Air Room Purifier

A word about 'hay fever'

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Hay fever is the common name for seasonal allergic rhinitis. The symptoms are those of allergic rhinitis with the addition of itchy and watering eyes (allergic conjunctivitis); the eyes may become quite swollen and painful. Furthermore, these symptoms may be accompanied by cough, wheeze and shortness of breath. We refer to this as 'hay asthma'. Although we relate these symptoms to hay, they could just as easily be brought on by any other air­borne allergen. Interestingly, hay fever, like all allergic condi­tions, is becoming much more common. The first case was described in 1812, and it took doctors twelve years to collect the next twenty cases!

Not all 'seasonal' allergies are due to seasonal allergens. In one well-documented case, a young boy was told he had 'hay asthma' because he developed wheeze every summer, and specifically during the hottest, driest days of summer. He had virtually no wheeze at other times of the year. One clever fellow then spotted the fact that the young lad's wheeze was related more to his ingestion of diluted orange drink, of which he con­sumed considerable amounts during hot summer days. The drink was laden with tartrazine, a colouring agent. He stopped drinking his tartrazine, and his 'hay' asthma disappeared for good.

A word about silver birch pollen

Silver birch pollen deserves special mention. It becomes air­borne in early spring, sometimes as early as January, and may cause a rash in allergic individuals. Thus, these patients get all the symptoms of 'hay fever' but also suffer a crop of hives (urticaria). We call this full collection of symptoms 'silver birch pollenosis'. There is another aspect to silver birch allergy which is quite fascinating: up to 60 per cent of those who are allergic to it will get a tingling sensation of the lips and tongue when they eat apple. This is what we call 'cross-reactivity'. The immune system obviously thinks that the birch and apple aller­gens are one and the same thing. Silver birch also cross-reacts in this way with parsnip, potato, carrot and hazelnut (although these do not necessarily cause tingling lips). This is reminiscent of the Oral Allergy Syndrome, in which some individuals react to almost all fruit and vegetable.

A word about house dust mites and mould

As you can see, allergy to airborne pollen is a very seasonal affair. Symptoms come and go with the pollen. House dust mite allergy, on the other hand, is quite different. Symptoms are perennial, because our exposure to the mite is perennial. Symptoms may lessen somewhat during the summer, and worsen somewhat during winter, but this only reflects our lesser or greater exposure to the allergen. Mould is similar - or rather, moulds (plural) are similar. No sooner has one species quietened down than another starts to throw its spores into the atmosphere. The end result is that we are virtually constantly exposed to mould spores of one species or another.

A word about chemicals

Patients with allergic rhinitis often complain that chemical smells (such as tobacco smoke, perfumes, deodorants, etc.) aggravate their symptoms. They may then assume they are allergic to the chemicals themselves. However, most of these are irritant reac­tions. That is, they irritate an already inflamed nose. Treat the underlying allergy, and you will not be bothered by occasional chemical smells. In dealing with occupational allergy you will see the need to differentiate between allergic and irritant reac­tions, because it is, after all, possible to be allergic to chemicals as well.

For more information about Allergic Rhinitis Guidelines and Inhalant allergens , please check out our blog: http://naturalallergycures.blogspot.com/