allergies

There's nothing quite like the smell of a fresh cut Christmas tree. That is, unless it makes your nose run and your eyes turn red. For many allergy sufferers, real trees are a source of discomfort during the holidays, even if the tree itself isn't to blame.

That's right. Very few people actually have an allergy to the tree itself, according to the American Academy of Asthma and Immunology. For some people, the tree's piny fragrance may be irritating, but in most cases the offending allergens probably hitched a ride on the tree.

Trees spend years gathering pollen, dust and mold spores while standing vigil on tree farms and in the forests. When you chop one down and take it home, you drag those allergens into your house.

The Academy recommends letting real trees dry in a garage or enclosed porch for a week and giving them a good shake before bringing them inside.

Another option: If you sneeze or wheeze around Christmas trees but still want one, get someone else to set it up and decorate it in a room that you don't frequent. Or set it up on a porch or in the yard.

Unfortunately, the problem isn't just related to real trees. Where and how you store an artificial tree--and other holiday trimmings--can exacerbate allergies, too. That's because these items also collect dust and grow mold spores.

Wash and dust decorations and artificial trees outside before decorating. To remove dust and mold from festive fabrics, wash them in hot, soapy water.

Taking these simple steps can help you enjoy the season--Your sinuses will be jollier for it.

Whenever we go to a restaurant with our kids, we have a lot to consider. First, there is our son's food allergies. He can't eat things with wheat, peanuts, soy, eggs or chicken in them. And he can't go into a seafood restaurant.

His allergies make ordering something as simple as a cheeseburger at a fast food restaurant nearly impossible. When we say, "We'd like a kid's cheeseburger with no bun and no condiments," the teenager at the cash register looks utterly confused, and then messes up the order.

And then there's our daughter, who has to take a pill before she can consume anything dairy. She is lactose intolerant.

What's the difference between a food allergy and a food intolerance? Food allergies provoke an immune system response that's immediate and potentially deadly. The body thinks an ingredient in food is harmful and activates antibodies to fight it. Typical symptoms include: Rash or hives, stomach pain, nausea, itchy skin, breathing difficulties, diarrhea, chest pain and anaphylaxis.

This summer, for example, our son came into contact with shellfish at a restaurant. He turned red and broke out from head to toe with in minutes. That last symptom is important. Anaphylaxis can kill and kill quickly, which is why our son always has life-saving medicine around.

Our daughter's lactose intolerance can be painful too. When she consumes some dairy products, her stomach hurts and she has other digestive discomfort. But the symptoms, which include nausea, stomach pain, gas, bloating and other GI issues, are not life-threatening.

Her intolerance is a digestive system response instead of an immune system response. Her digestive system is being irritated by the presence of lactose, which her body struggles to break down.

Does that make food intolerances less of a problem? No. My daughter feels a lot worse when she eats ice cream (without taking a lactase pill) than my son does when he eats food cross-contaminated by wheat.

Food tolerance issues are also much more common than food allergies. By some estimates, they affect nearly everyone. More than 10 percent of Americans have a lactose intolerance, for example. Only 4 percent have a food allergy. And unlike some food allergies, lactose intolerance never goes away.

(Celiac disease, which is often classified as an intolerance to gluten, may also involve the immune system and is associated with autoimmune disorders like diabetes and arthritis, but researchers don't know why.)

The biggest difference between food allergies and food intolerances is how you treat them. In the case of severe food allergies, an immediate response --an epinephrine injection, for example--may be necessary to stop the immune systems response. For food intolerances, the body needs time to recover from symptoms.

For both conditions, preventing symptoms involves the same strategy--stay away from foods that your body can't handle.

More people are avoiding foods that contain gluten, a protein in wheat, barley and rye. But is gluten really bad for most of us? Our Healthy Skeptic has the facts.

It wasn't long after my wife and I started raising honeybees that a woman whose property adjoins ours asked to buy some of our honey. We were so excited to have a customer--months before we even figured out how to extract honey from the hives--that I nearly missed her next statement.

"I have really bad allergies," she sniffed.

I felt like a killjoy when I explained to her that there were probably better ways to control allergies than eating honey produced locally, especially since honey doesn't help cure or lessen allergies.

In honor of fall allergy season, here are some other facts about allergies you might not know.

Myth: Kids grow out of food allergies
Although it is common for kids to leave some allergies behind as they get older, certain food allergies almost never go away. Unfortunately, they tend to be the more severe kind: Peanuts, tree nuts and shellfish.

Allergists used to think that kids grew out of other allergies within a few years of diagnosis, but recent research suggests that food allergies linger much longer. Two studies from 2007, for example, found that most children will outgrow allergies to milk and eggs, but not until they reach adulthood.

