Allergies

The study of how bodies develop immunities has become important to every medical speciality and additional courses in the field are needed in medical schools, physicians urged in a recent report in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. "The future holds great promise for the allergy and clinical immunology," wrote Dr. John E. Salvaggio of Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans and Dr. K. Frank Austen of the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Allergy season came early this year. Unprecedented warmth this winter caused plants to begin blooming earlier than normal, flooding the air with pollen and triggering fits of sneezing, runny noses, itches and rashes. Scientists have struggled for decades to understand why humans suffer such nasty allergic reactions and why the incidence of allergies -- such as to peanuts -- seems to be increasing almost exponentially. There still is no good answer, but Yale researchers suggested Wednesday that allergies may be an outgrowth of the way our body protects us from noxious substances in the environment.

Question: We just returned from a long trip by car. We like the La Quinta chain. Many of their hotels are "pet friendly," and we noticed many more pet-friendly hotels on our trip. I don't want to spend the night in a room that has been inhabited by someone else's dog. What are the assumptions? Are some rooms set aside for pets, while other rooms exclude pets? How should someone handle this issue when making a reservation? What about people with severe allergies? Josephine Fitzpatrick Long Beach Answer: I can't stop myself from saying this, so here it is: The answers may have people fighting like cats and dogs.

Allergic to peanuts? Need a gluten-free restaurant? What about eggs, shellfish or dairy? No problem. Even at Walt Disney World. Name: http://www.allergyeats.com What it does : Provides a peer-reviewed directory of more than 600,000 restaurants across the U.S. Includes menus (including gluten-free), allergen lists, certifications, nutritional info and more. What's hot: This website is built by a dad with five kids, three of whom have food allergies.

Sitting in a waiting room full of sniffling and sneezing people, Keith Varga can tell this allergy season is different from most. It's worse. "I've had allergies since I was a child, but they usually don't flare up until mid-March or early April, never this early," said Varga, of Santa Ana. What's producing so many red eyes and itchy noses? A season of sustained rainfall. While the hills may be green and lush, for allergy sufferers, the hills are also alive with pollen and mold spores.

The Food and Drug Administration will take steps to remove Seldane, a prescription antihistamine popular among allergy sufferers, from the market because it has been linked to potentially fatal heart problems when taken with certain other drugs, the agency said Monday.

A new chemical compound, part cat and part human, may provide an end to misery-making cat allergies, U.S. researchers reported this week in the journal Nature Medicine. They said their approach in creating the compound might work against more dangerous allergies, such as deadly reactions to peanuts.

Being a younger sibling may mean more hand-me-downs and fewer baby photos than if you were lucky enough to be the blessed eldest child of the family. But here's a compensating benefit: You're less likely than the firstborn to suffer a food allergy --or, for that matter, the runny nose, itchy or irritated eyes and swelling that come with allergies to such triggers as dust, pollen and pet dander. That finding was presented this weekend in San Francisco at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology ( AAAAI )

Allergy season came early this year. Unprecedented warmth this winter caused plants to begin blooming earlier than normal, flooding the air with pollen and triggering fits of sneezing, runny noses, itches and rashes. Scientists have struggled for decades to understand why humans suffer such nasty allergic reactions and why the incidence of allergies -- such as to peanuts -- seems to be increasing almost exponentially. There still is no good answer, but Yale researchers suggested Wednesday that allergies may be an outgrowth of the way our body protects us from noxious substances in the environment.

Allergies are on the rise, experts know. What they don't know is why. The most popular theory is the so-called hygiene hypothesis. It holds that our culture's addiction to cleanliness, antiseptics and antibiotics prevents our immune systems from developing the ability to ward off real infections. Our bodies then end up overreacting to things they should be ignoring.

In one of the most comprehensive health examinations of body piercing, researchers have found that the wildly popular fashion statement is relatively safe although about 20% of piercings become infected. Northwestern University dermatologists analyzed the overall safety, complications and medical consequences of piercings, focusing on the ear, nose, mouth, nipple, navel and male and female genitalia. They found infections, although treatable, were the most common complication, followed by allergies, loss of blood, scarring and interference of medical procedures, such as X-ray or ultrasound.

