Allergy Relief Blog

Everyone is coming out with a “Best Movies of the Year” list this month. One movie likely to be on the list is the popular 2009 summer movie the Hangover, which told the story of four friends and their comical adventures after a night of drinking in Las Vegas. The movie caused big laughs in the theater, but drinking alcohol can cause more than a hangover for some allergy sufferers.

In this article last week on the Medical News Today web site, they talk about the possible ingredients in alcohol that could trigger allergy and asthma symptoms.

One of the preservatives found in wine is sulfur dioxide. Sulfur dioxide is found in many foods that trigger allergy symptoms. Another cause might be histamine generated by the bacteria and yeast in alcohol. During an allergic reaction, histamine is naturally released by the body, so an increase in your histamine levels from drinking alcohol can worsen allergy symptoms.

Have a fun and safe New Year’s Eve and be aware of the dangers of drinking too much.

According to his friends and family, last week noted skateboarder and community activist, Andy Kessler, died after an allergic reaction to an insect sting.

The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology said that Kessler's death is a reminder that stings can be deadly for those with an allergy to certain insects.

According to the organization, at least 40 people in the United States die each year as the result of insect stings. Also, 5 percent of Americans are at risk for a severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction from insect stings.

The news article from CNN goes on to state that in the most serious cases, a person can go into anaphylaxis, a condition in which he or she may have difficulty breathing. Other symptoms include swelling of the mouth or throat, itchy skin, wheezing, cough and localized pain, said Dr. Clifford Bassett, medical director of Allergy and Asthma Care of New York.

Dr. Basset offers the following tips to reduce the danger of stinging insects:

1. Stay away from stinging insect nests whenever possible.
2. Consider wearing closed-toed shoes in an area where there are bees and insects.
3. Remain calm and quiet and move slowly away from the insect.
4. Avoid brightly colored clothing, as well as perfumes and scented hair products and lotions.
5. Avoid wearing loose-fitting clothing which can accidentally trap a stinging insect.
6. Use caution when eating outdoors especially when sodas or other sweetened drinks are available.

We have been blogging about the resurgence in bed bugs in the United States for several years now. Recently, several national media outlets, like the New York Times, have printed long articles detailing the struggles people have faced with this nasty insect. Bed bugs are extremely hard and costly to get rid once they have a foothold in your home.

In the past couple of weeks, a news crew visited our company from the CBS affiliate in Atlanta. The founder of our company Cade McDonald talked with the reporter about bed bugs and our company’s efforts to step up the fight against them. While AchooAllergy.com did not appear in the final CBS story, Cade gave the news crew some great information about bed bugs and how people are able to try and prevent bed bugs from becoming a problem in their homes. An ounce of prevention might be better than a pound of cure.

Here is a link to a short video of the CBS Atlanta report and another link from the CBS Atlanta web site to a story about bed bugs.

For many air travelers, the worst part of airline travel is the air quality. One of their biggest fears is getting sick from air travel. Airplanes are confined spaces that are known for poor onboard air circulation. While waiting to take off, passengers are exposed to any number of air contaminants including ozone, gas fumes, chemical cleaners, and pesticides used on airplanes.

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, writer Scott McCartney states that a year ago, a blue-ribbon panel of experts across the aviation industry recommended voluntary standards for onboard air circulation, lower ozone exposure, new monitoring for contaminated air from oil or hydraulic fluid leaks, and limits on pesticides used on planes.

According to McCartney, airline companies and aviation industry experts have yet to take any action to improve air quality or meet these voluntary standards.

More than a decade ago, the aviation industry asked the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers to form a panel to investigate air quality inside airliner—long a topic of concern for travelers and flight crews, particularly during health crises like the H1N1 swine flu pandemic.

Byron W. Jones, the committee’s chair and associate dean at the College of Engineering at Kansas State University says, “In general the air on an airplane is not too bad, but when things go wrong, they can get really bad. And it happens in a hurry.” Dr. Jones and other committee members describe the response from regulators to the new standards as “fairly muted” so far.

It seems that for now passengers are on their own when it comes to improving the air quality on airplanes. For the proactive traveler, we carry a personal filter for airplane use that may help some travelers improve air quality and prevent them from getting sick.

An experimental asthma treatment cut the rate of extreme asthma attacks by 32 percent and reduced trips to the ER by 84 percent, Fox News reports.

