Anaphylactic reaction or Anaphylaxis is an extremely violent allergic reaction of a person who has got into contact with a substance he’s allergic to. This reaction may occur when the body gets in touch with the allergen for the first time in life, or at a later contact, after a previous series of smaller, repeated contacts spread over time.

If it happens at the first allergen contact, and if the patient manages to get to the hospital, and he is saved by epinephrine administration, he is warned. Now he knows that he must avoid getting in contact with that killer substance for the rest of his life. As this is not always possible, persons who are known to develop anaphylactic reactions to a widespread allergen should always carry with them an epinephrine pen, and give himself a shot immediately after the unwanted contact. For example, if you have a severe allergy to bees, you shouldn’t by all means get close to hives. But as bees are pretty much everywhere in some areas, you may end up with one of them stinging you. Then, if you don’t take the epinephrine shot in a matter of seconds after the incident, you are in big trouble, because the allergic reaction will be so violent that a half an hour could be lethal.

Pampass grass, or Cortaderia, is a fast growing, perennial plant which grown tall like 15-20 inches and which has silky flower heads which can have different colors, like yellow, purple, pink or white. Seeded in early spring, the plants will be mature and blossom by August. Pampass grass is resistant to lack of water, so it may grow well even in dry climate conditions. It is an ornamental plant, but it is a real danger for allergic persons, because it produces a lot of pollen, which is one of the most common allergens.

In case you are known to be allergic and you live in an area with lots of Pampas grass, you can go to your doctor and ask to be tested against this specific allergen, in order to make sure you won’t develop an anaphylactic reaction to it in the future. If you test positive, probably your doctor would recommend you to carry an epinephrine pen ,and he’d teach uyou how to use it in case symptoms occur.

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This is a question I’ve asked myself many times: is it a direct relationship between allergies and hearing? Many allergology specialists said there is no direct connection, however, severe allergies which involve inflammations of the internal ear may cause hearing loss, as consequence of another ailment which follows, namely otitis media.

Children are the biggest risk group when it comes to allergies and hearing loss, due to the fact that middle ear infections are very frequent amongst them. Statistics show that there are very few children who didn’t suffer from this kind of infection at least once in a lifetime.

As a conclusion, if you suspect your kids are allergic, you have all the resons in the world to get them tested as soon as possible, in order to avoid such complications given by allergies. Hearing loss, even temporary, is making big damage in young children, because their speech won’t develop properly if they can’t hear well.

Sometimes it is very simple to keep your child away from allergic reactions, simply by removing from alimentation the incriminated allergen. If he gets allergies each time he eats apples, wouldn’t it be so easy not to give him this food anymore than treat recurrent ear ailments which could cause him language and understanding problems that would affect him for the entire life?

Keep your children healthy and without allergies, hearing what they have to say when they feel seak.

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Does Your Dog Have Allergy?

Dog allergy is common is about 20% of the pet dogs in US only. Pet owners may not notice that their dogs are allergy sufferers, exactly like the human beings. One of the most widespread allergies amongst dogs is flea allergy dermatitis. Dogs can also develop food allergies, airways allergies or even atopic dermatitis.

Dog Allergy Symptoms

The clinical signs which make the diagnosis of allergy in dogs are usually the itching which never stops, cough, which is dangerous and should be treated as an emergency, wheezing (which is a kind of whistle noise the dog makes during breathing) or mucus secretions. Under no circumstance should the dog owner give medication to his dog without seeing the vet first of all. Medication can mask the symptoms, thus making the diagnosis much harder.
Only the vet can decide if your dog suffers from a simple, common allergy, or it has a more serious ailment which needs other type of treatment. Once taken to the doctor, your dog will be tested for various allergens, in order to determine its body reaction.

Dog Allergy Treatment

Dogs can live with allergy very well, if their owners take care to obey several simple rules. For example, if your dog is allergic to specific foods, you should never give him those foods again. Allergy does not disappear if the allergic subject is exposed more frequently to that allergen (the substance which induces the allergic reaction). Keeping on giving your dog that food which caused the allergy would worsen the symptoms, and in time, it may even cause death.

