A scientific study due to be published in the American medical journal Pediatics (December 2009) has found a massive 18% increase in reported food allergies amongst US children (under 18 yrs of age). This increased reporting of food allergies took place over the last decade between 1997 and 2007. While between 1993 and 2006 ambulatory [...]
A recent study on children attending day care or nurseries by de Jongste in the American Thoracic Society journal cast some doubt on the so-called Hygiene Hypothesis for allergy development. The Hygiene Hypothesis notion that farm animal faeces exposure and childhood infections will prevent allergies has been promoted for decades. The hygiene hypothesis essentially links [...]
In the UK, blood tests for immunoglobulin G4 (IgG4) against foods are actively promoted for the diagnosis of food intolerance and hypersensitivity. Mounting clinical research indicates that food-specific IgG4 allergy testing does not indicate (imminent) food allergy or intolerance, but is rather a normal physiological response by the immune system after food exposure. In fact [...]
There has recently been a lot of debate in the media about safety of vaccines, particularly relating to the MMR (Measles, Mumps & Rubella) vaccination with unsubstantiated links to Autism and Ashbergers Disease. In addition, the measles vaccine was historically grown on chick embryos, thus running the risk of egg allergen contamination, and consequently recipients could potentially [...]
The current epidemic of allergic disease seems to be in part related to living in a much cleaner more sterile environment together with a lack of parasitic worm infestations. This leads to an early switch in the infant’s immune systems to reacting in a more allergy prone (TH2) manner and less of a bacteria and [...]
Salbutamol is the mainstay of treating acute asthma and relieving wheeze. Some children may not respond to this medication. Up to 100,000 children - 13% of all children with asthma - carry two copies of a gene that renders the blue inhaler drug salbutamol ineffective. If these children need to use their "reliever" inhaler daily [...]
In a recent peanut allergy study at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge, traces of peanut flour were used to desensitise 18 highly peanut allergic children. At the end of the study conducted in a controlled hospital environment, they were able to consume 12 peanuts each without any allergic reaction. The study involved eating minute trace amounts [...]
The British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology (BSACI) has recently raised concerns about allergy testing in pharmacies. They site a major problem being that pharmacy training involves education about medicines, not about clinical disease, patient history taking, psychology etc. This means that pharmacists do not know what the possibilities for diagnosis are in patients [...]