations; however, a minimal regime can still produce significant improvement in your health. Recommended Enhancers: Optimal: * Grape Seed Extract-9 tablets daily * Increase Fish Oil Capsule - 3 to 4 times daily or Flax Seed Oil to 4 tsps daily Optimal Recommendations Nutritional Supplement Breakfast Lunch Dinner Antioxidant Tablet 2 2 Mineral Tablet 2 2 Calcium/Magnesium Tablet 2 2 Grape Seed Extract 6 3 Fish Oil Capsule 2 1 Minimal Recommendation Nutritional Supplement Breakfast Lunch Dinner Antioxidant Tablet 2 2 Mineral Tablet 2 2 Grape Seed Extract 3 3 Fish Oil Capsule 1 1 Cellular Nutrition for Children Children ages 1 to 8 years of age: My minimal recommendation for creating cellular nutrition in children of this age group is to simply take 1/4 of the Antioxidant Tablet dose and 1/4 of the Mineral Tablet that contains as close to the recommended nutrients you can see by clicking on each particular nutrient or tablet. Children ages 8 to 14 years of age: My minimal recommendation for creating cellular nutrition in children of this age group is to simply take 1/2 of the Antioxidant Tablet dose and 1/2 of the Mineral Tablet that contains as close to the recommended nutrients you can see by clicking on each particular nutrient or tablet. Children ages 15 and up who weigh more than 110 pounds: My minimal recommendation for creating cellular nutrition in children of this age group is to simply take the Antioxidant Tablet dose and the Mineral Tablet that contains as close to the recommended nutrients you can see by clicking on each particular nutrient or tablet. Optimizers: Add this level of optimizers in children when it is recommended for a particular disease. Grape Seed Extract: I recommend giving children 1 to 2 mg of per pound per day (this is 3 to 5 mg per kilogram) of Grape Seed Extract in at least two divided doses. I have no hesitation in using Grape Seed Extract in children who over 2 years of age. These tablets may be crushed and placed in a drink or food with no loss of potency. CoQ10 I recommend giving children 1 to 2 mg of CoQ10 per pound per day (this is 3 to 5 mg per kilogram) in divided doses. Essential Fats I recommend giving 1 tsp of Essential Fats to children between the ages of 1 and 8 years old. Children 9 years and older I recommend giving 2 tsps of Essential Fats. You can always substitute pharmaceutical-grade, filtered fish oil capsules (1 per tsp recommendation). Calcium/Magnesium Tablets I recommend giving children ages 2 to 6 1/4 of the Calcium/Magnesium tablet. Children ages 6 to 10 should take 1/2 of the Calcium/Magnesium tablet. Children ages 11 and older should take the full dose of the Calcium/Magnesium tablet. Vitamin C (additional) Children between the ages of 2 and 6 should take 1/4 of the recommended dose of Vitamin C (additional). Children between the ages of 7 and 12 should take 1/2 of the recommended dose of Vitamin C (additional). Children older than 13 can take the full dose of recommended Vitamin C (additional). Choosing High-Quality Nutritional Supplements One of the most difficult aspects of being involved in nutritional medicine is the fact that nutritional supplement companies are basically an uncontrolled industry. The FDA looks at supplements like foods. Nutritional companies are really not required to put in their tablets what they say is on their label. The quality of products that is placed in most supplements is of inferior quality and their manufacturing processes are generally suspect. People who have read my books or used this web site will sometimes go out to their local chain stores, drug stores, or health food stores and try to put together my recommendations on their own. The frustrating thing about this is that they think that they are doing what I am recommending only to either not get any health benefits from their efforts or very marginal results. When you look at my nutritional recommendations for the Antioxidant tablet and Mineral tablet, you will quickly realize that you cannot get this amount of supplementation in a simple daily multivitamin. However, some companies are now putting all of the needed nutrients together in one or two different pills. In order to achieve the optimal levels I recommend, you will most likely need to take several (four to eight tablets) daily. The more antioxidants you take and the more variation your supplement provides the better. Also be sure that you are getting all the recommended levels of the minerals and the B-cofactors. You need to spend a little time investigating the nutritional company you choose. You can locate information on the company’s website or you may need to call the company directly. Most importantly, you want a company that follows pharmaceutical-grade Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). This means that they purchase pharmaceutical-grade raw materials and then follow pharmaceutical-grade Good Manufacturing Practices in producing their supplements. These companies produce what is called pharmaceutical-grade supplements, meaning similar guidelines are followed for manufacturing their products as companies making over-the-counter or prescription medications. The government does not require the manufacturers of nutritional supplements to do this; still, some nutritional companies put this extra effort into the manufacturing of their products to provide their customers with the assurance that they are getting what is on the label. These high-quality manufacturers will put the actual amounts of the nutrients found in their products on the label and give full disclosure of all the ingredients. You also want to find an expiration date on the bottle and the company’s full address. Another aspect of quality that needs to be considered is whether or not the manufacturer of your nutritional supplements follows what are known as U.S. Pharmacopoeia (USP) standards. These are government guidelines that assure consumers that their medications and supplement tablets are of