Allegheny General Hospital Study Demonstrates Safety And Potential Efficacy Of Oral Allergy Treatment
An oral allergy treatment administered in drops under the tongue is a safe and effective alternative to injections for adults who are allergic to ragweed pollen, according to a study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology by allergic disease specialist at Allegheny General Hospital. Widely used in Europe, but not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, sublingual allergen immunotherapy (SLIT) can be a more convenient and tolerable treatment approach that leads to greater patient compliance, said David Skoner, MD, director of AGH's Division of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology and a co-lead investigator in the study. "The study's findings mark a step forward in gaining approval for sublingual administration of allergy medication, " said Dr.
Association Discovered Between Eczema In Early Childhood And Psychological Problems In Children At Age 10 Years
Eczema in early childhood may influence behavior and mental health later in life. This is a key finding of a prospective birth cohort study to which scientists of Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen contributed. In cooperation with colleagues of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat (LMU), Technische Universitat Munchen (TUM) and Marien-Hospital in Wesel, North Rhine-Westphalia this study followed 5, 991 children who were born between 1995 and 1998. The study has been published in the current issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology 125 (2010); 404-410. Researchers, led by Assistant Professor Jochen Schmitt of Dresden University Hospital, Dr. Christian Apfelbacher (Heidelberg University Hospital) and Dr.
Circassia Achieves Positive Phase II Clinical Results With Ragweed Allergy T-Cell Vaccine
Circassia Ltd, a specialty biopharmaceutical company focused on allergy, announced that its ToleroMune(R) ragweed allergy T-cell vaccine achieved positive results in a recently completed phase II clinical trial. Ragweed allergy is particularly common in America, where it affects approximately 25% of the population. Circassia's latest clinical results follow two earlier successful phase II studies with the company's T-cell vaccine against cat allergy. The company has three additional phase II trials ongoing, targeting house dust mite and cat allergies, and plans to initiate three further studies in the coming months, extending the portfolio into the field of grass allergy.
Dangers Of Older Allergy Drugs Often Underestimated And Overlooked
A joint GAВ LEN /EAACI report to be published in "Allergy" and available online on 8 February reviews new data on the treatment of allergies with older antihistamines compared with newer, second-generation H1-antihistamines. The research was funded by GAВ LEN, an EU-funded Network of Excellence. The findings suggest that first-generation H1-antihistamines not only make patients drowsy, but also reduce rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, impair learning, and reduce efficiency at work the next day. In addition, first-generation H1-antihistamines have been implicated in numerous civil aviation, motor vehicle, and boating accidents, and even deaths as a result of accidental or intentional overdosing in infants and young children.
When Is A Wheat Allergy Not A Wheat Allergy?
In response to the media hysteria over the 'millions who wrongly think they have food allergy ', allergy writer and editor of the massive food allergy/intolerance website, http://www.foodsmatter.com Michelle Berriedale-Johnson, puts the case as it really is. Once again, thanks to medical semantics, the newspapers need for a good story and the food industry's need to reassure consumers that their members' product is the healthiest thing they can buy, 'allergy' has been hijacked and the consumer thoroughly confused. Michelle suggests that the term allergy has, yet again, been totally misused, that perfectly genuine medical concerns apply to the few, but not to the many and that wheat does make people ill - but only when it is massively over-consumed in a massively over-processed form.
New Insights Into Allergy-related Disorders In Children
Allergies and asthma are a continuing health problem in most developed countries, but just how do these ailments develop over the course of a childhood? In a population-based study designed to help answer this question, researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) found that 40 per cent or two of five -- of nearly 5, 000 two-year-olds had at least one reported allergy-related disorder. The most common symptom was wheezing, which was reported in 26 per cent of all children in the study, says Ingeborg Smidesang, a PhD candidate in the university's Faculty of Medicine, and the primary author of the study. Researchers are careful to point out that there is no guarantee that children who wheeze at two years old will grow up with asthma.
Could You Be Allergic To Valentine's Day?
Valentine's Day is approaching and many couples are making plans to celebrate. But for the 3 million Americans allergic to peanuts, tree nuts or both, a kiss may cause more than a warm feeling. For people with nut allergies, a passionate kiss with someone who has recently eaten nuts may raise the risk for a serious allergic reaction, according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI). This is because once the food allergen is consumed there is no easy way to remove the evidence. Rinsing your mouth, brushing your teeth or even chewing gum does not guarantee the food allergen will not be transmitted to another person. However, studies indicate that waiting at least several hours and eating an allergen-free meal in between may be a helpful measure to avoid transmission.
Examining Link Between Childhood Asthma, Sleep And School Performance
Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center and Hasbro Children's Hospital researchers have received more than $2.5 million in direct costs from The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to study the impact of asthma on the sleep quality and academic performance of young children. The five-year grant will allow pediatric researchers, led by Daphne Koinis-Mitchell, PhD, to evaluate the connection between asthma and allergic rhinitis symptoms (such as sneezing, congestion or a runny nose), sleep quality, and school functioning in urban, elementary school children between the ages of 7 and 9. Working in collaboration with school districts in the greater Providence area, the investigators will also look at how family and cultural risks, such as family management of asthma and allergic rhinitis and asthma-related fear, may contribute to these associations.
Britons May Be Avoiding Wheat Unnecessarily, UK
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. Research shows that up to 20 per cent of adults think they suffer from a food allergy or food intolerance. However evidence suggests that the real prevalence of food allergy and intolerance in adults is less than 2 per cent. It means that millions of people could be avoiding certain foods unnecessarily and without proper medical advice. The report also reveals that over half of the British population believes that wheat allergy is a common illness and in 2009 wheat was the most commonly self reported food allergen for both men and women.
Switch Identified That Activates The Allergic Response
WHAT: A new study in human cells has singled out a molecule that specifically directs immune cells to develop the capability to produce an allergic response. The signaling molecule, called thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP), is key to the development of allergic diseases such as asthma, atopic dermatitis ( eczema ), and food allergy. The study team, led by Yong-Jun Liu, M.D., Ph.D., at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, focused on dendritic cells, immune cells that initiate the primary immune response. Dendritic cells come into contact with other immune cells known as T cells, causing them to develop into different subsets of T cells, including helper 1 (Th1) and helper 2 (Th2) cells.