Then, something got my attention and really woke me up. The radio sports program host said his wife and kids were all home and suffering in allergy misery. The show co-host had to call in sick this morning and miss the show, because he was too debilitated with allergies. The host said that he had heard (from where I don’t know or remember) that our state–Iowa–is at the pollen epicenter of the U.S. right now. We have the highest pollen counts of any state in the country.

I wasn’t able to verify that claim for this post today. I did see that Swisher Iowa, two hours away from me,  had the third highest tree pollen count in the U.S. for April 16 and 17, according to The Weather Channel. Swisher was even up to #2 earlier this spring.

Either way you slice it, it’s shaping up to be a severe allergy season, which we’ve discussed earlier. Some are saying this will be the worst allergy season we’ve seen in a long time, maybe ever. Some of the golfers at the Masters last week were wearing wrap-around sun glasses, not because of the sun, but to keep the pollen out of their eyes.

All I know is I’m slamming my EpiCor daily and using a mild nose spray periodically at night. So far, unlike in past years, I’m feeling great and breathing freely as though I’m living on a chilly mountain peak with no trees in site. I’m convinced my immune system, over the past two-plus years, has attained a balance level that has greatly mitigated my allergy condition. But I’m not in mountain country. I’m in corn country with lots of trees, grass and dust-swept fields waiting for planting. But am I gonna suffer all spring, summer and fall?  Hell no.

More stats from the 2010 Abstract:

Childhood immunizations percentages have generally held steady or even increased slightly. Sixty-eight percent of children were immunized against hepatitis B in 1990. That rose to nearly 93 percent in 2007.

Bone and joint conditions can result, in part, from immune system imbalance. The Abstract shows that in 2007, 53 million Americans had a chronic joint symptom (30 MM women, 23 MM men) and 46 million had been diagnosed with arthritis (28 MM women, 18 MM men). There is no comparative data for 1990, but I’m sure the raw numbers have increased greatly since America’s population has grown and the older age groups are growing in proportion.

Asthma is also an immunostimulating condition.  73 million U.S. kids had asthma in 2007, or had it earlier in their childhood. 223 million adults had some kind of respiratory condition, including emphysema, asthma, hay fever, sinusitis and bronchitis.

And finally, alternative, complementary therapies. These can impact immune health significantly. In 2002 10 million American adults practiced some form of yoga. That figure increased to 13 million in 2007. Those doing deep breathing routines increased from 24 million to 27 million. Adults practicing meditation increased from 15 million to 20 million.

And here’s my favorite: Americans receiving therapeutic massage increased form 10 million in 2002 to 18 million in 2007.

• The Nashville Tennessean has a great column published this past week on immune system balance and the “dirt” exposure school of thought on immune system development. Good perspective and anecdotes.

• The Omaha World-Herald ran a story last Thursday on the possible return of H1N1. A new term was introduced, at least to me: “cytokine storm,” as in “some young people with H1N1 flu were sickened by their immune systems’ overreactions to the virus. That syndrome, called a ‘cytokine storm,’ can fill the lungs with fluid, among other problems. Cytokines are groups of molecules secreted by the immune system.”

• Vancouver would seem to be the most stress-free place in North America. Great scenery, beautiful city and architecture, moderate weather. I spent a little time there en route to an Alaskan Cruise. At one point it was known at the the city with the most outdoor sports enthusiasts in the Western Hemisphere.  Still, the Vancouver Sun published a piece yesterday on the Price of Stress. The story is a good tutorial on immune balance and stress.

• This Today Show video (below) has some good tips that address bacteria and inflammation, both of which are directly connected to balanced immune health.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The balance thing.

The story went on to say that healthy people who live the right lifestyle have no need for immune boosting supplements. They’re immune system is as strong as it will ever get, and no supplement will improve it.

Now, rewind to last week. I went on a tour of Embria Health Sciences’ manufacturing facility in Iowa last week.  I had requested a tour for a social media colleague of mine who happens to run Smarty Pig, one of the great social media success stories  to date.  He was interested in the story behind Embria’s immune balance ingredient made at the plant, EpiCor (which I have taken for two years now and which supports this blog). Every time I hear a presentation from the Embria executive and technical staff during these kinds of meetings, I learn something new.

