Did you know that we share our homes with all manner of creatures? Not only are the spiders and other bugs hiding in the cracks and crevices, there are dust mites in the carpets or the bed sheets. They’re mostly harmless and feed on our dead skin cells, excreting as they go. Little eating, pooping machines which most people are entirely unaware of. At around half a millimetre in length you’d only notice them if you were asthmatic.
Why you ask?
One of the main causes of an asthma attack is a reaction between the asthmatic and the dust mites’ excretions. That’s right, it’s their poop which causes the largest health risk for asthmatics and dust as we see it is generally teeming with the stuff which is why it can be so dangerous to asthma sufferers in general.
Scientists are working on a way of using the protein excreted in the dust mites’ poop to treat asthma in the form of a patch. If you think of it like a long-term inoculation which slowly, over the course of some weeks, retunes an asthmatic’s immune system, removing their sensitivity to the dust mites’ excretions. Without this sensitivity, things like asthma attacks would be gone into memory and an asthma sufferer would live a much better standard of life.
The researchers responsible are also hoping to eventually use the patches to catch asthma before it fully develops. This would essentially prevent children from developing the condition in the first place and leave them free of it forever! A great step in the right direction, I’m sure you agree!
This is the sort of thing which could change a life and as such we’d like to hear how it could change yours. What would you do if you could remove your allergy to dust in general?
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