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HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALSFeatures and Articles About Allergies
Our Features page contains articles written by doctors, specialists, journalists and individuals from professional bodies and organisations. To read a specific article, click on the underlined heading.
Infants diagnosed with eczema early in life are at a higher risk of having peanut and other food allergies, a new study finds ... |
Allergies to peanuts affect a large number of people both in the UK and worldwide ... |
The FreeFrom Food Awards are the UK's only award for the massively expanding freefrom food industry ... |
In the modern day, germ obsessed society it is estimated that the NHS is spending a staggering £1billion (11%of its total budget) treating patients ... |
Many people, both in the UK and worldwide, prefer to choose a more natural, homeopathic approach when they are taken ill or feel under the weather ... |
New research into human cells carried out by a team of scientists at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, has singled out a molecule ... |
Dr Chris Steele MBE Hands In Petition On Coeliac Disease To 10 Dowing Street |
Dr Chris Steele MBE, today, 2nd February 2010, handed in a petition to 10 Downing Street, calling on the Government to help improve the diagnosis of coeliac disease ... |
Although most people suffer from stress at some point in their lives and it is even believed that short bursts of stress are no bad thing ... |
Food Allergy & Intolerance Week January 25th-29th 2010 - Know Your Enemy |
Charity report says food allergy and intolerance sufferers are being forgotten ... |
Too many people are self-diagnosing food allergies and could be restricting their diet unnecessarily, according to a new report by the University of Portsmouth and commissioned by the Flour Advisory Bureau ... |
Clinicians and scientists at UHSM (University Hospital South Manchester), the University of Manchester, and Phadia AB in Uppsala, Sweden have developed a new and significantly more accurate blood test for peanut allergy ... |
Dr Chris Steele MBE announced today, 18th January 2010, on ITV’s This Morning where he is the show’s resident doctor, that he has been diagnosed coeliac disease ... |
Pears Traditional Soap Abandons New Formula After Facebook Campaign |
Pears Traditional Soap has been forced to abandon its new formula as a result of a Facebook campaign by users over the chemicals added to the formula ... |
Organic Milk Linked to Lower Rates of Allergies, Asthma & Eczema |
A study that has recently been conducted in the Netherlands has discovered that young children who exclusively consume organic dairy products are significantly less likely to develop allergies, asthma or eczema by the age of two ... |
A new study that has been launched in Canada is aiming to prove whether the environment of expectant mothers is responsible for the dramatic rise in cases of allergy and asthma in young children ... |
Why Your New Year's Celebrations Can Cause More Than a Hangover |
As the New Year celebrations approach most people will try to be sensible about what they eat and drink at New Year parties ... |
Scientists in the USA have discovered that the earlier a child is exposed to bacteria and germs, the better their immune system will be in later life ... |
House dust is the major cause of allergy in persons with year long runny or blocked nose and/or sneezing. In addition to these allergic reactions, dust can trigger asthma, night coughs and irritant eyes and exacerbate eczema ... |
Food allergy is a serious and sometimes devastating condition about which there is still limited knowledge ... |
As you may know, my daughter Alice was the main inspiration for starting the TalkHealth sites. We are luckier than most, as her chronic atopic eczema has not continued through all her childhood. The first 5 years of her life were horrendous ... |
People with coeliac disease may be more susceptible to osteoporosis because their own immune system attacks their bone tissue, a study suggests ... |
While daily bathroom showers provide invigorating relief and a good cleansing for millions of Americans, they also can deliver a face full of potentially pathogenic bacteria, according to a surprising new University of Colorado at Boulder study ... |
The notion of exposing young children to infections in a bid to protect them from later allergies is wrong, latest research suggests ... |
Following considerable recent development work, Espère Healthcare Ltd announce the launch of HydRapid™ Triple Action Lotion ... |
NICE Issues Positive Final Appraisal Determination Recommending Basilea's Toctino |
Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. (SIX:BSLN) announces that the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) today issued the Final Appraisal Determination (FAD) recommending the use of Toctino® (alitretinoin) within its licensed indication, as a treatment option for adults with severe chronic hand eczema that has not responded to potent topical corticosteroids. ... |
Many young children who get a severe skin rash develop asthma months or years later. Doctors call the progression from eczema, or atopic dermatitis, to breathing problems the atopic march ... |
