Food Allergy and Intolerence

Many people ascribe their various symptoms to food and many such sufferers have started on exclusion diets. True scientific evidence that food does harm in most circumstances is weak, although adverse reactions to food certainly exist. These can be divided into food allergy and food intolerence. It is commoner in children than in adults. About 1 to 2% of adults are affected and the figures in children vary from 2.5% to 5%.

Food allergies can vary from one to another. But with true food allergies one should avoid that food always. Sometimes accidental exposure can occur. Adults tend to be allergic to fish, shell fish and peanuts while children tend to be allergic to cow's milk, egg white, wheat and soy. Peanuts are very allergic and peanut allergy persists throughout life. Common ones are cow's milk, eggs, sea food and pork. Plants too can cause food allergy. Amongst the fruits known to cause allergy are papaw, banana, manggo, wood apple. Children are more likely to get this but often outgrow it. Adults can get it for the first time and it rarely disappear. Babies get cow's milk allergy but tend to grow out in 3 to 4 years.

How does food allergy manifest?

It can manifest as abdominal pain, vomiting, urticarial skin rash which is very itchy, sneezing. Some can be life threatening with breathing difficulty and swelling in the deeper parts of the neck compressing the breathing passage. Food allergy can also result in eczema and asthma. These tend to affect young children and are often due to egg. Runny nose and asthma may be precipitated described due to milk and chocolates.

Food intolerence e.g.; Lactose (the sugar in milk) It is different from food allergy though it may be difficult to differentiate at times between the two. It is a difficulty in digesting certain foods. The symptoms take longer time to appear than food allergy. It can be due to different reasons like lack of an enzyme to digest a particular food.

A common condition is lactose intolerence in children. This is commonly seen following a viral diarrhea specially after been unnecessarily treated with an antibiotic. Due to this the enzyme lactase which is found in the superficial layers of the duodenum and the upper small intestine is missing because the superficial lining cells are destroyed and there is a no enzyme lactase. Owing to the lack of lactase enzyme the disaccharide lactose sugar in the milk including the breast milk cannot be broken down to mononosacharide glucose and galactose to be absorbed. As the undigested lactose goes down to the large intestine it is converted to lactic acid by the intestinal bacteria which prolongs the diarrhoea. The stool on testing has sugar and the pH is acidic. These children are present with persistent diarrhea not responding to different drugs unnecessarily given by less well-informed doctors. The treatment is to stop feeding the child with milk including breast milk for a few days till the cells producing the lactase enzyme are replaced.

The other causes of food intolerence are chemicals food additives; food poisoning due to the toxin of the bacteria Staphylococcus after eating stale food. This is often reported in the press where workers in a factory in the free trade zones are admitted to hospital after their lunch meal. Some of them can get serious but more often they are not.The latter is short term. There can also be long term food intolerance when there is abdominal bloating, cough.

1. Migrainous headaches, cough and runny nose. Migraine follows the intake of foods such as chocolates, cheese, and alcohol which are rich in tyramines. Patients on some drugs are more prone to this problem.

2. Irritable bowel syndrome. In some patients this seems to be related to ingestion of certain foods.

3. Chinese restaurant syndrome. Monosodium glutamate a flavor enhancer used in cooking Chinese food may produce dizziness faintness, nausea, sweating and chest pains.

4. Diarrhea as referred to earlier is a manifestation of food intolerance.

Justice is Mercy

Jesus warns us that the good deeds we do, including fasting and prayer must not be done publicly for others to see or to obtain praise. If we do that that is the only impermanent reward we will get but when we help others or give donations, big or small for worthy causes our left hand must not know what our right hand is doing.

In two of the temptations, which came soon after the Jordan baptism where Jesus became aware that He was the beloved son of God, the devil challenges this by saying, "If you are the Son of God". This same temptation comes to most of us regularly and we need to be aware as to where it is coming from. We need to stand firm on the promise that in Christ Jesus we all have been baptised to be sons or daughters of the Heavenly Father and God's kingdom is our eternal heritage.

In the first temptation the devil tells the hungry Jesus to abuse His power by turning stones into bread. That is the main lesson for us. In areas where God has given us some power - be it in the family, the Church or the work place - God wants us to use that power to help people and even wash their feet, not to dominate, use or abuse others.

In the second temptation the devil tempts Jesus to indulge in cheap popularity by jumping from the top of the temple. Even in our spiritual life we often tempted to seek cheap popularity to earn praise and compliment from people. This is a temptation we need to resist.

