For many years indoor Christmas trees have bee suspected to be a source of allergen induced asthma, rhinitis and respiratory problems during the period from mid December to early January. It was thought that coniferous tree pollen, incidental grass and weed pollens on the tree and oleoresins secreted by Fir trees were to blame. However [...]
Although often suspected by many clients as being the cause for localized body rashes, we hardly ever come across anyone with a confirmed allergy to commercial pigment dyes in clothing. One is more likely to develop contact dermatitis from dyes and rubber found in leather footwear, paraphenylene diamine (PPD) in hair dye and latex elastic [...]
There is a well established myth that fish and shellfish allergy is linked to the iodine content of fish and that iodine allergy and shellfish allergy are interrelated. This is untrue. Shellfish such as shrimp, prawn, crab and lobster are crustaceans (crawl around) and have a protein in their flesh that can cause allergies, they [...]
A recent venom allergy guideline¹ published by the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology (BSACI) this year, makes interesting reading. They report a lifetime-risk between 60 and 90% for the UK population of being stung by a wasp (Vespid) or bee (Apis). Of those stung, up to 26% will report large painful local reactions, but significant allergic reactions only [...]
Urban air pollution is a serious public health hazard and has been associated with exacerbations of chronic respiratory illnesses due to airway mucus membrane irritation and increased oxidative stress. However no convincing link between air pollution and allergic sensitisation has been shown in the scientific literature. We know that nitrogen dioxide, ozone and diesel exhaust [...]
Recent medical research shows that our middle-class obsession with cleanliness and avoiding weaning until late in infancy has rebounded in a western-world epidemic of childhood wheezing, sneezing and eczema with seven fold increases in peanut, cat, dust mite and pollen allergies. We are now encouraged rather to throw the cat in the cot, smother the baby [...]
Allergy to red mammalian meat is relatively common in Africa and so are tick bites. I was recently shown a study by Platts Mills et al from USA in 2011 in which they suggested there may be a link between tick bites by the Amblyomma species of North American tick and the development of IgE [...]
Many people develop debilitating patches of dermatitis after contact with various common environmental chemicals and agent in cleaning materials. This type of reaction by the skin immune system results in a Type 4 delayed hypersensitivity reaction with rashing. A common contact allergy occuring in 20% of women is to the metal nickel found in clothing [...]
Many different so-called wonder-cures for hay fever have come and gone over the years. This is particularly evident online, as one searches for a drug-free natural alternative to conventional hay fever medication. The problem is that many of these remedies, which sound attractive at face value , have no track record or clinical evidence base. [...]
Spring has suddenly broken through the icy winter and the trees are covered in blossom this April. But this is a time of discomfort and suffering for those tree pollen allergic hay fever sufferers who will experience itching, sneezing, watering nose and irritatingly painful eyes. Silver birch pollen will be pouring from dangling catkins suspended [...]