One question that was asked of Embria senior scientist, Dr. Stuart Reeves, during the presentation was: “Is there any one is this day and age who wouldn’t need or benefit from immune supplementation or some form of additional immune health support? ” Stuart had an interesting answer. He said if someone were born today on a farm or in a rural area where there was a good dose of dust and pollen present in the air, where they were living with a variety of animals–in the house, with a dirt floor–from birth on and exposed to diverse mix of animal dander always floating around, if they drank well water with a nice brew of microbial matter, and if they ate lots of unprocessed fruits and vegetables, preferably raw, and if they got 9 to 10 hours of sleep every night, and also lived a pretty stress-free life with lots of outdoor sunshine exposure each day, their immune system would most likely function just fine with no help needed.

But, who lives like that? Moreover, who is born in that environment?  For decades now, people in the western world have been born in sterile hospitals (which most certainly is a good thing for both mom and baby), and have come home to relatively clean households with modern hygienic conditions. While the modern environment may reduce germ and virus exposure, it also prevents exposure to common pathogens and harmless airborne particulates such as pollen that can train the immune system at an early age to produce an appropriate, proportional response to something that enters a person’s system. With nearly all people in developed countries now not born into this more primitive lifestyle, immune systems don’t get tested early in life, and therefore are likely to function erratically when the body does call on its immune defense against a microbial threat years down the road.

So, with that, the point is that our modern environment means we live cleaner, but we also are, in general, much more susceptible to troubling health conditions because our immune systems don’t know how to respond when the first threats arrive.  I truly believe supplementation, along with healthy diet, exercise and sleep, can make a big impact on correcting this imbalance.

Research suggests beta glucans may play a role in cancer tumor suppression and in other health conditions where aggressive immune response is called for. So why am I bringing up beta glucans in this blog? Maybe it’s simply that such immune system stimulation kind of, maybe, perhaps, throws a wrench into the benefit of immune balance.  An executive team member at a client company passed along some studies showing beta glucan delivered in vitro (petri dish cells) may cause immune response fatigue, where immune cells’ repeated exposure to beta-glucan might actually diminish their assertive function. That kind of got me interested in reading more.

Read this from Web MD: “Medications that decrease the immune system (Immunosuppressants) interact with BETA GLUCANS. Beta glucans increase the immune system. By increasing the immune system beta glucans might decrease the effectiveness of medications that decrease the immune system.Some medications that decrease the immune system include azathioprine (Imuran), basiliximab (Simulect), cyclosporine (Neoral, Sandimmune), daclizumab (Zenapax), muromonab-CD3 (OKT3, Orthoclone OKT3), mycophenolate (CellCept), tacrolimus (FK506, Prograf), sirolimus (Rapamune), prednisone (Deltasone, Orasone), corticosteroids (glucocorticoids), and others.”

“Do not take more than 15 grams per day by mouth and do not use it for longer than 8 weeks.”

In other words, beta glucan can counteract medications and other measures that people adopt to suppress immune response when needed. It’s kind of like all killer cells all the time, which, in the immune balance world, can be detrimental to overall health. Beta glucan might be helpful for concentrated seasonal defense, but I wonder about year-round use and the impact on other health areas when taking a direct immune stimulant every day.

See the video below for a basic overview of the immune system and some warnings on immune stimulation. Warning: he goes into some product pitch at the end, and I’m not at all familiar with it, so no, I don’t endorse it. But his commentary up front seems legit.

Naturally, one thing on people’s minds: Shaking hands. And how to protect yourself if you do have to shake someone’s hand. One solution: adopt the “fist bump.” Please see the “instructional” video below about proper fist bump etiquette.

If you find yourself having to shake hands with a future mother-in-law or U.N. ambassador and a fist bump isn’t quite suitable, you might be tempted to carry hand sanitizer with you 24/7. The whole hand sanitizer thing can get a bit confusing with credible sources saying one thing, and other credible sources saying another. A few microbiologists and virus specialists on discussion boards are saying sanitizers don’t really work against viruses (cold, flu) because, although they kill germs, they don’t kill viruses because viruses are dormant RNA and DNA and are surrounded by a protein “shell” until they get inside the body and can be replicated by host cells. Others say that sanitizers can make the skin more “inhospitable” for viruses, and may lessen the amount of virus that rides on the skin. Yet, one quote from a Yale infectious disease researcher says, “I use hand sanitizer 30 to 40 times an hour!” So go figure.

