Most children (85%) with sesame allergy will tolerate the intact seeds despite reacting to crushed products such as sesame and tahini paste. The processing and breaking down of the seeds releases the allergen and sesame pastes and oils are more likely to trigger an allergic reaction than ingestion intact seeds. So there may be a [...]
Recent government legislation is welcomed called Benedict's Law, that makes it compulsory for all schools with children under their care to have legally binding safeguards including "allergy and anaphylaxis aware" staff with basic knowledge how to deal with allergies, and to have spare adrenaline auto injector devices readily available onsite. Historically allergy provision and awareness [...]
Brain-Gut Interaction also known as Disorder of Gut-Brain Interaction (DGBI), is a form of Irritable Bowel Syndrome in children. Symptoms usually include abdominal pain, bloating, constipation or diarrhoea and there is a breakdown in bi-directional communication between the gut and brain which may be affected by psychological factors and stress as well as gut hypersensitivity [...]
Penicillin Allergy labelling in medical records is very common. up to 10% of the population are labelled as being allergic to Penicillin. That includes 2.7 million people in the UK. Research has shown that 95% of these Penicillin Allergy labels are incorrect when tested. Penicillin is a very useful and an effective low cost antibiotic [...]
New needle-free intranasal aerosol adrenaline administration device called Neffy, 2mg, has 30 month shelf life, and FDA and European approval (EUR Neffy). Not yet available in UK, but expected in Summer 2025. Administered via the nose, has absorption enhancer (reduces mucus viscosity). Administer dose of 2mg adrenaline (epinephrine) from 30kg body weight, 1mg device for [...]
“The ban on eating nuts on planes is ineffective in preventing anaphylaxis”. Peanut and nut particles are not spread through air-conditioning on planes. Allergy sufferers should rather be encouraged to wipe down their seat area, tray table and TV screen controls to remove any nut residues left behind by previous passengers. Touching nut residues in [...]
Now is the time to be considering what to do about your hay fever symptoms next year. We read about Pollen "bombs", global warming and El Nino weather system changes all making summer hay fever symptoms (Medical term Pollinosis) intolerable. Even taking mega-doses of antihistamines, soothing eye drops and anti-inflammatory nasal spray's, hardly have any [...]
A recent article by Lawrence Afrin (international expert on Mast Cell Activation), has suggested that Mast Cell Activation may be a mediator of Long COVID syndrome (multiple persistent and debilitating symptoms following a COVID-19 infection) and many Long COVID symptoms mimic those of Mast Cell Activation (including unexplained rashes and swelling, confusion with fatigue, palpitations, [...]
New Immunotherapy products are to be launched in UK this month. The great news is that ALK -Abello (UK) have been awarded license to sell two novel immunotherapy products in the UK and these will be available at Community Pharmacy's on prescription from Allergists at the end of this month. They will be joining the [...]
There has been a lot of confusion and misinformation about risks of anaphylaxis to the COVID -19 coronavirus vaccines available. Many healthy individuals are being declined the vaccine and told to be allergy tested if they have a history of food or medication allergy or any form of anaphylaxis. The COVID-19 vaccines contain no food [...]