Feature Channels: Allergies

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Sending kids with allergies and asthma off to summer camp takes an extra dose of planning.

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The focus for asthma treatment is often stepping up treatment, but clinicians need to know how to step down therapy when symptoms improve.

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Older patients with a diagnosis of chronic sinusitis — a disease of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses that often persists over many years — have a unique inflammatory signature that may render them less responsive to steroid treatment, according to a new study published by Vanderbilt researchers.

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Valentine's Day tips for keeping loved ones with allergies and asthma sneeze and wheeze free

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Fever is known to help power up our immune cells, and scientists in Shanghai have new evidence explaining how. They found in mice that fever alters surface proteins on immune cells like lymphocytes to make them better able to travel via blood vessels to reach the site of infection. Their work appears on January 15 in the journal Immunity.

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While more than 32 million individuals in the U.S. have a documented penicillin allergy in their medical record, studies have shown that more 95 percent actually can be treated safely with this class of antibiotics, improving treatment outcomes and reducing the risk of infection with dangerous resistant pathogens such as Clostridium difficile (C. difficile). A review article in the January 15 issue of JAMA recommends best practices for evaluation of reported penicillin allergies and provides clinicians with guidance and tools to help determine appropriate procedures based on the severity of previously reported reactions.

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Organ transplant rejection is a major problem in transplantation medicine. Suppressing the immune system to prevent organ rejection, however, opens the door to life-threatening infections. Researchers at the University of Basel's Biozentrum have now discovered a molecular approach preventing rejection of the transplanted graft while simultaneously maintaining the ability to fight against infections.

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New research from the University of Chicago shows that healthy infants have intestinal bacteria that prevent the development of food allergies.

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Thanks to a five-year, $3.46 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Texas Tech University researchers Harvinder Gill and Steve Presley have teamed up to develop a universal flu vaccine.

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The American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology strongly urges the Weatherford Independent School District to reconsider their decision to use Benadryl in place of epinephrine for allergic reactions.

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Research published in Immunity describes a mechanism in a mouse model of asthma that supports the hygiene hypothesis — researchers found that infant mice need a higher exposure to a bacterial endotoxin, compared to adult mice, to avoid developing asthma-like reactions to house dust mites.

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Survey data suggest at least 1 in 10 U.S. adults are food allergic and nearly 1 in 5 believe they have a food allergy. Food allergies are expensive and potentially life-threatening conditions.

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Adults think they have food allergies whey they don't

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Myths about gluten are hard to bust. Intolerance, allergy, sensitivity, hypersensitivity. What is what? Celiac disease is none of these things. It is an autoimmune disorder, where gluten triggers the immune system to attack the gut. It is common, lifelong, and can seriously harm health - but nobody knows for sure what causes it. Now a review in Frontiers in Pediatrics says a common food additive could both cause and trigger these autoimmune attacks, and calls for warnings on food labels pending further tests.

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Experts and research on important topics in the healthcare system

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A focus on high-risk tuberculosis patients may be the answer to stalled progress in stamping out the illness in the United States.

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Eating is a cultural part of our holiday traditions but, for more and more Americans, a simple holiday gathering could lead to a medical emergency with a bite of the wrong food.

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Nursing and pharmacy researchers hope to find a replacement for prednisone with fewer and less-severe side effects.