The device is called Alair. It's a thin tube that is inserted into the lung's air passages to kill off some of the muscle tissue. This in turn reduces the narrowing of airways.

Dr. Mario Castro from Washington University in St. Louis explains, "In asthma, what happens is these patients develop enlarged smooth muscles surrounding their brochial tubes. This contributes to asthma attacks. The idea is to decrease that."

The study conducted by Dr. Castro and his colleagues followed 297 patients in six different countries for a year. Two-thirds of these patients received three treatments with Alair, while the remaining third were given a placebo. Results were promising with 79 percent of patients who received Alair treatments showing improvement.

Alair is an ideal solution for controlling asthma cases that do not respond well to medications. The treatment already has been approved in Europe. A decision regarding approval from the U.S. FDA is expected in the fall.

Each year the Asthma and Allergy Found of America declares that May is "National Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month." May is a perfect month for increased awareness of these conditions, because of the increase in allergens, pollen, and other triggers in the air we breathe.

May is also the beginning of the summer travel season and that means increased amounts of smog and air pollution. The month of May is a great time to educate family, friends, co-workers, and others about the dangers of allergies and asthma.

Check out this press release from the AAFA. There is great information on recent asthma and allergy news, as well as, an entire section with information about the recent Swine Flu outbreak.

Posted by Jamie on Monday, May 11, 2009

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In the Asthma and Allergy Foundation 2009 rankings of the 100 most challenging cities to live in with asthma, St. Louis ranked number 1. Atlanta, our beloved city and the headquarters of AchooAllergy.com, showed up in the top 10 with a 9th place ranking.

More than 20 million children and adults live with asthma all over the U.S., making it one of the most common and costly diseases. Experts agree that people can not move away to help their asthma, because every city in America has different risk factors.

Instead, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation recommends that people should work with an asthma specialist to develop a good asthma management plan.

These rankings were based on a number of factors with regard to air quality including higher than average pollen scores, continued poor air quality, access to asthma specialists, medication usage, and a lack of local "100% smoke-free" laws.

See the other top 10 cities and the full report here.

During the past two weeks, our customer service representatives have been bombarded by callers who have questions about whether or not a protective mask will protect them against Swine Flu. The flu scare has increased demand for face masks and respirators all over the United States (Check out this article by a writer for the Chicago Tribune.)

To provide information to people and to answer some questions about their masks, Respro, one of our partners in the battle against allergens, has issued a press release and posted it to their web site. The company talks mainly about prevention and they describe a couple of characteristics that are essential for a mask to be effective. Respro also provides some technical information on masks that protect against mold, hydrocarbons, Avian Flu, pollen, and other airborne particles.

We have an entire section of information and choices for someone in need of a protective mask. Check out these masks that we still have available.

By this point you have no doubt been saturated with news of the "swine flu." The rapid spread of this virus, coupled with its unique origins and a 24-hour news cycle have made this a very hot topic online, on the radio, and on television. While the major media outlets have certainly done their part to sensationalize this story, the reality is this is another variation of a virus that millions deal with each year.

In the last week we have seen the number of orders for masks rise exponentially for a variety of masks we sell, and unlike others we are NOT raising the price simply because demand has increased. We provide quality products to help those with asthma, allergies and other illnesses, not to take advantage of people need.

The swine flu, like the more common version of tge flu that visits us every year, is primarily spread through contact with an infected person. An uncovered sneeze or cough can expell the virus from an infected person and easily transmit it to those nearby. While masks do certainly help to keep the virus contained and often away from you, there are some other very basic measures that can be taken to help prevent you from becoming ill.

First, as mom always said, wash your hands. And like Chicago voters, do it early and often! There are really few better ways to prevent the spread of viruses and bacteria. Germs abound and viruses in particular are more resilient to conditions outside of the human body. They can live for extended periods of time on telephones, doorknobs, countertops, and other places that germs use as a crossroads in their travels around the world.

Secondly, avoid crowded areas when possible. For most of us, that is much more easily said than done. Workplaces and schools are where most illnesses often spread. A good rule, if you're sick, stay home. Sure, your boss might be a little disappointed, but he would be much more disappointed if half of his employees wound up missing work due to illness. If your child is sick or feeling sick, keep them home for the day. Besides, do you or your child really want to spend a day feeling miserable at work or in school?