But nearly everyone says that washing hands many times a day with hot soapy water is always one of the best ways to reduce risk of infection.

Kissing Oscar Wilde’s tombstone, Paris

We’re hearing it all over the airwaves, the Web world, the blogosphere and any other space not yet occupied by some media news stream. This fall will be the beginning of a more virulent, morphed seasonal crud strain that will spread far and wide.  Many information sites will offer up news you can use on how to avoid this crud. Many tips are just common sense and do not need a lot of analysis or peer review to realize they are probably on the mark. (Some, such as working to achieve immune balance, are both common sense and backed with good science).

John Tesh — not exactly a Nobel immunology candidate but a common sense guy nonetheless — offers up the ” 5 germiest things” people come into contact with (in descending order, from bad to worst):

5 – Movie theater seats which have more germs than public bathroom surfaces.

4 – Gym equipment

3 – Park benches

2- Bank countertops

1 – The number 1 germiest thing: The rails and armrests on public buses.

( Wish I knew his source for these. Next time, offer up a citation, John).

Now, from Trip Advisor — again, not a health portal–comes the 5 germiest tourist attractions, as submitted by readers. These make sense, no science needed:

1. The Blarney Stone in Blarney Ireleand. (Everyone kissing the same thing seems like a no-brainer.)
2. The Gum Wall in Seattle. Multitudes sticking their gum on one wall. (Makes a school desk underside look sterile.)
3. Oscar Wilde’s tombstone, Paris. (More kissing a granite slab.)
4. St. Mark’s Square, Venice, Italy. (Pigeon dung galore.)
5. The celebrity handprint court at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, Hollywood. (Everyone puts their hands in the hand of a star.)

If anyone else out there has something they’d add to these lists, please send them my way.

• Leukocytes
• Lymphocyte
• Monocytes
• Granulocytes
• B-cells
• Plasma cells
• T-cells
• Helper T-cells
• Killer T-cells
• Suppressor T-cells
• Natural killer cells
• Neutrophils
• Eosinophils
• Basophils
• Phagocytes
• Macrophages

If you really want to get into it, the site goes through a great explanation of other immune systems components, such as the lymph, or lymphatic, system and how it interacts with blood cells, antibodies, bone marrow, hormones and other body systems that contribute to immune defense.  The only thing I didn’t see much content for was the gastrointestinal system’s microflora and how beneficial bacteria in the gut impacts immune health.

But don’t let that stop you. Give it a read. It’s written in plain English and in very understandable style…almost as well as this blog!

While you’re at it, check out this cosmic animation (and music) of a macrophage cell recognizing a pathogen and latching onto it. Wild stuff.

I like its basic approach: Balance. Not just immune balance but balance in how your manage your kids’ health. The clip instructs people not to ignore vaccines and antibiotics –they’re important. But also, don’t try to protect your kid from every microorganism out there. It’s foolish and won’t work anyway. Wash hands, exercise, get good nutrition, all the basics that your mom preached are good things to do now and in the future to help build a high-performance immune system. 

Germ Proof Your Kids (MWV26) from microbeworld on Vimeo.

I’ve been an allergy sufferer since childhood. Mine is classic hay fever and everything that feeds that sneezing beast. Well, during these two days, there was every opportunity for me to go on a non-stop sneezing bender. I was exposed to more hay and straw–used for both feed and cow-stall bedding–in two days than I had been my whole life. Add to that the fact my exposure was in barns which all had ventilation fans running to spread the airborne particulates around.  

However, by virtue of my balanced immune system, I hardly experienced a sniffle during the tour and after. No needing to front load massive doses of antihistamine every morning. Bring on that barnyard any day!

Another interesting finding as I was snooping around for info about farms and allergies: A study showing exposure to cow manure–which I slopped through in droves–may reduce risk for lung cancer due to the body’s immune system recalibrating itself as a result of exposure. It’s the hygiene hypothesis coming through again.