On May 4th Media Planet, the independent report publishing house, produced a 16 page report entitled "Asthma and Allergies" that went out nationally in The Guardian newspaper ... |
Folic acid, or vitamin B9, essential for red blood cell health and long known to reduce the risk of spinal birth defects, may also suppress allergic reactions and lessen the severity of allergy and asthma symptoms, according to new research from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center ... |
NICE Issue Preliminary Recommendations For First Licensed Treatment For Chronic Hand Eczema |
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) today published a positive preliminary recommendation for Toctino (alitretinoin) for adults with chronic hand eczema that is unresponsive to potent topical steroids when the patient has severe disease and their quality of life is significantly impaired ... |
Allergies manifest themselves in many different ways and one of them is the Oral Allergy Syndrome. This is sometimes also known as the pollen-fruit allergy syndrome because it occurs in people who are sensitive to common pollens and then develop a cross-sensitivity to various fruits and vegetables ... |
Mouse gene leads to new breakthrough in allergy research An international collaboration between scientists at the University of Dundee and research groups in Ireland and Japan has discovered a genetic defect in mice that leads to allergic inflammation, comparable to that seen in human eczema and related allergic diseases ... |
World-First Desensitisation Therapy Is 'Cure' For Severe Peanut Allergy |
A group of children with peanut allergy no longer have to worry about severe immune reactions after taking part in the world’s first successful peanut desensitisation programme ... |
Hypersensitivity to perfumes is the most common contact allergy in adults. Research at the University of Gothenburg has demonstrated that even natural aromatic oils, which many deem harmless compared to synthetic perfumes, may cause allergic reactions ... |
A programme to train practice nurses to run food intolerance clinics in every GP practice, based on a three year research project at the University of Surrey, was launched last week by FAIR, the Foundation for Allergy and Intolerance Research ... |
Taking one grass pollen tablet every day can alleviate hay fever and asthma in children. These are the results of a study by medical experts in the team led by Prof. Dr. Albrecht Bufe (Experimental Pneumology) at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum ... |
Research funded by Asthma UK and published in Mucosal Immunology this week, has lead to the development of a vaccine treatment that can prevent asthma-like symptoms in mice ... |
Fungal Pill Could Provide Asthma Relief For 150,000 UK Sufferers |
Up to 150,000 people suffering from severe asthma in the UK could benefit from taking antifungal medication already available from pharmacists, new research has found ... |
Antacid Medication In Pregnancy May Increase Childhood Asthma |
Children of mothers who took acid-suppressive drugs during pregnancy had a 1.5 times higher incidence of asthma when compared to children who were not exposed to the drugs in utero, finds a large population-based study by researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston ... |
Basilea Announces That It Has Opened Phase III Study On Alitretinoin In US |
"There is a real sense of excitement within the dermatology community with the start of this important trial," said Dr. Donald Belsito, HANDEL Lead Investigator and Director of Dermatology at University of Kansas Medical Center. "Chronic hand eczema is a debilitating condition, and there are currently no FDA approved treatment options for patients unresponsive to potent topical steroids ... |
Measures to control nuts are instead making things worse in a cycle of over-reaction and increasing sensitisation. At this time of year many municipal elementary schools in the United States, including the one attended by my children, raise money by selling wrapping paper and candy ... |
A hypoallergenic milk formula that could stop the development of eczema in babies is being trialed at St Mary’s and Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospitals in London, part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust ... |
The FSA Board will recommend to Ministers that Government advice on avoiding peanuts during pregnancy, breastfeeding and early life, where there is a family history of allergy, is revised in light of new evidence ... |
The number of allergy alerts sent out by national allergy charity The Anaphylaxis Campaign so far this year has exceeded their 2007 record level of 58. The charity has been involved in no fewer than 60 alerts this year ... |
A team of scientists from across Europe are embarking on new research to develop a treatment for food allergy ... |
Beekeepers Help The Development of New Treatments for Allergic Diseases |
The immune system of the body is very clever. It consists of cells and chemicals all designed to protect us. It can differentiate between harmful and harmless substances that are foreign to the body (antigens). It springs into action when it spots a harmful antigen and ignores the harmless variety ... |