Lastly, stay away from people who are sick. The hugs and handshakes can wait without hard feelings. And if you do happen to be sick or have the flu, cover you nose and mouth when you sneeze or cough. Nothing ruins a friendship faster than when an ill coworker sneezes on you.

Like many viral infections, this swine flu will burn itself out in time. For most, those effected by the swine flu will not require a doctors visit or anything beyond the normal measures used to combat seasonal flu. For the elderly and children, particular care should be taken and should you feel the need, don't hesitate to visit your local physician to assess the situation. Until the swine flu eventually dies down, follow these simple steps to help stay healthy and keep the spread of this virus to a minimum.

Last week, newspapers and web sites across the country reported on a growing bedbug problem that our company has been talking about on this blog since the summer of 2006.

Bedbugs have made a tremendous resurgence in the United States. According to this article from NPR, bedbug reports have increased over 70 percent in the last five years. The problem finally has reached the attention of the federal government. The Environmental Protection Agency hosted its first ever bedbug summit in Arlington, Virginia.

Bedbugs are small wingless insects that feed on blood. These insects seek shelter in dark cracks and crevices in the home. Bedbugs are not known to transmit diseases; but their bites can cause infections and allergic reactions in some people. The insects release an anticoagulant to get the blood flowing. They also excrete a numbing agent so that their bites do not often wake their victims.

For more information and to answer some specific questions about bedbugs, check out this document drafted by the Harvard School of Public Health.

Around election time last November, we blogged about one of President Barak Obama’s most important campaign promises. He promised his daughters, Malia and Sasha, that he would buy them a puppy after the election.

The story piqued our interest because in a widely reported quotation the President said that the dog had to be hypoallergenic, because his daughter Malia suffers from allergies. This past weekend the President fulfilled his promise. The White House announced that the Obama family has welcomed a Portuguese water dog named “Bo” into the family.

Portuguese water dogs have a single-layered coat and the dogs do not shed. This means that their presence in the home may be tolerated better by allergy sufferers. Any person with dog allergies should definitely spend time with any animal before purchasing to test whether or not the dog negatively affects them.

According to the book, The Complete Portuguese Water Dog, the breed is first recorded in history in 1297 A.D. The dog was described in a monk’s report about a drowning sailor who had been pulled from the seas by a dog with a “black coat, the hair long and rough, cut to the first rib and with a tail tuft.”

To see a picture of the new First Dog and to read about some of the intrigue behind the release of the puppy story to the media, check out this article from USA Today.

Spring is here and that means warmer weather for every part of the country. After being trapped indoors all winter, must of us want to get outside and enjoy the fresh air. However, spring is also allergy season. Here in Atlanta, we already are seeing the tell-tale yellow deposits of pollen on our cars, porches, sidewalks, and roads.

Pollen is not the only allergen that causes trouble for allergy sufferers. Dust mites, animal dander, and mold also induce runny noses, sneezing, and watery eyes. On a recent morning episode of the Today Show, a feature story focused on six unexpected sources of allergens and some room-by-room solutions for controlling these allergens in your home environment.

To combat the pollen increase in the air, we recommend changing your HVAC and furnace filters. The other suggested solutions from the article and other allergy relief products can be found on our web site. HEPA vacuums, Anti-Allergen laundry detergent, Vital Oxide solution, Allergy Armor bedding and pillows, and air purifiers are all weapons in the fight against allergies.

Almost every week in our AchooAllergy.com team meeting, we talk about our company’s mission and what we are doing to fulfill that mission. We are in a battle with allergies and our number one weapon is environmental control.

Sometimes in the day-to-day bustle and the desire to meet deadlines, we can lose sight of how important some of our products are to the everyday lives of allergy sufferers.

However, yesterday on the front page of CNN’s web site, an article about a young child and his parents dealing with food allergies was a poignant reminder of how allergies can harm our quality of life.

Teddy, a four year-old with severe food allergies, has to stay clear of milk, eggs, wheat, peanuts, and tree nuts. His parents have to be vigilant with any food products they buy at the grocery store, but they also have to monitor what Teddy eats in places outside the home like at school or restaurants.