Beware of fleas, as they can cause your dog allergy. In such cases, the allergen substance is the flea saliva. If that’s the situation of your dog, you’ll have to be very careful to keep him away from fleas. This is not very easy for the owner, because dogs are friendly to other dogs and they touch each other, allowing fleas to pass from one body to the other when they play in the park.

If discovered early and treated properly, allergy is a disease anybody can live with, including your dog. This is why it is very important to take your dog to the doctor as soon as you suspect anything which may not be in order with its health. If you see a change, like the presence of a bigger quantity of secretions, or never ending scratching, or series of sneezes and coughs, don’t treat your dog with over the counter medication according to what you may think it has, or according to your neighbor’s advice.

If you love your dog, take it to the vet and ask for allergy tests to be run on it. Remember that once you got yourself a pet, you are responsible for its well being, and you have to take good care of all aspects of its life. Don’t forget that dog allergy is real and fully manageable if discovered in time.

Categories: Dog Allergy, Pets Allergy
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Why Are Allergies Increasing

There is no doubt that allergies are increasing every year, but it also can be the effect of people getting more and more health conscious and presenting to the doctor for even small symptoms.

Scientists don’t know yet why some people are allergic and others don’t. It seems that genetic heritage plays a role in developing allergies, but nothing is certain.

This is established that allergies affect members of the same family, but this had happened all the time, so this cannot be the cause of the increase of allergies we’ve witnessed over the past years.

In their attempt to explain this allergy incidence increase, medical scientists came up with another theory which says that our immune system, due to the fact that it has no more natural enemies like worms or other parasites, tries its powers on common substances, triggering allergic reactions. Our body produces antibodies to fight against natural enemies. Along the centuries of existence, humans with strong immune system survived and passed their genes, detrimental to the ones who had weaker immune system, which were extinguished little by little. Stronger defense mechanisms imply stronger reactions to the environment, so allergic reactions are more likely to occur at more and more people descending from ancestors with strong immune system.

Another issue that was examined, was the exaggerate cleanliness many women are keeping for their children. Some of them are almost obsessed, so the body of their children doesn’t have a chance to form antibodies in early childhood. Those children kept away from dirt and germs are the ones who are most susceptible of developing allergies later in life. Many doctors now advise, based on research that has been done, that a certain level of dirt is actually beneficial for small children. So, maybe mothers shouldn’t be using all those germ-killer products which are heavily advertised nowadays.
Another issue is that now we have access to all types of foods all year round. In my childhood, I could only eat bananas during our winter. They were not available in any other season. This made it less probable that children develop allergies to bananas, because the level of exposure was low. The same applies for tomatoes and apples, which are some of the foods with allergenic potential. If you are predisposed to allergy to them, the more you consume those foods, the more your allergy gets serious, so having them available permanently is certainly not beneficial.

Soy allergy is also increasing. Some years ago, very few people ate soy products, as they were not available on such a large scale like they are today.

Technology is also a menace for health. Only think that is you work in a modern office building, where windows cannot open, and air is circulated through an air conditioning system, you are exposed to all allergens like perfumes, dust or mold from the entire building, which are sucked into the ventilation system and circulated into your office.

Pollution is also a major player in allergies development. Cars are already too many, the petrol-based fuels are highly polluting the air in big cities, so we have no chance of breathing fresh air for the most time of our lives.

Allergy is really a problem getting bigger every day.

Categories: Allergy general info
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Allergies and sensitivities are more and more widespread, and not only in poor countries, but also in developed ones.

Theories are multiple, like using more additives for foods, more plastic recipients, more food coloring substances. We eat unhealthy things in large quantities and we don’t even know it. How many of you actually read the product labels and refrain from buying if seeing too many chemicals inside? Too few, probably.

Eating the same food for long time leads to an increased sensitivity and makes the body to hyper react, thus triggering allergic response from the immune system.

A food allergy does not come alone. It can bring ailments such as itches, hives, pains, urticaria, eczemas, suffocation, swelling, nausea and many more symptoms which are highly unpleasant and even life-threatening sometimes.