In the first two temptations the devil quotes the Scriptures. We need to be cautious about this because often evil forces or worldly trends and the people who follow it may quote the Scriptures and drag us into something like the prosperity gospel instead of Jesus' Gospel of the cross, death and resurrection.

In the third temptation the devil tells a lie claiming that all the kingdoms of the world and the resources belong to him. In the Scriptures there are hundreds of instances where we are told that the world and all its resources belong to God and not to the devil. So we need to be cautious about such lies that may come from evil forces and worldly powers.

Jesus as the great physician gives us the best prescription for a fruitful life from day to day or moment to moment. Like an Ayurveda physician's effective 'Kasaya' there are three ingredients in it and all there are necessary.

Jesus tells us:
1. Don't worry about the past or fear the future. Live in the moment and live from moment to moment or day to day.
2. Trust in the Lord's unfailing love.
3. Seek the kingdom of love and justice by obeying the Lord's main commandment to love one another as He loves us.

When we do this the promise is that God will provide everything we need, not everything we want or desire. Jesus also warns that we cannot serve two masters - God and money or mammon. If money, wealth and possessions are giving us security and success in life, giving us prestige and power in life, then to that extend we have distanced ourselves from God and may be in danger of facing what happened to the rich fool who built bigger barns or bank accounts to keep his excessive wealth, instead of sharing generously and cheerfully with the impoverished and oppressed people.

Justice is mercy and may God give us a wisdom to see and act.

Nasal Swab could Help Diagnose Lung Cancer

A team of researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) in Massachusetts may have found a more convenient way to determine whether lung lesions are malignant. The findings were published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Lung lesions - or solitary pulmonary nodules - are small growths in the lungs that are usually detected incidentally when a patient has an X-Ray for other reasons. Although physicians are typically worried about cancer upon discovering the lesions, these are benign in the majority of cases.

For instance, of all the patients screened using computed tomography (CT) as part of the National Lung Cancer Screening Trial, 25 percent had a lung lesion, but approximately 95 percent of these cases were, in the end, found to be benign.

As the authors of the new study point out, many of the patients who ultimately receive a benign diagnosis undergi invasive medical procedures such as surgical lung biopsy. The new research, however, uncovers a genomic tool that could enable physicians to tell whether a patient has a malignant lesion by simply taking a swab of their nose.

BUSM researchers collected nasal epithelial brushings from patients who were in the process of having their lung lesions evaluated. These participants were people who currently and formerly smoked, and who were enrolled in the two Airway Epithelium Gene Expression in the Diagnosis of Lung Cancer clinical trials.

The ephitelium is a membrane of cellular tissue that, in this case, encloses and protects the nasal cavity. Scientists examined these nasal epithelial brushings and profiled the participants' gene expression by using microarrays - a genetic tool commonly used to detect gene mutations, such as in BRCA1 or BRCA2, in a person's DNA.

The researchers found cancer - associated gene expressions to be altered in a similar way across the two airway sites. This led them to believe that the nasal airway epithelial field in people who smoke extends all the way to the nose, and that the brushings could be a biomarker for lung cancer.

Marc Lenburg, Ph. D, a professor of medicine at BUSM and co-senior author of the study, explains the significance of the findings: "Our findings clearly demonstrate the existence of a cancer-associated airway field of injury that also can be measured in nasal epithelium. We find that nasal gene expression contains information about the presence of cancer that is independent of standard clinical risk factors, suggesting that nasal epithelial gene expression might aid in lung cancer detection. Moreover, the nasal samples can be collected non-invasively with little instrumentation or advanced training."

There is a clear and growing need to develop additional diagnostic approaches for evaluating pulmonary lesions to determine which patients should undergo CT surveillance or invasive biopsy.The ability to test for molecular changes in this field of injury allows us to rule out the disease earlier without invasive procedures.

This research builds on previous work by the same team, who located another biomarker for lung cancer, found in the epithelium of the bronchus.

Why is Lent so Important?

Every year we go through a period of forty days of Lent. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends with the Holy Week. From our younger days, we have been taught about so many religious observances during the lent period, such as fasting, prayer and various sacrifices. The Church invites us to cleanse our souls, go for confession and prepare ourselves for the events of Holy Week. The period of Lent is considered as a sacred time, where you make special efforts to become a better person and strengthen our relationship with our Lord. Various religious activities such as The Way of the Cross, Pilgrimages and other activities are organized by churches, in order to help people to prepare themselves during Lent.

