The Devon Allergy Clinic

WELCOMETO THE DEVON ALLERGY CLINIC

Due to global warming, warmer climates and over-planting of male plants, trees, etc we are seeing a huge rise in level of seasonal pollens, and those who with allergies are in store for another brutal allergy season.

Here are some strategies to help reduce suffering and promote allergy friendly gardening!

Tip 1 – DO try to eliminate weeds from your garden, which can aggravate spring allergies.

Tip  2 – Go for an allergy friendly garden and plant less allergy prone plants such as: azalea, begonia, bougainvillea, orchid, periwinkle, gladiolus, bulbs (tulip, iris, poppy and daffodil), palm, pine, fir and dogwood tress, hibiscus, boxwood, and yucca shrubs and Irish moss.

Tip 3 – Avoid planting: Amaranthus, Chrysanthemum dahlia, sunflower, black-eyed Susan, zinnia, privet and lilac as well as Juniper, Bermuda and Rye grass.

Tip  4 – Keep grass cut short and flower beds weed free.

Tip 5 – The fragrances of roses, star jasmine, narcissus, gardenia, lily of the valley, and citrus and eucalyptus trees are the most common plants whose fragrances can make some people sneeze. If you’re sensitive, you want to keep away from these plants!

Tip  6 – Avoidance is the best method of preventing an allergic reaction to poisonous plants such as poison sumac or oak.

Tip 7 – If you are allergic to moulds, avoid damp places such as forests and a body of stagnant water.

Tip  8 – Avoid touching your eyes and nose while gardening, this transfers the pollens directing to these areas.

Tip  9 – Take advantage of rainy, cloudy or windless days, which usually have lower pollen counts (some sufferers can be sensitive to “wet mould spores” .

Tip  10 – After gardening   leave your clothing outside of your bedroom, brush off your shoes and rinse off your glasses to remove unwarranted allergy producing substances.

Tip  11 – Work in your garden during evening hours, when pollen counts are lower, and limit your time to short intervals on high pollen days.

Tip 12 – Take a holiday by a body of water, such as lake, river and beach where pollen levels are typically lower

Tip  13– Wash wisely. Avoid wearing hair gels that serve as a “pollen magnet” on high pollen days and gently wash eyelids and face and hair at night before entering your bedroom to prevent pesky pollens from winding up on your pillow and bed sheets.

Tip  14 – Be a star! Go for big sunglasses (especially on windy days) to block out pollen entry into your eyes and eyelids.

Tip  15 - Wear a wide brimmed hat or sombrero to reduce wind borne pollens from landing on top of your head.

Dr. Dylan Watkins (LEATSIDE SURGERY TOTNES)

Review of Allergy Clinic post

I was pleased this week to discuss my blog on the Devon Allergy Clinic this week with its lead clinician, Marlene.
It was refreshing to have a mature chat with someone leading a complimentry clinic that didn`t just settle into a pointless argument and I was impressed by her approaching me to discuss it.
Her training and diploma in Allergy are entirely mainstream.
The area of food intolerance is however an area where many people who suffer do feel the need to go seeking help. I do recognize that in medicine we are not well equipped at all to advise or help people with food intolerances and that we do not have the answer a lot of the time. (I worked in 1993 in MartinStern`s  Allergy Clinic in Leicester and understood from that time some of the difficulties see MAARA and the older, pretty much out of date site of his now, AAIR). This is therefore an area where people will seek help in other directions an I feel they must be careful in judging the qualities of the alternative help they seek.

Food allergy sufferers `worst served` by medicine

People who suffer from food allergies get some of the worst service from doctors due to misleading test results, wrong diagnoses and poor quality research.  ByNick Collins
Published: 9:00AM BST 17 May 2010

A review of research into the affliction found that up to three in ten people claim to have a food allergy of some sort, but blind testing reveals that fewer than ten percent actually has one.

People were found to be avoiding certain foods because they incorrectly suspected they were allergic to them, while many parents refused to give their children certain foods even though most will overcome their allergies as they grow older.

 The research, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is the first step in a plan by the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to set out criteria for the diagnosis and treatment of patients next month.

The most common allergies are responses to cow`s milk, egg, peanuts, fish and shellfish.

According to the review, 3.5 per cent of people claim to be allergic to cow`s milk, while testing suggested the figure was just 0.9 per cent.

However, with peanut allergies, the number who claimed to be allergic, 0,75 per cent, was exactly the same proportion revealed by testing.

Results showed that part of the problem was a lack of understanding of the difference between a food allergy – a response to food by the immune system – and a food intolerance, which may be caused by substances within the food or by a psychological trigger.

Dr Pamela Ewan,consultant allergist at Addenbrooke`s Hospital, Cambridge,told The Independent: "The chaos is massive in the UK. Doctors untrained in allergy are having to pick up cases in gastroenterology clinics,asthma clinics, dermatology clinics.

"People get the wrong advice because the tests are not understood. The key problem is that we haven`t got enough people who understand allergy. There are 30consultants nationwide and just 12 training posts, not even enough to replace those who are leaving."