The good news: Doctors are coming up with new methods for desensitizing children to the worst food allergies.

Myth: You can buy a hypoallergenic dog
A few years ago we acquired a Labradoodle puppy as a rescue pet. We hoped our son, who is severely allergic to cats and doesn't handle dog dander very well either, would have a sniffle-free companion.

But even hypoallergenic dogs shed and have dander. They just have less than other breeds. And you pay a price premium for so-called hypoallergenic dog breeds and hybrids like labradoodles, which are often even more expensive, especially compared to pound puppies. You may empty the bank on one of these hounds and still have to invest in tissue.

Myth: Poison ivy is contagious
For people with allergies to poison ivy, oak or sumac, a walk in the woods can quickly turn into itching agony. That's because the plants contain an oil called urushiol. Brushing uncovered up against a plant or even coming into contact with a pet who's brushed up against poison ivy can cause redness, itching, swelling and even blisters.

But once urushiol is cleaned off the skin, you can't spread poison ivy to someone else. Their skin must come into direct contact with the plant's oil to be affected.

Myth: Allergy tests are accurate
Allergy tests are a great tool for allergists to narrow down possible allergies when a patient is experiencing allergic reactions, but they're not that reliable. That's because skin scratch and blood serum tests vary in accuracy and can result in false positives. In fact, the same test given at different times to the same person may result in different findings.

That's not to say these food allergy tests have no value. Doctors can use them along with medical history and follow up tests to diagnose and treat patients. An allergist might use the results of a scratch test for food allergies along with patient history, for example, to recommend a food challenge test, the gold standard of food allergy testing.

The good news: Researchers are getting close to a test that is as accurate as a food challenge test and less expensive.

Myth: Honey can cure your sniffles
Unfortunately this isn't true. Honey bees typically harvest pollen from flowers. But most people aren't allergic to that kind of pollen; they're allergic to wind-spread pollen from tree and grass, which is why research indicates that local honey is no cure for allergies.

Funny thing about bees and allergies: Six months after we installed our bee hives I found out I was violently allergic to honeybee stings. No amount of honey, unfortunately, can cure my allergy.

You may think the air quality index on the local weather forecast is meant only for people with heart and lung problems. Here's why everyone should pay attention.

Time for a pop quiz. Which of the following plant pollens is unlikely to trigger an allergy attack.

Define rhinorrhea.

Meteorologists don't just predict thunderstorms and sunny days. They can actually predict allergies. Find out how they do it.

Did you know that peanuts aren't really nuts? Find out what they are and other surprising facts about this nutritional wonder.

Not only is celiac disease on the rise, but a person can develop it later in life, according to researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine Center for Celiac Research. Their study, published in the September issue of Annals of Medicine, debunks the myth that celiac disease begins in childhood.

"You're not necessarily born with celiac disease," says lead author Dr. Carlo Catassi, co-director of the Center for Celiac Research. "Our findings show that some people develop celiac disease quite late in life." Catassi, also of the Universita Politecnica delle Marche in Italy, urges physicians to consider screening their elderly patients.

Celiac disease is an inherited, autoimmune condition that centers in the digestive tract. According to the National Institutes of Health, when someone with celiac disease ingests gluten (a protein found in wheat, barley and rye), his or her immune system responds by damaging or destroying villi —the tiny, fingerlike protrusions lining the small intestine that help the absorption of nutrients. Without working villi, a person becomes malnourished. Classic symptoms of celiac disease include abdominal bloating and pain, chronic diarrhea, vomiting and constipation.

In the study, Italian and American researchers tracked more than 3,500 adults using blood samples and found that the incidence of celiac disease jumped from 1 in 501 in 1974 to 1 in 219 in 1989. A 2003 study conducted by the celiac research center placed the number of people with celiac disease in the U.S. at one in 133.

The finding also contradicts the common wisdom that nothing can be done to prevent autoimmune disease. If individuals can tolerate gluten for many decades before developing celiac disease, some environmental factor or factors other than gluten must be in play, notes study co-author Dr. Alessio Fasano, director of the University of Maryland's Mucosal Biology Research Center and the celiac research center. The key is finding those other triggers.

In a Wall Street Journal Health Blog, Fasano theorizes that changes in gut bacterial ignite the disease late in life. A person might be born with a genetic predisposition to celiac disease, but that for years those genes aren't turned on. Then the gut bacteria changes, perhaps as a result of infection, surgery or antibiotics, and those genes get flipped on.