As much as it is important and good to follow these religious rituals year after year, we need to actually understand why this period is so sacred. The Holy Week ends with the suffering, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Easter Sunday is the day that Our Lord was risen from the dead. Through this death and resurrection, we have been given a new life. Our sins have been forgiven and the broken relationship between us and Our Heavenly Father has been restored. Just imagine, what our plight would be without this beautiful plan of salvation. Through this great event, Our Lord shows us how much He loves us. The suffering, humiliation and pain that Jesus goes through, during this event, is just unthinkable. And cannot be performed by an ordinary human being. This suffering is the ultimate act of love and nothing less to that.

When we go through the Holy Week, we see so many ups and downs in Our Lord Jesus' life. The Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday. Jesus enters Jerusalem in grand manner amidst praise from the people and finally these people crucify Him. And then Jesus immerges victoriously by Rising from the dead on Easter Sunday. Just imagine the emotional storm that He had to go through. When we actually understand the weight of this event and the significance this event had on mankind, we realize the magnitude of the Holy Week and Easter Sunday in particular.

With this understanding, we also realize the immense love that Our Lord has for us.

So we need a significant period to prepare for these events. That is why the period of Lent is so important and the church emphasizes on this. Amidst all the religious observances, we need to really remember why all this is important and really prepare ourselves to commemorate what can be considered as the greatest event for us Christians.

A resolving an unhappy marriage

Jesus went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again; and again, as his custom was, he taught them.

"From the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female'. 'For this reason a man may leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one'. So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder (ibid 5 - 9)."

These words of Jesus applies to all marriages, to all human beings in so far as they are humans. Matrimony is God's idea, not man's. It is a part and parcel of what it means to have human nature. As long as humans are still humans, the indissolubility of the marriage bond holds true.

The reality of marriage nowadays, however, is not as rosy as we would expect. There are rocky roads in marital life and the phenomena of drifting apart abound. It might not sound feasible but the solution to those challenges is to hope and stick it out.

Classic drifting apart

Harry and Kate Benson's story is a case in point. After eight years of marriage, they stood on the brink of divorce. May the many Harrys and Kates in the world learn from their experience.

Here is their story. Almost exactly twenty two years ago, Harry got home from work one day to find a letter lying on his bed. It was addressed to "Harry" in his wife Kate's hand writing.

"I had no idea what it would say," Harry recounts in his blog (Marriage Foundation UK). "But since Kate was sitting next door, I figured that whatever she wanted to say was best said on paper, rather than in person."

"A few weeks earlier, Kate had confronted me that our marriage was in trouble. I was not the friend she needed me to be and unless I got my act together, our marriage would be over in a year."

"I sat down to read the letter with some trepidation. It was written as a rather bland 'job spec' of what it was to be Harry's wife: terms, conditions, perks, travel, pay etc. I did not really know what to think. But the last couple of lines changed everything."

"What I really want is a friend," she wrote. "Will I ever get it, who knows. WHO CARES." It sounded like divorce was a step away.

Those last two words, in capitals, knocked Harry to the core. The despairing tone was obvious. What has he done, he thought. He had neglected her so badly. In his mind, it was as if tiny switch flicked across. Suddenly he knew he needed to make their marriage work for Kate.

He walked next door to find a closed and distant wife. He dropped to his knees and said "I'm so sorry. You've no reason to believe I will change. But I will."

That tiny change of attitude, a mental shift, to put Kate first, to have her at the forefront of Harry's mind rather than an afterthought, had seismic consequences.It turned out to be the springboard to recovery.

Typical Experience?

Lately, Marriage Foundation published a report in UK by this very same Harry Benson and Professor Steve McKay at University of Lincoln that looked at what happens to unhappy couples.

From a Millenium Cohort Study sample of some 10.000 mothers who had babies in the year 2000 or 2001, we found that some 5% were unhappy in their relationship soon after the baby was born. Just under a third of these then split up. Of the majority who stayed together, only 7% (of the 5%, so that 0.3% of the total sample) were still unhappy by the time their child was aged eleven, whereas 68% said they were now happy.

How does this study compare with other researches? American studies mirror their findings. A 2002 study found that two thirds of unhappy adults who stayed together were happy five years later. They also found that those who divorced were no happier, on average, than those who stayed together.