One paragraph from the article illustrates Teddy’s situation:

If milk touches Teddy, he gets hives -- he doesn't even have to ingest it. This is a lot different from "lactose intolerance," which some people confuse with a milk allergy. Lactose intolerance produces gastric distress for someone. A milk allergy can be life-threatening.

Thinking about Teddy in a school cafeteria with peanut butter sandwiches and milk all around him has to be frightening for him and his parents.

At AchooAllergy.com, we want to do our best to promote education and research that will help allergy sufferers like Teddy. We want people to experience a higher quality of life and to breathe better.

In an article published today in the Wall Street Journal, recent findings of a pilot study conducted by researchers at Duke University Medical Center and the Arkansas Children’s Hospital show that a handful of children with severe peanut allergies can now eat peanuts without worry. Scientists and doctors have spent years retraining the children’s bodies by feeding them very tiny amounts of the food that endangered them.

The process is time intensive and tricky. You should not try this at home! Millions of Americans have food allergies. Peanut allergy is considered the most dangerous, with life-threatening reactions possible from trace amounts. It accounts for most of the 30,000 emergency-room visits and as many as 200 deaths attributed to food allergies each year. Although some children outgrow peanut allergy, that is a rare occurrence among the severely affected.

More rigorous research must be completed before this treatment becomes available to more allergy sufferers. However, if this oral therapy continues to work as an effective treatment, the approach could mark a major advance in the battle against peanut allergies.

According to a recent article on the Women’s Health Magazine web site, food allergies in adults are on the rise. While there are many questions at this point about the causes of this increase, experts do not have many answers. In the article, writer Alisa Bowman explores three possible causes:

1. The increase in carbon dioxide caused by global warming makes plants and trees generate more pollen. This leads to an increase in hay fever in adults. It is possible if you develop environmental allergies that you are more susceptible to food allergies.

2. Are antibiotics to blame? The overuse of antibiotics might kill good bacteria that are necessary for proper digestion of food. Some doctors think this might lead to a phenomenon called “leaky gut” syndrome—undigested food particles are able to pass through the GI tract and into the bloodstream. This causes an overload to the immune system and an allergic reaction.

3. Some younger women are experiencing allergic reactions to foods that they eat immediately after working out. These reactions to food are hard to pinpoint by allergists. If you experience a reaction to food after working out, keep a journal of symptoms and consult your doctor.

With food allergies on the rise, is there any good news for allergy sufferers. Yes, the good news is that more regulation of food labels allows allergy sufferers to avoid the foods that might cause allergic reactions. The author of this article even found that when she had to stop eating a certain food, she found a whole new set of foods as replacements!

Can an activity that seems like second nature really do more harm than good? We all blow our noses when we have colds or sinus infections. Tissues even come with aloe to keep your nose from drying out from too much blowing. However, blowing your nose might do more harm than good when you are battling a cold.

According to a recent New York Times article by Anahad O’Connor, researchers at the University of Virginia conducted CT scans as patients coughed, sneezed, and blew their noses. Coughing and sneezing, the natural body functions that dispel bacteria and viruses, generated no increased pressure in the sinus cavities. On the other hand, a person blowing their nose actually propelled mucus into the sinus cavity every time.

One age-old remedy that we recommend trying to alleviate sinus build up and stuffy noses is nasal irrigation. Nasal irrigation is a drug-free and inexpensive way to cleanse your nasal passages, feel better, and breathe better.

Babies are constantly putting things in their mouthes. In classes for raising newborns, nurses and teachers always talk about checking your floors to make sure there is nothing that the child can fit into their mouth and choke on. Choking is a big concern, but some parents also are determined to raise their kids in an ultraclean environment. By not allowing children to get a little dirty, these parents might be preventing them from developing their immune systems to respond to allergies, asthma, and other autoimmune diseases.

“What a child is doing when he puts things in his mouth is allowing his immune response to explore his environment,” writes Mary Ruebush, a microbiology and immunology instructor, in her new book, “Why Dirt is Good”. “Not only does this allow for ‘practice’ of immune responses, which will be necessary for protection, but it also plays a critical role in teaching the immature immune response what is best ignored.”

In this article in the New York Times, writer Jane Brody talks about some of the advantages that a little dirt can have for children. She also examines a couple of different scientific studies that are looking at dirt’s benefits to our immune systems. Her conventional wisdom seems to be that washing with soap is still pretty good, but you also can let children run around outside barefoot. You might be helping their immune system in the long run.