Wendy's has a gluten-free menu. Dunkin' Donuts offers kosher meals at dozens of eateries. Chipotle Mexican Grill is letting customers know that it uses bacon in preparing its pinto beans. Americans are craving more information about the food they are served, and fast-food companies, as well as casual restaurants, are increasingly obliging, many going well beyond legally mandated calorie counts. They are updating their signs and menus for diet-conscious customers, and they also are highlighting potential problems for those with food allergies or other dietary restrictions.

Question: We just returned from a long trip by car. We like the La Quinta chain. Many of their hotels are "pet friendly," and we noticed many more pet-friendly hotels on our trip. I don't want to spend the night in a room that has been inhabited by someone else's dog. What are the assumptions? Are some rooms set aside for pets, while other rooms exclude pets? How should someone handle this issue when making a reservation? What about people with severe allergies? Josephine Fitzpatrick Long Beach Answer: I can't stop myself from saying this, so here it is: The answers may have people fighting like cats and dogs.

African-American children may be at higher risk for food allergies, a study finds, but race may not be the only factor. Children from various ethnic backgrounds were tested for food allergies to determine if race or genetic ancestry were risk factors. Among 1,104 children (average age 2.7), 60.9% were black, 22.5% were Hispanic, 5.9% were white and 10.8% were other races. Researchers discovered that black children were more apt to have food allergies, and that being of African ancestry was linked with a greater chance of having a peanut allergy.

Food allergies might be more common than some previous research has suggested, with a new study estimating that about 8% of children, about 6 million in the U.S., have a food allergy. Not only is this estimate higher than some previous research has reported, the study found that reported allergic reactions are often severe and that many kids have more than one allergy. The new estimate is helpful for physicians because researchers couldn’t previously pin down a number -- figures of between 2% and 8% came from studies that were too small or were limited in other ways.

Exposing children to dogs and cats might not increase the kids' risk of developing allergies to them, a study finds. Many parents nix the idea of getting a pet when their children are young for fear of kicking off an allergic response. But researchers found that having a dog or cat in the house may provide a protective effect. The study, released Monday in the journal Clinical & Experimental Allergy , included 565 children who were followed from birth until age 18. Particular interest was paid to pet exposure in the first year of life, and at other stages throughout childhood and adolescence.

After years of frustration, allergists meeting in Washington proclaimed a small but significant victory against life-threatening peanut allergies. Five children, long urged to avoid peanuts like the plague, today tote peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches in their lunch boxes, blithely share candy with friends and accept snacks at other people's homes without quizzing their hosts on the treats' ingredients. The children appear to have lost their allergies, said Dr.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday that she can't be sure what she was watching in the now-iconic Situation Room photograph showing President Obama and his top security advisors during the mission that killed Osama bin Laden. But she suspects her dramatic pose may have more to do with Washington's notorious pollen count than any emotional reaction to the operation unfolding before her. Clinton called the period "38 of the most intense minutes. " Photos: The death of Osama bin Laden "I have no idea what any of us were looking at at that particular millisecond when the picture was taken," she told reporters after a meeting with Italy's foreign minister in Rome.

The sneezing, eye-watering, itchy-throated misery that comes with allergies is on the rise, led by a growing numbers of Americans sensitive to ragweed and mold. And in certain big cities -- Phoenix, Las Vegas and the Riverside-San Bernardino area among them -- the misery of ragweed allergies has lots more company than in others, says a new national study . The study, to be released by Quest Diagnostics Health Trends, identifies the U.S. cities where allergies to ragweed and mold are most common, based on test results for allergens nationwide. Those sensitive to mold were most plentiful in Dallas, Riverside-San Bernardino, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Chicago.

“It’s just my allergies.” “Oh, it’s the pollen.” “Allergy season again…”  The refrains are common. And they might be wrong. What many people think of as allergies might be sinusitis, an inflammation of the sinuses, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. Many respondents to an online poll acknowledged that they assume their headaches and bouts of sneezing to be caused by allergies -- and that they often boldly attempt to self-treat their symptoms rather than consult a primary care physician or specialist.