A microbe that has caused trouble in human stomachs for around 60,000 years may also play a role in preventing children from developing asthma and other allergies. In a new study, researchers say that a current campaign to wipe out the bacterium, Helicobacter pylori, may be having the unintended consequence of boosting asthma rates in kids.
A longtime resident of the human stomach, H. pylori went largely undetected until Australian scientists discovered it in 1979 and went on to show that it can cause stomach ulcers. Further work has linked it to stomach cancer. It’s now treated with antibiotics whenever detected [Science News].
eczema and hay fever.
But researchers say that when they studied health records of over 7,000
kids between the ages of 3 and 13, they found that children with H. pylori in their stomachs were less than half as likely to develop asthma. Those children were also ...