Cleaner air over the past two decades has added nearly five months to average life expectancy in the United States, according to a federally funded study. Researchers said it is the first study to show that reducing air pollution translates into longer lives. Here is the entire article from the Atlanta Journal Constitution web site.

Between 1978 and 2001, Americans' average life span increased almost three years to 77, and as much as 4.8 months of that can be attributed to cleaner air, researchers from Brigham Young University and Harvard School of Public Health reported in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Here at Achoo!Allergy.com, we are devoted to helping our customers breathe better and live longer. If you are intersted in improving the air quality in your home or office, check out our air purifier offering.

The current issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Research examines the results of a study conducted to determine whether taking one grass pollen tablet every day can alleviate hay fever and asthma in children. The results appear to be promising. Using this treatment, asthma symptoms declined by 64% and hay fever symptoms declined by 24%.

The study was conducted by a team of medical experts in Germany. The study featured over 250 children. The positive results are important because experts estimate that up to 25% of the population in western industrial countries has hay fever. Untreated hay fever in children also can cause children to develop asthma later in life.

To read more about this particular study and its methodology, please check out this article from the Medical News Today web site.

If you are an allergy sufferer, you already know that stressful situations can cause an allergy flare up. A 2008 study conducted by researchers at Ohio State University describes recent experiments that tried to gauge just how psychological stress affects allergy sufferers. Studying allergies, allergen avoidance, and asthma is becoming more and more important. According to the OSU press release, allergic reactions are the fifth most common chronic disease in America, and the medical costs to treat allergies approaches $3.4 billion dollars yearly.

The most interesting aspect of this study for me is that the researchers found that many allergy sufferers had a delayed reaction to the increased stress level. In some cases, allergy symptoms did not show up until the next day. We often take medications for immediate allergy relief, but the medication might be ineffective if symptoms do not appear immediately. This next day symptom change often is called a “late phase reaction.” For more information on the research methods and the findings, check out this OSU press release.

This week USA Today launched an investigative report about toxic air in the environment around America’s schools. The newspaper used an Environmental Protection Agency model to examine the impact of industrial pollution on the air quality outside of over 100,000 schools in the United States. The special report is entitled the “Smokestack Effect.” One beneficial aspect of the report is that the web site gives the reader the ability to search for a specific school and see the results of the study for that school.

Scientists have known that kids are particularly susceptible to the dangers of breathing in harmful toxins and chemicals in the air. Kids, whose bodies are still growing and developing, breathe in more air in proportion to their body weight than adults do. Long term exposure during their time at school has a lasting impact. Some children develop asthma during adulthood that might be caused by early exposure to toxins.

Our company is focused on improving indoor air quality with air purifiers and other allergy relief products. We are concerned about the affects that pollution and other chemicals in the air have on our children and their ability to breathe better. This study is required reading, because the USA Today special report illuminates some of the hazards, the problems, and the future ramifications of pollution in the air surrounding the schools that our children are required to attend.

A study released today by Vanderbilt University suggests that babies born during the fall before the normal cold and flu season are at a greater risk of developing asthma. These children have a 30 percent higher risk for asthma, because of the common infections associated with the cold and flu season. Dr. Tina Hartert, the director of the center for Asthma Research at Vanderbilt University, and her colleagues studied the medical records of 95,000 infants and their mothers in the state of Tennessee.

Why is this study important? The researchers think that environmental exposure to infections may activate genes that predispose children to developing asthma. Nearly every child is infected by respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, between the ages of 3 and 6 months. The study found that autumn babies were at the highest risk for exposure to RSV.

“All infants are exposed to this and it is potentially preventable,” according to Dr. Hartert. “What we were able to show was the timing of birth and the risk of developing asthma moves in time almost to the day with the peak of these viral infections each winter.”

The next step for the researchers is to prove that preventing the infection at this early stage will prevent asthma development. With this research and development, we might be able to prevent a lifelong, deadly disease. We can lessen the impact of breathing problems and help people lead healthier lives.

While surfing the interwebs to do research for our Miele vacuum cleaners renovation project, I discovered a wide range of articles, videos, and information on these special canister vacuums. You can do a quick search and watch European television commercials with the vacuums flying through the air. Or you can check out online discussion groups where people profess their devotion to the Miele brand.