In other words, most people who are unhappily married end up happy if they stick at it. Like Kate and Harry, they find ways through.

The Benson-Mckay study shows that unhappiness is, thankfully, much rarer than people imagine. It affects just one in twenty parents with newborns.

Unhappiness is usually temporary. Staying unhappy is incredibly rare. Just one in every 400 parents in the entire study was unhappy at both time points, soon after their child was born and then again when their child was eleven.  (cf. Harry and Kate Benson, What mums want and dads need to know).

Genesis is growing apart

It appears that the Kate - Harry experience of growing apart after the children arrive on the scene is very typical indeed.

What happens is when couples become parents, everything changes. Forget Mars and Venus. The difference between men and women that matters most is that women have babies. That long experience of pregnancy automatically and subconsciously tunes a woman's mind toward her child. So when the baby appears, it's not surprising that mum tends to take charge and make the decisions.

Harry began to take the path ofleast effort. It was all too easy to take a back seat, whether willingly or not, and leave mum to take the initiative. Their conversations gradually deteriorated into a series of functional questions "can you do this?" "can you do that?". That was fine for a while.

But slowly, eventually, it began to grate. Kate became frustrated at being responsible for everything. Harry withdrew and focused on work. Kate then felt neglected and micromanaged him. They drifted apart. It was very subtle and very common.

Somebody has to look after the relationship. With mum's focus on the child, that has to be dad.

So what do mums want? At the top of the list from a survey of 291 mums, was a friend, somebody interested in her and the children, somebody kind. At the bottom of the list was sexy, strong, adventurous or a provider.

If dads can get into their heads that their first task is to love mum, to notice her, to have her in the forefront of their thoughts, their marriage will be terrific.

Happy wife, happy life. Believe it or not, there is research to support this. It is much less true the other way tound (cf. H. Benson, Research for Marriage Foundation, UK).

Hope and Stick it out!

We might ask: "Is this putting an unfair burden on men? Doesn't it take two to tango?"

Harry assures us: "Not at all." It is a tiny shift in thinking that recognizes human nature. When a woman becomes child-oriented, dad needs to become mum-oriented. Somebody needs to take responsibility for the relationship. Remember that this is not about who does what role. Couples can take on whatever roles they like.

The problem nowadays is the strong current of consumerism. It is the lifestyle of use and dispose. Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded. We have created a "throw away" culture which is now spreading.

Try To Do Something

Try to lengthen the burden of another
Do even a little thing gladly
For the Lord loves a cheerful giver
And lighter will grow your burden
If will help your every care
Cause, when sorrow shared is only half.

Do something for somebody, whose hurting
Where help seems not to come
Help a sorrowful heart
With a little smile or song
Where ever you may be
A little deed of kindness
A little word of love
Make the earth like heaven above.

The Rich Man and Lazarus

Lent is a new beginning, a path leading to the certain goal of Easter, Christ's victory over death. This season urgently calls us to conversion. Christians are asked to return to God with all their hearts, to refuse to settle for mediocrity and to grow in friendship with the Lord. Jesus is the faithful friend who never abandon us. Even when we sin, He patiently awaits our return; by that patient expectation, He shows us His readiness to forgive.

Lent is a favourable season for deepening our spiritual life through the means of sanctification offered us by the Church: Fasting, prayer and almsgiving. At the basis of everything is the Word of God, which during this season we are invited to hear and ponder more deeply. I would now like to consider the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. Let us find inspiration in this meaningful story, for it provides a key to understanding what we need to do in order to attain true happiness and eternal life. It exhorts us to sincere conversion.

1. The other person is a gift

The Parable begins by presenting its two main characters. The poor man is described in greater detail: He is wretched and lacks the strength even to stand. Lying before the door of the rich man, he fed on the crumbs falling from his table. His body is full of sores and dogs come to lick his wounds. The picture is one of great misery; it portrays a man disgraced and pitiful.

The scene is even more dramatic if we consider that the poor man is called Lazarus: A name full of promise, which literally means "God helps".This character is not anonymous. His features are clearly delineated and he appears as an individual with his own story. While practically invisible to the rich man, we see and know him as someone familiar. He becomes a face and as such, a gift, a priceless treasure, a human being whom God loves and cares for, despite his concrete condition as an outcast.