The diagnosis of celiac disease can be difficult because many patients, especially adults, who test positive for the disease may not have the classic gastrointestinal symptoms. Atypical symptoms include joint pain, chronic fatigue, seizures, depression and even an itchy skin rash called dermatitis herpetiformis. In the study, only 11 percent of the celiac patients had actually been diagnosed with the disease before the study.

According to the Celiac Disease Foundation, the only treatment is the lifelong adherence to the gluten-free diet. It means avoiding everything with wheat, barley and rye. But gluten can lurk in unexpected places: It may appear on food labels as modified food starch, preservatives or stabilizers. Gluten can also be present in everyday products such as medicines, vitamins and lip balms.

Two summers ago, we found out our toddler was allergic to peanuts, corn, soy, eggs, chicken and wheat. The news was relatively devastating at the time. It took six months for us to learn to cook without those ingredients and to do entirely without processed foods, which are rich sources of soy, corn and wheat proteins.

But we've learned to look back on the diagnosis as a blessing. Our son is thriving, and the whole family eats a healthier diet as a result. Here are three things we've learned:  

Reading nutrition labels helps you make healthier food choices.
Nutrition labels are opaque, requiring a decoder and a  chemical engineering degree to decipher. But that's the first clue that picking processed foods over whole foods might not be the best idea. Looking for allergens has led us to startling discoveries, such as: 

• High-fructose corn syrup is often used to sweeten ham and hot dogs.
• Huge amounts of sodium and sugar hide in unexpected places.
• Wheat and gluten turn up in surprising places from beer to oat meal to prepackaged broth.

This is to say nothing of unrealistic serving sizes that are designed to minimize calorie and fat counts on the labels. Of course, nutritionists have drawn the public's attention to these issues for years, but seeing the proof ourselves made it more believable. 

We still buy processed foods, but we look for foods with labels that we understand and that have short ingredient lists. 

It's not hard to give your kids good food habits
For parents trying to feed picky eaters and manage busy lives, frozen chicken fingers, hot dogs and other "convenience" foods often become nightly fare for their young kids. But when your child is allergic to so many ingredients common to processed food, the term "convenience" takes on new meaning. In our house, convenience is an apple or a banana, a celery stick or a carrot.

And our 3-year-old eats them up. Really, he doesn't have much of an option. And neither do we. Something simple like mac and cheese, which we make from rice noodles, whole milk and shredded cheese, takes 15 minutes to prepare.

Looking back now, I almost wish our first child had been diagnosed with food allergies as well. Then maybe she'd beg for a banana for breakfast instead of reaching for a Pop Tart.

If you're excited about food, your children can be, too
Several years ago we began raising some of our own food. Our oldest child helps us and she gets excited over the vegetables we produce. And she gets excited about the food we make from those veggies. (Children, it turns out, eat more fruits and vegetables if they're homegrown.)

She's invested in the process--a process towards healthier food choices we wouldn't have started if our youngest hadn't developed food allergies.

That's something we can be grateful for.

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Until recently, you wouldn't have known it was fall in much of the country. Sure, the calendar had changed, but the temperatures were still hovering in the 90s along the East Coast and in the Midwest. The only signs of the season: Football and sneezing. That's right, the ragweed wrath is upon us.

Although many people associate spring with allergies, fall wreaks havoc in many households. Ragweed, a yellow-flowering weed that begins blooming in August, in particular is a major nasal offender. A single plant, which grows in the East and Midwest, can produce up to one billion pollen grains. And three-fourths of Americans are allergic to those grains, according to the Allergy and Asthma Foundation of American.

Mold spores from decaying leaves and grasses are another common fall allergy trigger. (Find out how to spot and remove mold in your house.)

And for people firing up dormant heaters, dust mites can be a real bear. (Learn how to improve your indoor air quality.)

But just because mold spores, ragweed pollen and dust mites cause you to sniffle, doesn't mean you have to suffer. Here are six things you can do to make managing your allergies easier:

• Cut down on your exposure. If ragweed pollen is really wafting in the outdoor air, stay inside and limit your outdoor activities to times of the day when the pollen count is at its lowest. Sites like Pollen.com can help you determine how much pollen is floating in your air and when to go outside.

• When you have to go outside, take off your shoes before you come back in. That way you won't track pollen all over the house. You may want to change the outer layer of your clothes and take a shower, too.

• Leave the pets outside in their fur. If you let them inside, keep them off the furniture to cut down on allergies.

• Use your heating and air conditioning system instead of opening windows. That breeze may feel good, but an open window is an avenue into your home for mold spores and pollen.

• Change your filters. Any dust or pollen left in your heating ducts will just get stirred up when you crank up your furnace. A new set of filters should help cut down on recirculated allergens.

