Really? The Claim: Allergies Reduce the Risk of Cancer

Allergies are generally considered more of a nuisance than a blessing. But for some people there may be a silver lining. Researchers have long speculated that one of the benefits of having allergies is a vigilant immune system, which not only overreacts to common triggers, like pollen and dander, but also protects against serious threats like nascent cancer cells. Numerous studies dating back at least two decades have explored the idea of a link. Most have found that compared with the general population, people with common allergies like hay fever, asthma and eczema do have a slightly decreased risk of some cancers, though it is not clear why. . read more.

Childhood Asthma Linked to Depression During Pregnancy

Anxiety, stress and depression during pregnancy may lead to a greater risk of asthma for your child, according to researchers at Columbia University. Study results are published in the July issue of Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, the scientific journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI). "Approximately 70% of mothers who said they experienced high levels of anxiety or depression while they were pregnant reported their child had wheezed before age 5," said the lead author of the study. "Understanding how maternal health affects a child's respiratory health is important in developing effective strategies to prevent asthma." . . read more.

An 'Allergy Girl' Comes Out of Her Bubble

Since I was born I have dealt with deadly food allergies that include dairy, egg, soy, shrimp, some tree nuts (that's five of the "big eight" food allergens), not to mention beef, cucumber, mustard, melon and so on. But even now, 31 years later, I find danger in unexpected places: on the pickled "vegetable" plate that inexplicably includes mango, or in the guest bathroom of a friend who doesn't realize that washing my face with goat's-milk soap might send me to the emergency room. . read more.

Hypoallergenic Dogs Don't Have Lower Household Allergen Levels Than Other Dogs, Study Finds

Contrary to popular belief, so-called hypoallergenic dogs do not have lower household allergen levels than other dogs. That's the conclusion of a study by Henry Ford Hospital researchers who sought to evaluate whether hypoallergenic dogs have a lower dog allergen in the home than other dogs. Hypoallergenic dogs are believed to produce less dander and saliva and shed less fur. "We found no scientific basis to the claim hypoallergenic dogs have less allergen," says Christine Cole Johnson, Ph.D., MPH, chair of Henry Ford's Department of Public Health Sciences and senior author of the study. "Based on previous allergy studies conducted here at Henry Ford, exposure to a dog early in life provides protection against dog allergy development. But the idea that you can buy a certain breed of dog and think it will cause less allergy problems for a person already dog-allergic is not borne out by our study." . . read more.

The Placebo Effect, This Time in Asthma

Placebo treatments didn’t improve an objective measure of asthmatics’ lung function. But they sure did make patients feel better. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine took 39 asthma patients and had them make 12 visits each to a medical facility, each time after having been off long-acting asthma medications for 24 hours. On each visit, a patient was randomly assigned to either a real albuterol inhaler, a placebo inhaler, sham acupuncture treatment, or no intervention. (So at the end of the study each patient had been given each treatment three times.) But patients reported about the same degree of symptom improvement for albuterol, the placebo inhaler and the fake acupuncture treatment (respectively, a 50%, 45% and 46% improvement), much greater than the 21% improvement experienced by those given no treatment at all. . read more.