Lazarus teaches us that other persons are a gift. A right relationship with people consists in gratefully recognising their value. Even the poor person at the door of the rich is not a nuisance, but a summons to conversion and to change. The parable first invites us to open the doors of our heart to others because each person is a gift, whether it be our neighbour or an anonymous pauper. Lent is a favourable season for opening the doors to all those in need and recognising in them the face of Christ. Each of us meets people like this every day. Each life that we encounter is a gift deserving aceptance, respect and love. The Word of God helps us to open our eyes to welcome and love life, especially when it is weak and vulnerable. But in order to do this, we have to take seriously what the Gospel tells us about the rich man.

2. Sin blinds us

The Parable is unsparing in its description of the contradiction associated with the rich man. Unlike poor Lazarus, he does not have a name; he is simply called "a rich man." His opulence was seen in his extravagant and expensive robes. Purple cloth was even more precious than silver and gold and was thus reserved to divinities and kings, while fine linen gave one an almost sacred character. The man was clearly ostentatious about his wealth and in the habit of displaying it daily: "He feasted sumptuously every day". In him we can catch a dramatic glimpse of the corruption of sin, which progresses in three successive stages: Love of money, vanity and pride.

The Apostle Paul tells us that "the love of money is the root of all evils". It is the main cause of corruption and a source of envy, strife and suspicion. Money can come to dominate us, even to the point of becoming a tyrannical idol. Instead of being an instrument at our service for doing good and showing solidarity towards others, money can chain us and the entire world to a selfish logic that leaves no room for love and hinders peace.

The Parable then shows that the rich man's greed makes him vain. His personality finds expression in appearances, in showing others what he can do; but his appearance masks an interior emptiness. His life is a prisoner to outward appearances, to the most superficial and fleeting aspects of existence.

The lowest rung of this moral degradation is pride. The rich man dresses like a king and acts like a god, forgetting that he is merely mortal. For those corrupted by love of riches, nothing exist beyond their own ego. Those around them do notm come into their line of sight. The result of attachment to money is a sort of blindness. The rich man does not see the poor man is starving, hurting, lying at his door.

Looking at this character, we can understand why the Gospel so bluntly condemns the love of money: "No one can be the slave of two masters: He will either hate the first and love the second. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money" (Matthew 6 : 24).

3. The Word is a gift

The Gospel of the rich man and Lazarus help us to make good preparation for the Easter. The Liturgy of Ash Wednesday invites us to an experience quite similar to that of the rich man. When the priest imposes the ashes on our heads, he repeats the words: "Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return." As it turned out, the rich man and the poor man both died and the greater part of the Parable takes place in the afterlife. The two characters suddenly discover that we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it."

We too see what happens in the afterlife. There the rich man speaks at length with Abraham, whom he calls "father", as a sign that he belongs to God's people. This detail makes his life appear all the more contradictory, for until this moment there had been no mention of his relationship to God. In fact, there was no place for God in his life. His only god was himself.

The rich man recognises Lazarus only amid the torments of the afterlife. He wants the poor man to alleviate his suffering with a drop of water. What he asks of Lazarus is similar to what he could have done but never did. Abraham tells him: "During your life you had your fill of good things, just as Lazarus had his fill of bad. Now he is being comforted here while you are in agony". In the afterlife, a kind of fairness is restored and life's evils are balanced by good.

The parable goes on to offer a message for all Christians. The rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his brothers, who are still alive. But Abraham answers: "They have Moses and the Prophets, let them listen to to them". Countering the rich man's objections, he adds: "If they will not listen either to Moses or to the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead"

The rich man's real problem thus comes to the fore. At the root of all his ills was the failure to heed God's Word. As a result, he no longer loved God and grew to despise his neighbour. The Word of God is alive and powerful, capable of converting hearts and leading them back to God. When we close our heart to the gift of God's Word, we end up closing our heart to the gift of our brothers and sisters.

Lent is the favourable season for renewing our encounter with Christ, living in is Word, in the Sacraments and in our neighbour. The Lord, who overcame the deceptions of the Tempter during the forty days in the desert, shows us the path we must take. May the Holy Spirit lead us on a true journey of conversion, so that we can rediscover the gift of God's Word, be purified of the sin that blinds us, and serve Christ present in our brothers and sisters in need. Let us express this spiritual renewal also by sharing in the Lenten Campaigns promoted by many Church organisations in different parts of the world and thus to favour the culture of encounter in our one human family.

Let us pray for one another so that, by sharing in the victory of Christ, we may open our doors to the weak and poor. Then we will be able to experience and share to the full the joy of Easter.