People with restless leg syndrome often have found that sleep-inducing allergy drugs worsen their symptoms. Now, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have discovered a possible reason for that and help explain why RLS in general interferes with sleep but doesn’t seem to result in daytime drowsiness ... |
It is said that timing is everything, and that certainly appears to be true for autumn infants. Children who are born four months before the height of cold and flu season have a greater risk of developing childhood asthma than children born at any other time of year, according to new research ... |
World COPD Day this year provides the occasion for the launch of a website for European citizens to check national and local air quality and to learn the steps they can take to minimise any adverse effects ... |
Giving children with milk allergies increasingly higher doses of milk over time may ease, and even help them completely overcome, their allergic reactions, according to the results of a study led by the Johns Hopkins Children's Center and conducted jointly with Duke University ... |
An upside to allergies? Scientists believe they protect us against cancer. Most people with allergies consider them a nuisance at best while more serious cases can be life threatening. But scientists now claim that they have an upside ... |
Doctors are being warned to be alert to a new allergic skin disorder, caused by mobile phones, according to the British Association of Dermatologists. A new phenomenon called “mobile phone dermatitis” has been discovered, in which people who spend long periods of time on their mobile phone develop an allergic reaction to the phone’s nickel surface ... |
Society's Lack of Knowledge of Food Allergies Greatly Impacts Those With Allergies |
The level of knowledge and understanding of children with food allergies varies significantly across three key groups: pediatricians and family physicians, the general public and families who have a child with food allergies ... |
Chlorinated Outdoor Pools May Increase Risks of Asthma and Allergy in Kids |
There is probably no better place than an outdoor swimming pool to refresh and relax on hot days. A backyard pool is also a lot of fun for kids who can spend hours playing and swimming in the pool during summertime ... |
Paracetamol in First Years of Life Increases Risk of Asthma, and Eczema in Children |
Use of paracetamol in the first year of life in later childhood, is associated with risk of asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis (RC)*, and eczema at age 6-7 years. This is the conclusion of an Article in this week’s Asthma Special Issue of The Lancet, written by Professor Richard Beasley, Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, and colleagues ... |
Day-Care Attendance Reduces The Risk of Wheeze At Age Five Years |
Asthma and wheeze have been on the rise over the past few decades. There are many hypotheses to explain why they have become more common ... |
An increasing number of studies have shown a reduced risk of allergies, hay fever, asthma and eczema in farmers' children and adolescents ... |
Ancient Antibody Molecule Offers Clues to How Humans Evolved Allergies |
Scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have discovered how evolution may have lumbered humans with allergy problems. The team from the Randall Division of Cell & Molecular Biophysics, King's College London are working on a molecule vital to a chicken's immune system which represents the evolutionary ancestor of the human antibodies that cause allergic reactions ... |
With the peak grass pollen season approaching, scientists can reveal that a daily dose of probiotic can change the immune status of people with hay fever. In the first human study of its kind, scientists at the Institute of Food Research found that probiotic bacteria in a daily drink can modify the immune system's response to grass pollen, a common cause of seasonal hay fever ... |
STREAMING eyes, runny nose and endless sneezing? Help might be on the way in the form of a hay-fever vaccine that works faster and involves far fewer injections than existing treatment regimens ... |
An increasing number of Britons claim they are intolerant to wheat. But far from being one condition, health problems involving wheat actually fall into three main groups ... |
First-born babies may be programmed in the womb to have a higher risk of asthma and allergy, research suggests. A University of South Carolina led team carried out tests on more than 1,200 newborns from the Isle of Wight ... |
A study into teenagers with food allergies will investigate what life is like for them in an attempt to improve their quality of life and curb the number of allergy-related deaths. Scientists at the University of Portsmouth have created a quality of life questionnaire which asks teenagers what it is like for them to live with a food allergy. They are inviting young people with food allergies to come forward to take part in the study ... |
