Q-Tips: AGE – acute gastroenteritis
A leading cause for AGE (acute gastroenteritis) here in Florida is accidently swallowing water from pools and water parks.
Q-Tips: Latex Allergy
If you have a latex or rubber allergy you may also be buffeted by eating the cross-reactive foods: avocado, banana and chestnut.
Few victims, but plenty of chances to ingest
Heads up. This article is truly only intended for a very, very select group of individuals with severe food allergy. It addresses a very special situation when foods are found as an excipient (non-active ingredient) in a medication. Excipients are added in manufacturing to protect, support or enhance stability or bioavailabilty of an active ingredient. The amount of food found as an excipient is truly miniscule, and therefore, 99.99-plus percent of people actually allergic to that given food would not…
New Intranasal Therapies
New nasal spray help on the way. Three new nasal therapies for allergic rhinitis appear to bring “new help to the table.” The first two are propellant-delivered intranasal steroids: QNASL, which delivers beclomethasone; and Zetona, which delivers ciclesonide. The same two medicines have been available in aqueous solution sprays. The welcome difference is the improved delivery mechanism. Many people find the aqueous forms problematic because they drip down the throat, or they don’t seem to have enough oomph to get…
Moms-to-be can help head off specific food allergies
Exciting results are out from an eight-year study by the Harvard Medical School that questioned the outcomes of allergy in children if their mothers either avoided completely – or purposefully consumed – peanut, milk and wheat during pregnancy. These three foods were chosen because they account for a large proportion of food allergies found in young children, and cause or contribute to asthma, eczema and allergic rhinitis. The study included 1,277 mother/child pairs. The results were quite dramatic: Ingestion of…
Dear Doc: Weather, temperature on allergy list?
Dear Doc: I came to see you for a severe spring tree pollen allergy. Those symptoms are much better with my allergy shots; however, I seem to be bothered a lot by physical stimuli such as weather fronts and temperature changes. Is this also allergy? The unequivocal answer to your question is yes – and no. Let’s start with what is well-known about allergy. We know it is an immune response to exposure to a protein molecule, such as…
Q – Tips: Biaxin interaction
A new drug interaction has been discovered between the antibiotic Biaxin and some calcium-channel blockers (verapamil, amlodipine and diltiazem). The antibiotic inhibits the metabolism of the calcium channel blocker, which in a small number of cases can lead to very high levels of the medication, with subsequent marked lowering in blood pressure. In these cases, hypotension or even kidney injury due to slow blood flow can result.
Q – Tips: Shellfish and iodine
Shellfish and radio contrast both contain iodine. However, allergies to shellfish are IgE- mediated with the allergic target being the shellfish protein, not iodine. Allergy to radio contrast is not IgE-mediated but rather, is due to the concentration of the contrast. Some hypersensitive individuals happen to be allergic to both, but one doesn’t lead to the other.
Theophylline: Oldie-but-goodie still contributes to allergy arsenal
Theophylline has been used to treat asthma and COPD for more than 80 years. Because it has been around forever, it is sometimes regarded as outdated or “old-school.” And yet much current research indicates that it has a lot to add to the current popular therapies of inhaled steroids, and inhaled short-and long-acting bronchodilators. Theophylline has been known to have three generalized mechanisms of action: bronchodilation, anti-inflammatory effect and improvement of diaphragm muscle strength. Now a fourth mechanism is being…
Asthma in seniors calls for adept diagnoses and care
A review of the diagnosis and treatment of asthma in older adults was just published in The American Journal of Medicine. Asthma in older adults can fall into two broad groups: those with long-standing disease, present since childhood; and those with late-onset asthma. The review was aimed at this latter group. With late-onset asthma there is greater likelihood for confusing asthma with other conditions, especially COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and congestive heart failure. In pulmonary testing, patients with both…