One of the most memorable was a profile piece written just last month in the Seattle Times by writer Tyrone Beason. The title is okay, but the tag line definitely grabs your attention: “A Miele vacuum appeals to the sensual as well as the sensible.” Keep in mind, we are talking about a vacuum cleaner, but the Miele canister vacuum has that affect on some people.

For the article, Beason interviewed Ted Biery a Seattle area Miele dealer. The intriguing part of the article for me is that while the writer stresses the supposed glamour of the vacuums, Biery, the expert, touches on two very simple, but very important points about these vacuum cleaners. First, he stresses their longevity and durability. Biery goes on to comment on how much Miele owners appreciate their new vacuum cleaners:

“Often times, customers are unhappy with their experiences with other vacuums…They’ve replaced their vacuum every three years and they’re tired of that.”

“When most customers discuss other brands, they use subdued terms such as ‘like’, but when they talk about Miele, they literally say ‘love.’ They develop an emotional attachment.”

Miele vacuum cleaners are designed to last for an average of 20 years. Owners appreciate the quiet operation and the odor busting sealed dust bags. There is definitely something special in the looks and styling of these vacuum cleaners. Their colors and modern materials catch the eye, but the durability and functionality will make you fall in love with your new Miele vacuum.

When you make a promise to one of your children, you had better deliver. During the lengthy 2008 Presidential campaign, President-elect Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama promised their two daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, that win or lose they would get a new puppy.

Last week, after the election, one of the first press stories about the new First Family focused on the puppy promise and when the new addition to the family would be residing in the White House. One of the side stories that came out of the reporting was that one of the Obama children is allergic to dogs.

In a widely reported quotation, President-elect Obama summed up the family’s choice in this way. “We have two criteria that have to be reconciled. One is that Malia is allergic, so it has to be hypoallergenic,” said Obama. “On the other hand, our preference would be to get a shelter dog, but a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me.”

The problem for the Obamas is that these two criteria can be very contrary to each other. Most puppies found in shelters are often mixed breeds. These mutts are not hypoallergenic and will aggravate allergies. Pet dander is the primary trigger for children and adults allergic to pets. The other issue is that most pure bred dogs up for adoption are not puppies. Finding a pure bred, hypoallergenic shelter puppy is very difficult for the average citizen.

The Obama family does have a wide variety of choices for these dogs. According to an article in Newsday, the American Kennel Club created a web site to allow people to vote on which dog the Obamas should select for the White House. The winner of that puppy election was the hypoallergenic Poodle over the soft-coated Wheaten Terrier, the miniature Schnauzer, a Bichon Frise, and the Chinese Crested.

Our advice is that when adopting or purchasing a new pet, people with allergies need to take extra care in their pet selection. Try to selct a hypoallergenic breed. Also, regular bathing and brushing in conjunction with the use of an air purifier can help lessen the amount of pet allergen in the house. In a moment of prescience, one of our staff blogged about their experiences with a hypoallergenic dog in August. To check out that blog post, click on this link.

In October, we blogged about a report released two weeks ago by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which estimates that food allergies in the United States are on the rise. Almost 3 million children in the United States have at least one food allergy. That statistic is an 18 percent increase from just ten years ago. This dramatic rise has prompted doctors and researchers to attack this problem and to find new ways to treat food allergies in children.

This trend is particularly alarming because food allergies have a tremendous impact on the quality of life of a child. Usually, managing food allergies involves avoidance of the food triggers, waiting for the child to outgrow the allergy, and dealing with the allergy symptoms when they occur. This last option is scary because of the severity of some reactions. The stress caused by the outbreaks affects children and parents alike. We need to come up with new and improved ways of helping children combat these allergies.

“Given that the quality of life of a child with food allergy is comparable to the quality of life of a child with diabetes, we urgently need therapies that go beyond strict food avoidance or waiting for the child to outgrow the allergy,” explains Robert Wood, MD, the senior investigator on the study and the director of Allergy & Immunology at John’s Hopkins Children’s Center.

A new study conducted jointly by the Hopkins Children’s Center and Duke University found some positive results for oral immunotherapy in the case of milk allergy. According to Dr. Wood, “Our findings suggest that oral immunotherapy gradually retrains the immune system to completely disregard or to better tolerate the allergens in milk that previously caused allergic reactions.” Even though the researchers only studied 19 children, this study is the first ever double-blinded and placebo-controlled study of milk immunotherapy. Because neither the children nor the investigators knew which children received the placebos, the possibility for bias and error was minimized.

