PLT Test Blog

If you are looking for personalized medicine, you or your doctor need to be a good detective. Not to mention you need some clues. If you are treating a condition like autism and certain things cause a marked change in the severity of the condition, these are pretty good places to start. In the case of our reader in Delhi, it is Beta-lactam antibiotics (penicillin, amoxicillin etc), that consistently seem to improve her son’s autism. Improvement during treatment with antibiotics is reported quite often in autism, but with all kinds of different antibiotic.   Nothing is simple. For non-medical readers, there are several categories of antibiotics; common types including:- ·         Beta-lactams (e.g. Penicillins) ·         Macrolides (e.g. Erythromycin , Azithromycin ) ·         Fluoroquinolones (e.g. Ciprofloxacin )   ·         Tetracyclines...

Today’s post is a little complicated because it links together various issues ranging from food allergies to severe headaches, brain inflammation to arthritis. The common link here is histamine, which has been covered at length on this blog.  You may recall that the H1 histamine receptor is the one associated with hay fever, H2 is expressed in the intestines and is involved in regulating acidity levels, H3 is mainly found in the central nervous system (CNS). The Histamine H4 receptor has been shown to be involved in mediating eosinophil shape change and mast cell chemotaxis . Here is the full paper, for those interested in mast cells:- Histamine H4 Receptor Mediates Chemotaxis and Calcium Mobilization of Mast Cells   In addition to all these receptors, histamine causes an increase in the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-6.   IL-6 is elevated in autism and many other inflammatory conditions ranging from arthritis to traumatic brain injury (TBI).   One of interesting inte...