the highest quality and will dissolve properly and be readily absorbed into the body. Pharmaceutical-grade GMP’s would be rendered worthless if the company does not also follow USP standards for the dissolution of their tablets. If the tablet does not dissolve properly, it does not matter what they put in them. Choosing a company that follows the USP guidelines is certainly a step in the right direction. Balance and completeness is another very critical aspect of choosing a high-quality nutritional supplement. Just like there are drug-interactions, there are also nutrient interactions that can create poor absorption and poor interactions. This is probably the most difficult aspect for the average consumer to really know or understand. Therefore it is critical to choose a company that understands completeness and balance in their products. Another aspect to consider when you are researching a particular company is where it markets its products. A company that markets internationally usually has to follow higher standards than those who market only in the United States. Canada, Australia, and Western European countries have the highest standards for the manufacturing of nutritional supplements. Canada and Australia presently have some of the most restrictive requirements for nutritional supplements. Starting Your Nutritional Program Over 80 to 90% of my patients are able to start taking their nutritional supplements with absolutely no problems. The cellular nutrition that I recommend provides nutrients that you get from foods but at levels you just are not able to obtain from your foods. These are not herbs nor do they have any pharmaceutical properties. They are merely nutrients that our bodies need to function at its optimal level. My cellular nutritional recommendations have been developed to provide all the essential nutrients to the cell at these optimal or advance levels that have been shown to provide a health benefit in our medical literature. The level of the nutritionals provided in these recommendations are all well within safe parameters. However, you will be nourishing your body more effectively than you have ever nourished it before. The medical literature has shown us that when you supplement your body with these high quality, complete and balanced nutritional supplements that there are several health benefits. Remember, taking supplements is about health—not disease. Over time of supplementing a good diet and exercise program, you will not only optimize your body’s natural antioxidant defense system, but also, its natural immune and repair system. Your body will also now be able to begin to remove waste products (toxins) more effectively from the body. A small percentage of my patients (less than 10 to 20%) may experience some mild detoxification reactions. Detoxification The most common detoxification reaction is mild muscle aches and/or mild headaches. These symptoms will usually pass within a few days to a week or two. If the discomfort is not unbearable, I simply have my patients continue their nutritionals as I have recommended. However, occasionally there is a more severe reaction. The patient is not in danger; rather, the amounts of nutrients are just too much too fast. In this case, I have my patients quit their supplements for a few days until the reaction subsides. I will then have them start back on their program but initially at lower doses (approximately one third of the recommended dose). Once they are tolerating this amount of supplementation, I suggest slowly building up to the recommended doses. Some of my patients actually develop a "detox" skin rash somewhere on their body. As you know, the skin is an important route for ridding the body’s toxins. This rash is a dry, red rash that looks almost like a mild sunburn. Some people confuse this with an allergic reaction to the supplements. I have never seen an allergic reaction to the high-quality nutritional supplements I recommend. Patients may also experience some aspect of loose stools or even diarrhea. This again is a common "detox" reaction because the GI tract is another prime route for eliminating toxins from the body. This symptom will usually diminish within 7 to 10 days. It is an important part of the detoxification and healing process. Therefore, I usually encourage my patients to continue the supplements as recommended unless their bottom gets too sore. I will then again recommend lower doses of the supplements until they feel better and then begin adding the supplements back more slowly until the recommended doses are reached. Natural Relaxation Response A small percentage of patients develop a natural relaxation response when minerals are absorbed into their body. This is of great concern to those patients who have just been told that nutritional supplementation may potentially improve their energy level. They take the supplements as recommended only to find themselves more fatigued and dragging themselves around throughout their day. If you experience this response, I recommend that you take all of your minerals with a light bedtime snack. This allows you to take advantage of your body’s response while getting a good night’s sleep. Stomach Upset A small percentage of patients have difficulty tolerating vitamin C. It can cause an upset stomach that will usually become evident a couple days after starting their nutritional program. The vitamin C I recommend usually is found in the Antioxidant Tablet. If you are experiencing significant nausea, I suggest taking just one Antioxidant Tablet with the largest meal. Once this level of supplementation is better tolerated, I suggest slowly adding another Antioxidant Tablet to the next largest meal. I anticipate building them up to the recommended level of supplementation, but sometimes this is just not possible. For those extremely sensitive, I advise just taking the amount of Antioxidant Tablets that they can tolerate even if this is just one or two per day.