The findings of the study require further research and parents should not try this type of oral immunotherapy without medical supervision, but the positive implications are clear. If we can find a better way to treat children with food allergies, we can improve their daily diet and their quality of life.

According to an October article in Indoor Environment Connections, an initiative to improve indoor air quality is set to launch in 2009. Already in use in five states, the package is designed to ensure that energy efficiency is improved without sacrificing health. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will give homes a seal of approval if they use certain building techniques to protect against radon, pests, and pollutants. This program will greatly reduce the lead, chemicals, mold, allergens and pests in new homes. According to Tom Kelly, the director of the EPA’s indoor air program, the new program builds on the EPA’s 1992 Energy Star initiative that promotes efficient electrical appliances.

The first national summit on improving air quality in new homes was hosted in Baltimore by four difference federal agencies. This Healthy Homes Conference presented several studies that showed how the improved building methods lowered the risk of asthma and other health problems. The studies were done in Cleveland, New Orleans, and Seattle. The three day summit drew more than a thousand participants interested in building a consensus among builders, health advocates, and environmentalists. This summit underscores the improvement of indoor air quality as an emerging political and health issue for many Americans.

One area where improvements in new home construction has been seen is in the use of lead. According to Jon Gant, an official with the Housing and Urban Development Office, the number of kids with lead poisoning fell from 890,000 in 1992 to 310,000 in 2002. He went on to say that the techniques used to lower the number of cases of lead poisoning can be used to help tackle other health and environmental issues. The “Indoor Air Package” program is a big step in the fight to improve the air we breathe in new houses and buildings.

A CDC report released today supports a growing belief amongst allergists and pediatricians. Food allergies among children are on the rise, to the tune of a 18% increase over the last decade. Currently, approximately 4% of all children suffer from some sort of food allergy. Milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soy and wheat account for 90% of these.

What is most alarming about this report is that not only is the occurrence of food allergies on the rise in children, but that children with food allergies are nearly three times as likely to suffer from respiratory or skin allergies as well. Roughly 30% of children with food allergies also suffer from respiratory allergies. Additionally, 25% of children with food allergies also suffer from eczema or skin allergies. Those without food allergies suffer from either respiratory or skin allergies less than 10% of the time.

There is no consensus as to why the increase is occurring in the U.S. What is known is that similar trends appear to be common in countries where the diet is similar to that found in the U.S. One interesting note is that in countries like China, peanuts are consumed nearly as frequently as in the U.S., but the occurrence of allergies related to peanuts is much lower. One possible reason could be in the way peanuts are prepared before consumption. In the U.S. most are dry roasted whereas in China most peanuts are boiled or fried.

What is clear from this study is that food allergies among children is a growing problem. Regardless of the causes, it is an issue that must be met with more research. For now the best advice is early diagnosis and avoidance. Through education and preventative measures, we all can work to ensure our children are safe.

For a full copy of the report, click here.

*The CDC data come from two sources: the National Health Interview Survey, which sampled some 9,500 children in 2007; and the National Hospital Discharge Survey, which includes 270,000 inpatient records from about 500 hospitals.

In 2008, the Miele S5280 Callisto and the S163 Universal Upright won Consumers Digest Best Buy awards. The ranking committee was impressed with Miele’s control settings, easy-to-use wand, and overall filtration performance.

For almost fifty years, people all over the world have trusted Consumers Digest magazine to make sense of a vast array of products and services. With advertising schemes and marketing ploys, the amount of information about products is confusing and difficult to navigate. Consumers Digest helps steer people to outstanding values in the marketplace. They define a “Best Buy” as a product that offers outstanding value for its price and that merits special attention from shoppers. Each year, the designation is awarded to nationally available products.

“We are thrilled to have not one, but two vacuum cleaner products in the Best Buy family,” states Paul McCormack, Senior Marketing Manager for Miele, Inc. “We’ve always felt that our high standards of quality, performance, and filtration add up to a great value. Now there’s absolutely no doubt.”