Prolonged exposure to baby milk powder increases the risk of breathing problems, including wheezing and breathlessness, a study has found. It looked at 170 Thai factory workers who made the powder, but the team from University of Birmingham says the risk could also apply to nannies ... |
Exposing pregnant mothers and infants to probiotic bacteria boosts their immune systems and could stop them developing allergies, according to scientists. Researchers selected 1,223 women with a history of allergies or a partner who suffered from them and gave them probiotic or placebo doses daily when they were eight months pregnant ... |
Peanut Allergy Immunotherapy Should Be Available In Five Years |
Some form of immunotherapy is expected to be available for peanut allergy within the next five years. But the reasons for the increasing prevalence of this allergic reaction remain unclear. The issues are discussed by Professor Wesley Burks, Duke University Medical Center, NC, USA, in a Seminar in this week's edition of The Lancet ... |
If you're allergic to soy, help is on the way. Two University of Illinois studies show that fermenting soy dramatically reduces its potential allergenicity and also increases the number of essential amino acids in soy products, making them a healthy and a safe choice for consumers ... |
A study may have discovered why breastfeeding might help protect children against allergies such as asthma, scientists have said. The French research, published in Nature Medicine, shows female mice exposed to allergens can pass them directly to their offspring in milk ... |
| Allergy Diagnosis, Testing and Treatment |
| Many years ago I was taught medicine in London when it was swinging and Carnaby Street sold rainbow clothes. Our teachers had qualified before the Second World War well before most test had been invented and cholesterol was "bad". We were taught to take a careful medical history, perform a physical examination and then, if necessary, do tests to confirm what we had already decided ... |
| Food Standards Agency Issues Revised Advice on Certain Artificial Food Colours |
| Following the publication of new research commissioned by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), parents of children showing signs of hyperactivity are being advised that eliminating certain artificial food colours from their diets might have some beneficial effects on their behaviour ... |
| Cow Milk Allergy supplied by Act Against Allergy |
| In some children the ingestion of milk can trigger the body into launching an inappropriate immune response to the proteins in milk resulting in an allergic reaction: the Cow Milk Allergy ... |
| Pillows - A Hot Bed of Fungal Spores supplied by The Fungal Research Trust |
| Researchers at The University of Manchester, funded by the Fungal Research Trust, have discovered millions of fungal spores literally right under our noses - in our pillows ... |
| Allergies to Dogs by Jennifer Brooke |
| A very interesteing article showing how you can live with dogs even if you have a pet allergy ... |
| Scientists discover novel method to reduce cat allergic reactions |
| Imperial College London & Royal Brompton Hospital have discovered a way to decrease allergic reactions by increasing numbers of CD4+ regulatory T-cells ... |
| Do you have the right prescription? The Allergy Magazine |
| Allergies can be difficult to deal with at the best of times, but imagine being ill and in need of treatment, yet being allergic to the medication that could cure you... |
| 10 things you MUST know about the EpiPen The Allergy Magazine |
| The benefits of carrying your EpiPen with you... |
| Babies and Food Allergy by Michelle Berriedale-Johnson |
| The allergy world is a very confusing one - if only because very few health professionals really understand much about it! ... |
| Dairy Free from Cradle to Grave by Michelle Berriedale-Johnson |
| Dairy free diets sound horrendous to the un-initiated but there are many who have learnt to love them ... |
| Dairy Free Infants and Toddlers by Michelle Berriedale-Johnson |
| Milk has a great image. Wholesome, comforting, nutritious - it represents everything we cherish about family, community, continuity. But - whose milk? ... |
| Food Allergy and Intolerance by Dr Michael Radcliffe |
| If you want to give your GP a stressful moment, tell him that you suspect you have a food allergy - few subjects in medicine have been the cause of more controversy ... |
| The Allergy Volcano - An Overview of a Modern Disease by Jennifer Worth |
| Allergic diseases are increasing world wide. It seems that we cannot adapt to the environment we are creating ... |
| Links Between Eczema and Other Allergic Disorders by Dr Stewart Rutherford Morison |
| This title was suggested by Deborah, so is not of my making as will become immediately apparent! ... |
| Eczema, food allergy and tests by Dr Richard Turner |
| It is always a difficult question to answer: "Is my child's eczema caused by something he/she is eating?"... |
| Neonatal Sensitisation to Latex - A Medical Hypothisis by Jennifer Worth |
| Babies born in delivery rooms of hospitals are exposed to latex through skin and mucous membrane contact with prepowdered latex gloves ... |
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