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Hay fever allergies are the term given to nasal symptoms caused by environmental agents, such as pollen or mold. Use nasal sprays and decongestants to relieve hay fever symptoms with health information from an immunologist in this free video on allergies.
Expert: Ana Lamas
Bio: Dr. Ana Lamas is an immunologist and allergist with two practices in Miami, Florida.
Filmmaker: Paul Muller
Duration : 0:1:12
Advanced Allergy Relief of AZ video demonstrating how to LIVE LIFE ALLERGY FREE
Duration : 0:7:46
The most common allergies in infants include allergies to food, formula or allergens in breast milk, as environmental allergies do not develop before the first several years of life. Identify and treat allergies in infants with health information from an immunologist in this free video on allergies.
Expert: Ana Lamas
Bio: Dr. Ana Lamas is an immunologist and allergist with two practices in Miami, Florida.
Filmmaker: Paul Muller
Duration : 0:2:15
Allergy hives are raised bumps on the skin that can be treated with large doses of a high-quality antihistamine, which often causes sedation. Get rid of hives as soon as possible with health information from an immunologist in this free video on allergies.
Expert: Ana Lamas
Bio: Dr. Ana Lamas is an immunologist and allergist with two practices in Miami, Florida.
Filmmaker: Paul Muller
Duration : 0:1:16
Allergy-related coughs can be treated using antihistamines, which help to reduce the histamine buildup in the nose and throat. Get rid of an allergy cough with health information from an immunologist in this free video on allergies.
Expert: Ana Lamas
Bio: Dr. Ana Lamas is an immunologist and allergist with two practices in Miami, Florida.
Filmmaker: Paul Muller
Duration : 0:1:11
A pollen allergy is best treated by reduction of exposure, so keeping the windows closed, limiting outside activity during pollen season and purchasing an air filtration system is advisable. Reduce exposure to pollen to reduce allergy symptoms with health information from an immunologist in this free video on allergies.
Expert: Ana Lamas
Bio: Dr. Ana Lamas is an immunologist and allergist with two practices in Miami, Florida.
Filmmaker: Paul Muller
Duration : 0:2:13
To treat dust allergies, keep the home environment as clean as possible, put allergy-proof dust mite covers on the mattress and pillows, and consider taking asthma medications for the allergy itself. Keep a clean environment to reduce dust mites in the house with health information from an immunologist in this free video on allergies.
Expert: Ana Lamas
Bio: Dr. Ana Lamas is an immunologist and allergist with two practices in Miami, Florida.
Filmmaker: Paul Muller
Duration : 0:2:9
When a person is sensitive to a substance and this causes the body to react in an adverse fashion, it is called an allergy. The substance causing the allergy is called an allergen and can quite frankly be anything including the sun or even the air itself but the result is usually the same; a physical reaction occurs which can be quite severe.
Some of the most common allergies are caused by food which can be very serious; probably the most notorious of these foodstuffs is nuts, especially peanuts. Milk, soy, corn, and even rice are a few others that might cause allergic reaction with no apparent reason and some people are allergic to processed products and foods.
Although in a small percentage, even chocolate can cause reaction in a few people and because food allergies mostly affect the immune system, respiratory and digestive systems, an allergic reaction should be taken seriously. Of course seafood also causes problems with some people in particular crustaceans so they should be avoided but it is surprising how many people that know they have a an allergy to something continue to take the risk as they enjoy the food so much.
Food allergies often cause reactions which are seen initially as redness, itchy areas of skin and other irritations often quite common to the family of citrus fruits. A peanut allergy can also be very severe and it might even result in death by just contact with a peanut so an allergy test would prove to be very helpful in case of peanuts and even other nuts for that matter as they are most deadly of all allergies.
It may seem extremely unfair but even the pollen of some flowers, weeds and grass can affect breathing and damage the respiratory system. Getting rid of plants with flowers around that individual might also help to a great extent but of course this is only if the flowers have been detected as the actual cause of the allergy.
Certain drugs might cause adverse reactions in the patient resulting in complications resulting in irritation, swelling of face and body, breaking out into hives etc. It is the component sulfur that causes many of the drug bases reactions and if this happens, a doctor must carefully watch the situation in case the reaction might be repeated with any other prescribed medication.
Although a reaction to nickel is not unusual to most people, a very small number of individuals even have an allergic skin reaction to silver and gold. Generally, the reactions to metal are contact based and usually cause distinctive skin conditions like rashes, swollen skin around the affected area and a change in skin color to red or a purple.
If you know you may have an allergy, avoiding, the substances is the first course of action but allergies can change or become more pronounced so regular allergy testing should be carried out as a form of preventative measure.
It used to be if you wanted to find out what you were allergic to you had to undergo a long series of tests that could take weeks or months. If you were allergic to something unusual or rare it could take years or, more commonly, you never would find out.
If your allergies were seasonal, they probably disappeared before the testing clinic found an answer and you would give up on the clinic testing and go back to life as before. Much of that procedure today has been speeded up and is more straightforward but if you are being checked for allergies there will probably still be several types of tests performed.
Now this all relies upon what medical history you have as well. There are three methods that a clinic or hospital can determine if you have allergies. These are a skin test, elimination test, and a blood test. Certainly each of these has its advantages and disadvantages and an esteemed doctor will be able to determine which test you require to begin with for the best effectiveness.
Skin Test
The test used most often is a skin test. To do this test, a small amount of the allergen is applied on your skin. Allergen is what is medically known for causing your allergy. Frequently, the allergen is put on your forearm however; it may be done on your back or upper arm as well. Then the skin where the allergen was placed is irritated by scratching it with a needle. This enables the allergen to get under your skin. If you are allergic, then you will have an allergic reaction in less than 10 to 15 minutes. Often the reaction appears as redness on the skin, itching and swelling, however testers must be careful with skin tests because in rare situations the reaction may be strong and has caused respiratory problems for the patient.
A different kind of skin test is the intradermal allergy test. This test includes using a small needle to inject the allergen underneath the skin. Skin tests are often used to pin point things in the air that you breathe in that might be the cause of your allergy to insect and animal bites as well.
Elimination Test
A second type of allergy testing is called elimination testing. This is most often used to identify food and diet allergies. In a very controlled environment, various foods are either added or removed from your diet and your reaction is monitored. Often the food is disguised in some fashion to prevent psychological factors from interfering with the test. Sometimes if you think you are allergic to something you abnormally influence the result. Obviously, this method is very time consuming and can only be used if the reactions are relatively mild.
Blood Test
The third and perhaps the best method of allergy testing is the blood test. As the name implies, this involves taking a small sample of your blood and sending it off for laboratory testing. The lab procedure is complicated but basically, they will expose your blood to various allergens. If you are allergic, your blood will create what are called IgE antibodies to fight off the allergen. Depending on what kind of IgE antibodies are created and how many are created the lab can both identify your allergy and tell you how severe it is.
RAST and UniCAP are the two standard kinds of modern blood testing for allergies. UniCAP is nearly an entirely automated process that can search for several 100 allergens and will even assign a number from 1 to 6 to distinguish the severity of the allergic reaction. The main downfall of blood testing is it requires specialized equipment. Normally your clinic or hospital will have to send your blood sample away and will not get results back for many weeks.