• Develop an allergy management plan. See your doctor and plan for the season. Your physician should be able to direct you to the right prescription or over-the-counter drugs to manage your allergies.

In 1933, the mighty King Kong held New Yorkers in the grip of terror. These days it's a very tiny critter that has New York City squirming in fear and revulsion: The bed bug.

Bed bugs have been found creeping and crawling all over the Big Apple, from swank co-ops to rentals in less-tony zip codes, from the Brooklyn DA's office to King Kong's old haunt, the Empire State Building. They've forced the temporary closing of retail stores, college buildings and movie theaters until the problem could be resolved.

Now, bed bugs are bringing terror to a neighborhood near you. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United States is experiencing an "alarming resurgence in the population of bed bugs."

The use of DDT-a now-banned pesticide-kept bed bug populations under control after World War II. But three factors have led to this icky resurgence:

• An increase in travel--bugs and eggs can hitchhike in clothing and luggage;
• An increase in bed bug resistance to available pesticides;
• And a decrease in our knowledge regarding bed bug control.

The only thing spreading faster than bed bugs has been the fear of them. But frightening as they are, bed bugs don't spread disease as much as stigma. The apple seed-sized parasites (oval and reddish brown) hide in mattress crevices, behind headboards, between floorboards. Then they come out in the dark and feast on us, gorging on blood.

They do so without disturbing us because (smart buggers) they inject their unsuspecting prey with an anticoagulant and an anesthetic. The result: Itchy welts and bumps, and a whole lot of psychological distress, including but not limited to insomnia and anxiety.

Some people may have no physical reaction from bed bug bites, while others may experience a more severe allergic reaction. Look to your mattress for other signs of a bed bug infestation:

• Dark specks--bed bug poop!
• Small blood smears, the result of crushed, engorged bed bugs;
• And empty light brown exoskeletons--bed bugs molt five times.

So how do you get rid of them? First, have patience. Eliminating of bed bugs can be a long and sometimes expensive process. Time is your friend, but unfortunately for those who want to starve them out, bed bugs can go for up to a year without feeding (that's where a storage unit can come in handy).

Heat is also your friend: wash and dry items in temperatures above 120 degrees. In the summer, bag infested items and bake them in your car. As for your mattress and box spring, encase them in plastic to keep old bugs in and new ones out or toss them.

The CDC recommends an "integrated pest management" approach which involves, among other things, monitoring, removing clutter where bed bugs can hide, applying heat treatment, vacuuming, sealing cracks and crevices, and using pesticides.

Or you can call the exterminator.

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By the first week of spring, our Alabama farm has turned yellow on its way to turning green. Pollen showers us from every water oak, dogwood and cedar tree. It coats the cars, the porch, the patio furniture — even the black labrador retriever. And it causes coughing, itching, runny eyes and noses, and general discomfort to every member of our family, including the dog.

The sad thing about tree pollen — which is where much of the yellow stuff comes from in spring — is it starts early and keeps coming. If you're allergic, it can make for some real misery. But there are steps you can take to limit your exposure.

First, leave your shoes outside. A surprising number of outdoor allergens become indoor allergens when they hitch a ride on your shoes. Leave them outside your door or in a mud room or entry hall so that you won't track pollen and spores onto your carpet and into your bedroom.

Or establish a home entry system that captures allergens[PDF] like the one outlined by the University of Georgia. (Here's handyman Jay Baker on how to eliminate more allergens from your house).

It's also not a bad idea to put your outer shell of clothing in the wash as soon as possible, especially if those little flakes on your shoulder are actually yellow.

Give the dog a bath. If your pets come in and out of the house, you may need to bathe them more regularly. Our normally black lab won't set foot in our house during pollen season without a serious hose down. And while they may be cuddly, letting your pets up on the furniture or bed just spreads pollen (and pet dander) to the places you frequent the most. If your four-legged friend is a feline, limit her exposure to the outdoors or give her a bath, too. (Here's how to safely wash your cat.)

Vacuum, vacuum, vacuum. That which doesn't enter your home on your pets or your shoes and clothes, often still finds a way in. Allergy specialists recommend you vacuum at least once a week and use a vacuum with a HEPA filter—a high efficiency filter that catches some of the smallest allergens.

Which vacuum works the best? Check out Consumer Reports vacuum cleaner reviews.

Keep your windows closed and your air conditioner on. After weeks of winter, this may sound like a bummer, but if you open your windows, pollen will blow in on that fresh breeze. Plus, your home's HVAC system — if it's equipped with top notch HEPA filters — can trap pollen out of the air it recycles. If you want to take it one step further, consider buying an air cleaner. They've been shown to improve allergy symptoms.