Food sensitivities and allergies exhaust our immune system, as they are challenging it to fight imaginary enemies, thus weakening it and making it to become unprepared when facing real challenges like cancer and other similar diseases.

The fact that we got used to process foods is another factor which adds to allergies increase. Our ancestors were eating much more raw foods than we do, and they surely didn’t use chemicals such as additives or preservatives.

The bad news is that allergies are practically incurable, all existent medication being used only to alleviate symptoms like sneezing, coughing, abnormal mucus secretions, hives, rash or urticaria. Not even the allergy tests can determine all allergens. For example, allergy to medications cannot be tested, because it is far too dangerous and besides, each organism reacts in a particular way to particular substances, so a common pattern hasn’t been established yet.

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There are people who crave for certain foods. It is not unusual that pregnant women have such cravings, so they send their husbands to buy strawberries in the winter, in the middle of the night. Craving for particular foods is thought to be in fact the need of your body for certain substances that those foods contain.

Some scientists think that cravings are allergy-specific, but they cannot find a sustained reason for that statement. Anyway, if this is true, then you can say that allergies can make you fat, because the more you crave, the more you eat, the fatter you get. It happens often that a person allergic to strawberries, for example, feels a very strong need to eat strawberries, despite the fact that he / she knows very well that it will give them an allergic reaction, eventually getting their arms, legs and even the face sometimes covered with ugly, painful hives and urticaria.

It is possible that this has to do with the body struggling to maintain the endorphins level, thus craving for the allergen to be ingested, likewise the addiction mechanisms. But allergic persons should be aware that exposing themselves frequently to the allergen, will only make their allergy get worse, and eventually they might become fat, if they crave for highly nutritive foods.

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Is Nasal Allergy Bothering You?

How many times did you feel like your nose is going like crazy, getting all itchy and sensitive, and running like a broken tap? It is very possible that you didn’t catch a cold, but you are sensitive to certain substances in the air, with we call allergens, and which could trigger an allergic reaction from your body. This reaction can manifest in the nasal area, giving you all these unpleasant and irritating symptoms. The triggers can be many things, like pollen or dust, but also mold spores, or animal dander. They are airborne, an as we breathe them, they are penetrating the nasal mucosa and get in contact with our blood. If the blood thinks they are harmful substances, the alarm mechanism is triggered and it will alert the blood cells like lymphocytes and mast cells, and it will start the secretion of histamine, thus sensitizing the nasal mucosa membrane making it more and more sensitive with each incident of this type.

But the process goes on. Our immune system has an elaborated defense scheme, and it will throw into the battle the macrophages, who are in fact our scavengers, eating the foreign cells and preventing us getting invaded by them. IgE antibodies also play a role in this process, because they bind to the basophil and mastocite cells. In this way, histamine is released into the body, but the process isn’t harmless for the human body, as it causes swelling, redness, itching sensations and other symptoms which are typical for allergic reactions.

How to avoid nasal allergy?

The best way is to discover which are the allergens that cause you the reaction, then to avoid exposure to them. If you are allergic to pollen, don’t go out of the house in the days with high pollen activity levels - you’ll know then from the weather reports in your area. If you have an allergy to dust mites, don’t do your household cleaning by yourself. either get somebody else do the dusting for you, or, if this is not possible, wear gloves and a dust-proof mask and wash yourself thoroughly with plenty of water after you finish.

HEPA filters are very efficient in filtrating pollens, so you may consider buying one, and using it during the pollen season, which is late spring, and early fall in some regions, but can be even longer in other countries.

Air cleaners and humidifiers also can play a positive role in keeping an allergic symptoms-free.

Always consult with your doctor before attempting anything to release your allergy symptoms. The physician knows better your history and your medical needs, and he can indicate you the best ways of keeping yourself healthy and in a good state of being. Do not follow advice from neighbors and friends, because each patient is unique, and what may work well for them can be harmful for you. Nasal allergy needs to be treated with all your consideration.

Categories: Allergy Tips, Nasal Allergy
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