The Callisto is the most popular of all of Miele’s canister vacuums. It offers the conveniences of the S5 Galaxy series with a few notable improvements. The electric powered SEB 217-3 Powerbrush comes standard. This is a significant improvement over the air driven brush. In addition, the Callisto comes with a powered hose. This hose gives you a wider range of more versatile attachments. When I ran this model, I found the SEB 217-3 Powerbrush was better at extracting pet hair from thicker carpet. In contrast, the electrically powered brush cleaned our high pile carpet much easier. Another noticeable upgrade with the Callisto is the handle. The Callisto is equipped with a deluxe handle. The design fits better in your hand and puts less strain on your wrist while you vacuum.

The S163 Universal Upright is great for someone living in an apartment or loft. The vacuum works well on low pile carpeting and smooth floor surfaces. You can switch from carpet to smooth flooring with a flip of a switch. The additional accessories are a crevice nozzle and an upholstery tool. The most notable quality of this vacuum is its versatility. You can operate the S163 as an upright vacuum or you can remove the wand and operate it as a hand-held vacuum to clean steps or under furniture.

The Callisto and the S163 Universal Upright are two of the best vacuums Miele has to offer. They are at different ends of the Miele spectrum, but they represent quality products that have great accessories and provide solid cleaning and filtration performance.

The fight over our changing global climate grows more intense every year. In this year’s vice presidential debate, the causes of global warming were contested. No matter what the causes and if we can slow them down, millions of allergy sufferers already feel the effects. In a USA Today article, journalist Kim Painter writes that growing evidence suggests that an increase in allergies may be linked to global climate change. The premise is that when it is hotter outside, allergy sufferers are exposed to more allergens for longer periods of time.

This idea is especially true for pollen sufferers. Trees, grasses, and weeds (including the ragweed tormenting many people this fall) churn out more pollen over more weeks when temperatures and carbon dioxide levels rise, says Richard Weber, a Denver allergist who helped write the paper on the link published this month in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. “I think we can expect allergy sufferers are going to be suffering more,” says Weber, a professor at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

Avoiding indoor allergens takes more work and more commitment. If allergy sufferers are willing to take multiple steps, they can and will breathe better. Most research (and we at achoo! Allergy agree) suggests that controlling the environment is more beneficial to allergy sufferers than ever before.

“We’ve got really good evidence now that environment matters,” says Jay Portnoy, a Kansas City allergist and president of the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. “Just taking a pill is not going to solve your problem.”

For the past eight years, our mission here at achoo! Allergy has been to promote allergen avoidance and environmental control. Every product that we offer is focused on helping allergy sufferers win this battle. Here are some environmental control measures that will help you breathe better:

October is Breast Cancer awareness month and to celebrate we are offering the Blueair AirPod PINK at 50% off. Additionally, during the month of October, we are running a special price on all our Blueair AirPods. Click here to check out the customer reviews of the Blueair AirPods.

Blueair is making strides in the battle against breast cancer. On April 29th, the Blueair AirPod PINK was featured as an audience giveaway on the morning talk show, the View. This television appearance gave the AirPod PINK exposure to millions of viewers. The AirPod PINK is a proud partner of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Blueair donates $5 from each AirPod PINK sold to this worthy organization. To help publicize this partnership, the AirPod PINK will be featured in a number of breast cancer issues during October including Weight Watcher’s Magazine, Balance Magazine, InStyle.com, Shape Magazine, and Home Magazine. Make sure to check out these publications this month.

We live in a world where clean air is a precious commodity. The air we breathe inside and outside contains many impurities. Surprisingly, the quality of air indoors is often worse than the air outside your home or office. To fight poor air quality, the AirPod’s patented HepaSilent filter is the machine’s workhorse. Inside the 6.3-inch square docking station, a 12V DC fan whirrs so silently that you may wonder if your AirPod is turned on. Also, the docking station houses an electrostatically-charged ionizer and power unit.
With a clean, stylish, and modern design, the AirPod is stripped down to its essential components—the filter and the docking station. This makes it easy to take this unit with you, wherever you go. The sleek shape gives you more room to breathe with no visual clutter. Express your personality. Choose a stylish filter pattern that suits your mood or your environment. Then, you can sit back, relax, and feel the difference in air quality. For better air quality in your personal space, there is no product better than the AirPod.

Other current discounts and our featured products include the Comfort-Aire Dehumidifiers, Allersearch AllerMold, Allersearch ODRX, and the Sinupulse.